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USA National Phenology Network The Nature's Notebook Plant and Animal Observing Program

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This presentation will guide you through the steps of marking your site and marking individual plants. This module is appropriate for individuals observing either plants or animals.
This information is also available on USA-NPN website at www.usanpn.org.

In this presentation, we’ll focus on marking your site and your plants that you wish to observe using Nature’s Notebook.

Regardless of whether you are observing only plants, only animals, or both, you will make your observations repeatedly at the same site or sites over time. You will want to somehow mark your site so that you can find it again in the future.

Because plant monitoring requires that you observe the same individual plants repeatedly, you will also need to mark each plant so that you can find it on each visit.

We recommend that you mark each individual plant with a unique label. For example, you could mark pieces of flagging tape with “red maple-1”, “red maple-2”, etc. and then tie them to each of the red maples you are observing.

There are many options for marking your site, but the most important thing is that you mark your site so that you an find it again in the future. For most sites, it is probably easiest to mark the four corners with colorful flagging, which is a colored non-adhesive tape often made of PVC or vinyl, scrap cloth, or something similar. You can also use natural or human-made landmarks, like the edge of a yard, large rocks, a bend in a trail, a road, or something similar to define the boundaries.
You will need to replace your markers periodically as they weather and become unreadable.

For trees and shrubs, flagging tape can be tied around stems, trunks, or branches. Biodegradable flagging, made of wood fiber cellulose, also exists. Flagging should be marked with permanent marker and replaced seasonally, as it breaks down in the sun and wind.

Small aluminum tags can also be effective in marking trees and shrubs in a nonintrusive way. Both flagging and aluminum tags can be found at hardware stores or forestry supply companies.
However you mark your location and individual plants, ensure that the marking does not change the growing conditions of the plant or injure the plant in any way. For example, do not wind wire around a tree branch or trunk where it could cut into the bark and interfere with the tree’s growth.

For grasses and small herbaceous plants, small pins can be placed next to the individuals that will be observed. Some observers have used colored toothpicks as unobtrusive stakes (sometimes hard to spot as vegetation grows) and loosely tied colored string or small plastic flags around the base of individuals.
Again, however you mark your location and individual plants, you will want to make sure that the marking does not change the growing conditions of the plant. For example, avoid placing a broad stake next to a small plant that would shade it or cause root damage.
Markers may need to be replaced periodically as they weather and become unreadable.

Also, if you are observing at a site on public land, be sure to get permission before marking your site or your plants.

This concludes our presentation on marking your site and your plants. Thank you for your time and interest in our program!

File Type	application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
File Title	Slide 1
Author	Theresa Crimmins 2
Last Modified By	Theresa Crimmins
File Modified	2010-06-04
File Created	2009-08-21