Forestry B/C

[scispork]

Is there a cap to how many people can do this? Because I'm not sure if I will but I'm interested and may or may not do it

Hi! There is no limit to the number of people who can sign up, so I hope you end up joining! The time commitment is very small for the amount of work required considering the large timeline this takes place over. Just remember the deadline to sign up is November 30th.

[treesdea]

It's been about 10 years since I coached this event for my daughter and I'm coaching again. Back then, the event pair could bring in two field guides and we chose the Audubon Eastern Trees and Audubon Western Trees, which had some overlap but each had entries not found in the other guide. What field guide has most (or better yet, all) of the list trees?

The rules send you to "store.soinc.org" but the only resource for Forestry that I found is the starter pack, no field guides.

Thanks!
HSCMOM

Sorry for not answering sooner, but since we are only allowed a single field guide I would recommend the following, in no particular order:
1. The National Audubon Society Trees of North America
Relatively good written information within the book, but slightly lower information image-wise
2. National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America
Largely overall good for both information and images
3. The Sibley Guide to Trees
Basic important information but really nice hand drawn images

The National Audubon Society and Sibley Guide are likely the most commonly used field guides during competition depending on either if you value information or images more, and I and my partner like to use the National Wildlife Federation for information within note-making

[kokonattsu]

It's been about 10 years since I coached this event for my daughter and I'm coaching again. Back then, the event pair could bring in two field guides and we chose the Audubon Eastern Trees and Audubon Western Trees, which had some overlap but each had entries not found in the other guide. What field guide has most (or better yet, all) of the list trees?

The rules send you to "store.soinc.org" but the only resource for Forestry that I found is the starter pack, no field guides.

Thanks!
HSCMOM

Sorry for not answering sooner, but since we are only allowed a single field guide I would recommend the following, in no particular order:
1. The National Audubon Society Trees of North America
Relatively good written information within the book, but slightly lower information image-wise
2. National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America
Largely overall good for both information and images
3. The Sibley Guide to Trees
Basic important information but really nice hand drawn images

The National Audubon Society and Sibley Guide are likely the most commonly used field guides during competition depending on either if you value information or images more, and I and my partner like to use the National Wildlife Federation for information within note-making

hi, adding onto dea -

from personal experience, Audubon has some decent information (range maps, leaves/flowers/fruits, occasionally others, etc) and covers a lot of trees, but has really lacking images. Sibley has very good images but not as much information. never used National Wildlife lol

i don't really recommend relying on a field guide though - make a binder and it'll be your "field guide". often times, field guides are more of a general "back up" or safety blanket that i often don't use (in my opinion, ofc). i really do recommend sibley as the images are just mwah (i love the audobon page formatting though)

[derpymonkey]

Does anyone have a sample for identification of trees, like are there any tips?

[derpymonkey]

Does anyone have a sample for identification of trees, like are there any tips?

You should join the ID server! It has a lot of helpful tips and bots for you to practice ID with.
Honestly a lot of it is just practice, so as you look at more and more trees you'll naturally familiarise yourself with them.
Also, go out and look at real trees. It helps for me at least.
Good luck!

[derpymonkey]

Does anyone have a sample for identification of trees, like are there any tips?

Adding onto what madame chat moderator said,
ID sheets can really help when you're in an actual competition!
Your help with SciolyID's server can be pretty useful for narrowing down what a tree is, but it's always good to have image sheets to compare the little bits, like bark, fruit, flowers, cones, just to get the species of the tree that you're iding

psssst heres the sciolyid website: https://sciolyid.org/

[RylandHoskins]

I was trying to compile a list of the main topics that seemed to pop up on forestry tests based off of the practice tests I have taken along with what I have seen people say in the various Science Olympiad discords. Does my list look good?

• plant anatomy (parts of specific tissues, hormones, diff tissues, etc)

• plant morphology (like anatomy, but more external stuff + spec parts of trees)

• photosynthesis + cycles

• different hormones and chemicals of a plant

• forest/tree management (urban forestry, field tools, field practices, field measurements, math, silvilcultural practices, etc)

• plant diseases, disease cures, and inner workings

• tree classifications

• relationships between trees, between other plants, and with animals (including forest succession)

• and of course a bit of notes on what I find the most difficult to ID

[ViolaRights]

Looks good! Do not forget things like tree usage (culture, historical/traditional/modern usage such as medicine), habitats/environment (especially for the ones that are restricted to a specific range, and why), reproduction (although I assume this would be part of anatomy?), and all of the trivial facts such as specific fire responses, poisonous parts/the poison itself, ornamentals/horticulture, etc. If I forgot something important, please add on to this. Best of luck!

[emitchell26]

Adding on to what Viola said, I would also have a miscellaneous section for state trees, superlatives, leaf shapes/fruit/flower types, etc. Otherwise, looks good!

[onshape]

What you included is good but Viola and Rooni's suggestions are good for actual competition. Make sure to include everything you listed, but things like uses, state trees, etc are necessary for many regionals tests that frequently pull verbatim Wikipedia in these respects (as well as many other random facts from Wikipedia).