Una problema...

We finished two more forest plots today, which we are pretty stoked about. We still remember a lot of the vegetation and identification details from last season, and the diversity seems to be down a bit compared to last time, so we haven't had much of a lag even for being the beginning of the season.

We did, however, have a slight downside to the day. As we were crawling through the fence and entering the exclosure, ready to sample vegetation in our Exclosed (ungrazed) Forest plot, we noticed something a little weird. 

Fresh poop. Logic tells us that there really shouldn't be fresh poop inside an exclosure. So I looked up to the far side of the fence and discovered this:

Yeah, that fence should really be upright. And cows and horses really shouldn't have access to our "ungrazed" plot.

Upon close inspection, it looks like recent nearby thinning caused some damage to the fence, and some of the wires of the fence actually snapped in two. And our last discovery regarding this was the most disappointing to me:

One of the fence posts was actually cut into two pieces, by a chainsaw I'm guessing considering the height of the cut and the proximity of the tree stump. That meant that humans were directly involved in the damage, and it also meant that no one mentioned anything to the local research staff about the damage or to facilitate repairs.

An email has been sent, and we're working through the channels to get the fence fixed soon. The damage to our study plot was minor, and involved lots of poop, a resting place in the middle of the plot, and only minimal munching on our plants. Even with the munching, we were still able to identify our plants, so I don't think this will have affected the results of the research.

Since this is the last extended field season for my dissertation project, I won't be back at these sites for quite awhile. We want to make sure the fences are all in good shape to leave unattended for an extended period of time. We'll also be fashioning some fancy laminated labels to post along the fences denoting the area as a research site and listing contact information in case of damage.

Tomorrow we're planning a partial field day, and then helping celebrate Kike's birthday party here at La Corona. Should be fun!