Sustained forests; sustained profits
Sustained forests; sustained profits
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Windeys are placed in the field, typically for several weeks, then returned to us and we immediately provide computer analyses and a report that can be used in many ways, such as to ...
Wind conditions are important aspects of where ruffed grouse (the "pheasant") are wild Turkeys nest and raise young. The amount of wind is important in many other aspects of the environment. Measuring wind by conventional high-tech means is expensive and integrating and interpreting the precise results of such measures is very difficult. Using Windeys is an alternative. They can be useful for a "first-cut", "no-hassle" look at wind as a factor in many aspects of land use, wildland management, impact analyses and biodiversity and baseline surveys. They are an excellent medium for teaching diverse, integrated science and ecology lessons and can be a tool in highschool science projects.
We know there are many uses, but the following short list of uses may suggest an application to meet your specific needs:
Windeys are typically placed on wires in field or forest. The wires are provided (an option). The wires can be used to suspend them anywhere (e.g., on a buoy, boat mast to get a standard of unobstructed conditions).
Windeys come in two colors, one intended to be inconspicuous, the other conspicuous (so that you can see them from distance and not disturb the site until time to pick them up.)
Windeys are of known weight. You place them in the field. After an appropriate amount of time (your decision), you collect them and weigh them. You enter the values in the personal computer program provided for you on disk with your first purchase. The program analyzes your entries and provides a report on your screen or at your printer. You may return the Windeys to the exact spot to continue studies or put out new ones.
Wildland Knowledge Base (WKB) staff will provide a complete analysis and written report under special arrangements. Call xxx-xxxx.
Eight Windeys are typically placed in an area about 50-feet apart. Eight are needed to be expressive of the great variation in most field conditions.
The Windeys integrate or accumulate all of the effects of the ecosystem's wind, velocity, direction, duration and other factors. They are indicative indicators -- low cost alternatives in a set of tools of the modern wildland manager.
We call this group of eight a "set" (e.g., put 25 ft. from a center in all compass direction). Sets should be put in select areas or placed at random. We suggest the former because most managers already know something about a site and want to compare it to another one.
The lab will work with you on special costs for surveys and baseline studies. Members of Nature Folks,The Deer Group,The Fishery, and the Wild Turkey Group gain price discounts.
When you buy your first set of Windeys you get:
We'll appreciate receiving information on your uses of Windeys and their results and include your information (with your permission) in future reports.
Lasting Forests is trying to improve land use, world wide. Windeys may be one small technique to help. Let's work on it together.
Design:
Similarity indices
Likely wind velocity Given Wind
Likely energy loss given temp 1 - 3
significant difference between sets?
If soaking wet
If wet and blotted by a newspaper
If dry
If oven dry
If air dry
Loss in weight
Loss in weight/x-day
Loss in weight/minute (time put out to time picked up)
minutes of "treatment" by wind
log (wt + 1)/log (minutes + 1)
The following are notes for further development.
Information about your Windeys
The Windey is a device for obtaining an index to accumulated wind forces. Invented by Robert H. Giles, Jr. in 1995, it was a response to his work with students and his own work prior to 1970 (Giles 1970) in seeking to gain, cost-effectively, measures of the profound ecological factors. Collecting wind data with conventional instruments - typically velocity at a time and direction at a time - was expensive. Standard "requirements" of placement, high cost, and difficult-to-analyze results put him on a course of discovery. He learned of "tatter cloths" used in a European study, then developed the paper version. Part of his interest was in quantifying wind for geographic purposes, to create wind map layers for computer mapping. Francis ( ) succeeded, in part, but the results were difficult to interpret and expensive to confirm.
Other map layers on solar radiation (Lawrence), temperature (Anderson and Davis [Gruen] 19 ), soil (Ziewitz), and precipitation (Wajda) followed. Further work on land form (Martin ) is underway by John McCombs as is other work on solar radiation, shadow, and evapotranspiration by Scott Klopfer. Perhaps, someday, a flapper-based wind index map will be created. It will be used for many correlations and regressions and, at least, in a refined model of likely evapotranspiration over time. Giles working hypothesis was that evapotranspiration within the growing period, all site specific (i.e., within some small area such as the 30m x 30m Landsat pixel or map cell) was the value to be sought first in understanding the ecology of any site. He spoke of it as the "megafactor", something of profound importance -- to which many plant species were directly linked and, secondarily, animals (primarily insects and soil fauna) -- and something that could be changed by managers. If not directly changed on site, resources could be allocated to those areas where evapotranspiration was likely to work best in concert with the allocation of limited resources.
The first concept of the Windey was as a means to describe grouse or turkey nest sites. When nests are found, 2-5 Windeys, placed nearby, may characterize such sites.
The second concept, based on the high turbulence and variation discovered by Giles in aerial application of radioactive tagged malathion insecticide, was to show and explain differences between small tracts, a hectare (2.4 acres) here vs. one there. Similar appearing areas are often subject to very different forces (and reflected int he not-easily-seen animal life, e.g., trapping success of forest rodents). He developed the idea, obtain help from local printers, obtain assistance from in measuring wind velocities produced by electric fans and in preliminary clarification of effects of "treating" the Windeys to wind and developing early standards.
We provide sets of standard analyses. You may select one of these analyses (indicate on the return form):
1.Standard - a full range of conventional statistics is provided including graphs.
2.Split - conventional statistics on one set of Windeys divided into approximately equal halves (18 in each unit such as for comparing conditions during one period between areas (e.g., between slopes). This provides statistical analyses, one for each half; one for the whole pooled or combined set, then a test of whether there are real differences in changes between the two halves. (Apparent differences may be due to chance.)
3.Paired Split - We recommend using 2 sets of Windeys for comparing matched pairs, before and after a treatment or time, but one may work for you. The results of a paired "t" test may suggest whether there is a significantly-different change in wind forces indicated by Windeys. It is essential that when Windeys are submitted (all only at one time) the pairing is clear. Only one analysis of any type is provided (except under special arrangements.) [We shall be glad to provide personalized analyses. Contact the Lasting Forests at the number below.]
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Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.