Rad-i-cle Activist Training: Groundtruthing 101
Bark’s network of volunteer Groundtruthers help us monitor logging projects in Mt. Hood National Forest and surrounding public lands. This training is intended for people interested in becoming actively engaged in Bark’s Groundtruthing Surveys 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 2023 field season (see Bark’s currently scheduled surveys here).
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 impacts. By providing more transparent and accessible information, Groundtruthers supports the public to understand and engage in decisions about public lands management. Groundtruthers can and have found discrepancies in agency information and located rare or threatened plants and animal species leading to the cancellation of some or all of the proposed logging.
This Groundtruthing training is in two parts: The first part, Groundtruthing 101, will occur on Thursday, May 4th from 6:00pm to 8:00 pm in person at the Bark Office to go over the basics and learn how to research timber sales using Bark’s resources and how to read timber sale maps in preparation for travelling to the forest. Groundtruthing 201 is the second part of the training and will occur on Saturday May 6th from 9:00am-5:00pm 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 201.