{"id":22458,"date":"2025-04-30T23:37:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T05:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pccs-new-forestry-class-blends-fieldwork-and-fundamentals-in-mancos\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:14:15","slug":"pccs-new-forestry-class-blends-fieldwork-and-fundamentals-in-mancos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pccs-new-forestry-class-blends-fieldwork-and-fundamentals-in-mancos\/","title":{"rendered":"PCC\u2019s new forestry class blends fieldwork and fundamentals in Mancos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Instructor
Instructor Laurel Smerch peering through a prism as student Jonathan McDonald ensures it\u2019s hovered over plot center. They\u2019re counting trees in a given area, or plot, as part of a new class at Pueblo Community College. (Cameryn Cass\/The Jourrnal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A new class that recently started at Pueblo Community College\u2019s campus in Mancos centers on the basics of forestry and equips students with technical field skills, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a demand for foresters and forestry work,\u201d said Laurel Smerch, the instructor that teaches the class. \u201cIdeally, this transfers into job skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, class convenes in Room 101, where students learn about forest biomes and ecosystems, and why they are the way they are, said Smerch.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, class goes into the field.<\/p>\n

So far, just two students have signed up. And on a warm, sunny Thursday afternoon, Smerch and the students made their way to presaved coordinates in the forest a short walk from campus.<\/p>\n

They were using Avenza Maps to find the spot, one of many tools students will learn to use, said Smerch.<\/p>\n

That day, they were peering through different prisms to try and gauge how many trees were in a given area, or plot, which Smerch explained could be either fixed or variable.<\/p>\n

Though \u201cfixed is a little easier to conceptualize,\u201d the plot was variable that day, which is good for things like timber sales, said Smerch.<\/p>\n

They held the rectangular piece of glass \u2013 the prism \u2013 above a specific point called the plot center, which was marked with a small blue flag in the ground.<\/p>\n

When peering through the prism, light refracts and cuts trees in different ways that either makes them \u201ccount\u201d or not.<\/p>\n

Once they turned 360 degrees with the prism in hand, hovering above plot center, the students took turns measuring the diameter and height of trees that \u201ccounted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christina
Christina Martinez, a student in Pueblo Community College\u2019s new forestry class, measures a tree using a clinometer. She\u2019s standing 66 feet away, or a \u201cchain link.\u201d (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI would always eyeball it in past,\u201d said Christina Martinez, a student in the class, as she peered through a clinometer to measure the height of a tree up ahead.<\/p>\n

Martinez owns Rocky Mountain Tree Co. and thus works in forestry. She said she\u2019s in class to learn more about the industry, it\u2019s jargon and \u201cthe right way of doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI work with the Forest Service all the time,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI want to learn the language and processes of forestry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Martinez measured the tree\u2019s height, a student named Jonathan McDonald measured its diameter.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan
Jonathan McDonald, a student in Pueblo Community College\u2019s new forestry class, uses DBH tape to measure the diameter of a juniper at breast height, or 4.5 feet above ground. (Cameryn Casss\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As he wrapped DBH tape around the trunk, he told The Journal<\/em> about his background in construction, and how this class piqued his interest because he\u2019s always \u201cliked forestry and tree identification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, McDonald said he\u2019s interested in the practical skills side of forestry \u2013 like measuring the juniper tree\u2019s diameter.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthwest Colorado is a cool place to learn about and study forest ecology,\u201d said Smerch, as she jotted down measurements on her clipboard.<\/p>\n

The college is surrounded by pi\u00f1on-juniper, she explained, but \u201c20 miles from here as the crow flies is Box Canyon, and it\u2019s an aspen and spruce forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smerch marveled at the stark variation in forest and habitat types in our area, thanks to things like elevation, soil types and rainfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cForestry is all about what do we want to get out of our relationship with the forest,\u201d whether it be recreation, timber, prescribed burning, or wildlife, to name a few things that Smerch mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople interact with forests no matter what,\u201d said Smerch.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in learning more about the class or enrolling, email Laurel Smerch at Laurel. Smerch@pueblocc.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

just begun and is open for those interested <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,83,29,572],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter","tag-pueblo-community-college"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77722,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22458\/revisions\/77722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22458"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}