Sierra's Experimental Forest Is A Scientist's Dream

LAKE TAHOE BASIN, Calif., Aug. 15, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- It's been a year since we first told you about the Sagehen experimental forest in the Sierra-Nevada. The forest is a scientist's dream come true -- a place where research takes priority over everything else. ABC7 takes a second look at this living laboratory.

The Sagehen Forest is in the Lake Tahoe Basin, a few miles north of the town of Truckee.

Researchers have been coming to Sagehen for decades. But a year ago, the U.S. Forest Service officially designated 8,000 acres as an experimental forest. That insures Sagehen will be permanently preserved for research and education.

Jeff Brown, Sagehen: "So now the prime focus for managing this tract is to learn from it."

One of the rules here is that everyone has to share their findings. For example, a three-dimensional map of the Sagehen watershed will now be available to every scientist who comes here. It was made using global positioning satellites, a laser, and an airplane.

Jeff Brown, Sagehen: "As it's flying, it's shooting this laser beam down, and the computer in the airplane can remember every laser beam pulse."

The map shows intricate detail that would not appear on a standard topographical map. Eventually, information from the 3D map will be combined with a geologic map of Sagehen.

A team of students and professors is mapping all the rock formations here.

Gary Raines: "So, 700,000 years ago, the glaciers came down into this valley and deposited this stuff."

Earthquakes and volcanoes also created a lot of the landscape in the Tahoe Basin, and the geologic map will help explain how it all happened. That information can then contribute to hydrology research.

Gary Raines: "Studying how the water works in this basin as part of the studies of climate change."

Another project at Sagehen is focusing on animals and the effect of their coloring.

Jen Hunter is a grad student in ecology at U.C. Davis. She uses animals preserved with taxidermy.

Jen Hunter, student: "What we have here is sort of the normal skunk and then this is a skunk that's probably about half skunk fur which I dyed and then this top section is gray fox fur that I've sewn in."

Jen also has two stuffed foxes, one with a natural coat, the other with fur dyed to look like a skunk. The animals have almost no smell. Jen puts them outside at night and her infrared camera records animals' reactions.

Jen Hunter, student: "So basically I'm looking at whether or not animals approach them, how hesitantly animals approach them differs according to whether or not they are shaped like a skunk or colored like a skunk."

Animal reactions vary. A mother fox with her baby behind her is flipped over the stuffed black and white skunk. A live skunk is more interested in the camera than the stuffed animal behind it.

Mountain lions have shown a lot of curiosity about the stuffed animals. One eventually dragged away a black and white fox.

Jen has not drawn any firm conclusions from her experiments yet. She's tried them in several areas and was delighted to find the Sagehen Forest.

Jen Hunter, student: "There just aren't that many places that are large enough that are sort of continuous tracts of habitat to support a whole complement of carnivores."

The wide range of projects at Sagehen is generating excitement in the scientific community. Many researchers see their projects as building blocks for the future.

Jeff Brown, Sagehen: "A hundred years from now that this place will still be a place designated for research, and all the work that's been done in the past will still have value."

If you'd like to find out more about the research going on at the Sagehen Forest, visit http://sagehen.ucnrs.org/.

Written and produced by Jennifer Olney.

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