El Eucalipto es Alto

Today we explored areas north of Tacuarembó, actually heading towards Rivera this morning and working our way south. One objective of my research is to investigate changes in vegetation over an entire forest management cycle in Uruguayan grasslands. To do this, we need to find sites in several stages of plantation forest: before planting (open grassland), young forest (before grazers are allowed in), mid-stage forests (with grazing), post-thin forests (with grazing), and post-harvest (open grassland sites). These stages are scattered across the landscape, so we had to cover a lot of ground in order to start finding some.

Juliana, a local technician here, is helping us again, and her knowledge of the area is indispensable. Without her, I’m sure we would have been driving around completely lost all day. Most of the sites we found without much trouble.

The first site we stopped at was a eucalyptus plantation within the mid-stage category. This forest has been grazed since it was about two years old, and has been pruned a couple times. This stand is only seven years old, but the growth of the trees is insane.

Another site we found was one of the young forest sites. These sites were planted about a year ago, and have been closed to grazing since they’ve been planted. The land managers allow a couple years of growth on the young trees before they allow cattle or sheep back in; otherwise there is too much damage or mortality to the seedlings. Even after a year, this site had some incredible growth.

Since we were driving north, and we didn’t have a lunch already with us, Juliana had decided to call ahead to a deli in Rivera, right on the Brazil border, and have them prepare a lunch for us. We stopped in and picked it up before we headed out to the first sites. A couple hours later, we enjoyed a tailgate lunch of warm beef empanadas and dessert that consisted of puff pastries and cookies filled with dulce de leche.