Plywood in the woods with numbers on them

[Teegate]

Yesterday ( Saturday ) a group of us did some hiking in the woods near the Forked River Mountain, Black's Bridge, 539 area, and in the middle of the woods scattered in some instances close to a mile from each other were these.

Each had a different number on them, and the general consensus was that they were either to find snakes under them, or to be viewed from the air. Anyone have ideas???

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Guy, I forgot to email you. At the event I went to yesterday I met a guy from the Nature Conservancy who knows the caretaker out there. They are indeed for snakes.

I did not make a fuss about it, but I see them as unnecessary. Snakes have all they need in the natural world.

 

[Teegate]

I would have thought they were to catch them under, and not for them to use.


Guy

 

[BEHR655]

Well jeeze....they wouldn't want to have to look for the snakes. They would want to know right where they are.

 

[woodjin]

I'm surprised 'cause that Black hawk helicopter was all over the place yesterday. It was hovering over me in Mt. Misery later on in the day. I was certain it was some sort of military thing.

Jeff

 

[uuglypher]

Yesterday ( Saturday ) a group of us did some hiking in the woods near the Forked River Mountain, Black's Bridge, 539 area, and in the middle of the woods scattered in some instances close to a mile from each other were these.



Each had a different number on them, and the general consensus was that they were either to find snakes under them, or to be viewed from the air. Anyone have ideas???

Guy

Such numbered boards (often with a 3-4 short pieces of one-by or two-by attached to the underside to give a bit of elevation from the substrate) are usually laid out in a grid and all snakes caught underneath during a given period of time are marked. They are called ... wait for it ... "SNAKE BOARDS" In a nutshell: thereafter, knowing the number of snakes marked and released, the number of unmarked ones caught sunsequently as well as the number of marked ones recaptured are recorded. Their relative proportions yield an approximation of the local population of the species of interest. The proportion of marked : unmarked is called the "Lincoln index" and is a technique of population determination for many wildlife species.

Numbering of the boards (and thus locations) also allows some insight into the ranges of individuals.

Here endeth our reading in techniques of non-game wildlife biology / wildlife management for the day.

Dave

 

[Krloucks]

There are many of these strategically placed throughout the pines. Most are not numbered and most are probably not for research.