Documentation is the key in a project the size of the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment. One of the best ways to show the contrast between pre-harvest, immediate post-harvest, and a given time since harvest is through permanent photo points. Photo documentation points were first established in 2008 in HEE Units 1, 2, and 3. Individual photos, taken by John Maxwell of Indiana DNR, are turned into 360° panoramas of each type of harvest method – group selection, single tree selection, clearcut, shelterwood, and control. Nearly all of the photo points are associated with long-term matrix vegetation points that will quantitatively monitor the changes we see in the photographs. The photographs are taken each spring prior to full leaf-out. Maxwell, and future photographers, will return to these same sites year after year to replicate these panoramas and document changes in the forest.
These panoramas are created by digitally “stitching” individual photographs together. Due to the nature of this process, small areas of distortion are possible. While every effort is made to exactly replicate the conditions for taking each photograph, some deviation is possible, therefore images from year to year may not line up exactly.
Forest Galleries:
Note for Clearcut pictures: These images are not true 360 degree panoramas. The true 360 panorama does not adequately reflect the harvested area. Instead, these images are panoramas of the harvest area only.