Would you like to learn about and contribute to a research project involving fire effects on soils and geochemistry just down the pike in Oak Ridge, Tennessee? 

Dr. Liem Tran and I have just a couple of weekend days to do a whole lot of prefire soil sampling and install wells for water sampling at UT's Oak Ridge Forest.  Why, you ask?  Because we must get this done before we set the slope on fire as part of a FUSION research project in which we are engaged together with faculty and students from across our campus and the Ag campus.   If we don't get all the samples collected before the fires are set we can't go back in time and collect them later.  

So if you can spare a half or whole day tomorrow, we would be grateful for your help with field work.

If you can help the plan will be for you to meet us at the UT Arboretum at 9 am or 1 pm.  We have to meet at set times to deal with locked gates.  If you join us you will learn 1) how to locate sampling points randomly using a random number table and tape measures; 2) how to collect soil cores; and 3) how to make and install simple wells for water sampling.  You'll also get to see a very cool research project and learn more about our fire project and about UT's Oak Ridge Forest.