H-TRIP

Today was Thursday. Erin, Lily, and I piled into the back of the car and set out for the day. Today we went with a women named Starry to measure trees. Trees in Haiti are very important. Long ago the French came and cut down many trees like mahogany to make furniture. Before the trees were cut down more than 80% of Haiti was forest. Now if you go into the mountains all you see is farmland or scrubs. Starry and the H-Trip staff are trying to plant more trees for shade and using. Like I said, we went up to some of the plots where there are trees and measured their heights. These trees had been growing for 2 or 3 years and they are pretty tall for that amount of time. We also measured how far the trees were from the canals. Canals are small dips in the ground to help with erosion. First they pile rocks up and then put millet on top. After they cover it with dirt. These canals also stop the water from washing away seedlings. The whole experiment was to find out why some trees grow taller closer to the canal. We also had a chart to record the data, of course. Some plots were on hills so we had to measure the degrees of the slope. We also checked the direction of the plot (South, West, etc.). After we finished we prepared to go on an extremely bumpy ride. I really enjoyed spending time contributing to the community. We are looking forward to helping out again tomorrow! Signing off- Emily:):)