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Rad◦i◦cle Activist Training: Groundtruthing 201

This training was postponed from April 23rd to May 14th due to snow. If you’d like to attend this training, but missed the Groundtruthing 101, you can watch last year’s recording of our Groundtruthing 101 training here.

Bark’s network of volunteer groundtruthers help us monitor logging projects throughout Mt. Hood National Forest and surrounding public lands. Groundtruthers explore and document an area proposed for a timber sale (or other project type) by the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. The information that is collected enables Bark and the public to assess how accurately the agency’s project documents describe the forest and the project’s impacts. By providing more transparent and accessible information than the agency, groundtruthers support public access to understanding and engaging in decisions about public lands management. Bark’s groundtruthers often find discrepancies in agency information and have located rare or threatened plants and animal species in proposed project areas. Documentations of field conditions like this can lead to the cancellation of some or all of the proposed logging in that area. 

This free activist training is for people interested in becoming actively engaged in Bark’s Groundtruthing field work and requires no previous experience. We rely on volunteer participation to conduct our work and ask that training participants commit to attend to at least 2 surveys throughout the 2022 field season (see Bark’s current survey scheduled here).

This groundtruthing training is in two parts: The first, Groundtruthing 101, will occur on Thursday April 21st from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Zoom to review the basics, learn to research timber sales using Bark’s resources, and to read timber sale maps in preparation for traveling to the forest. Groundtruthing 201 is the second part and will occur on Saturday May 14th from 9:00am-6:00pm in Mt. Hood National Forest where we’ll review Bark’s groundtruthing form and prepare you to join us for a day in the field. 

Participants must register for both parts of the training. Click here to register for Groundtruthing 101.

Please see Bark’s COVID safety protocol and driver expectations before signing up for the event. Participants will be expected to wear masks and follow any additional COVID-19 Protocol. Driving directions, training materials, and additional details will be sent to registrants before the event. The training location will be located in the Clackamas Ranger District of Mt. Hood National Forest and will be approximately a 1.5 hour drive from Portland. Participants coming from the Portland metro area will meet in Portland at 9am and return to Portland by 6pm. If you are coming from a location other than Portland, contact Misha VanEaton to coordinate an alternate meeting time and location. 

Rad◦i◦cle: Bark's Activist Training Program

This workshop is part of Rad◦i◦cle, Bark's activist training program. With courses on forest ecology, forest management policy, timber sale monitoring, forest first aid and hike leading, public lands advocacy and community organizing, Rad◦i◦cle is designed to cultivate powerful forest defenders who are ready to take action to protect clean water, biodiversity, and the incredible forest ecosystems where we live and around the world.

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