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Nail a hair-snare onto the tree with the center of the hair-snare about 18 in from the
ground. Your drywall hatchet is about 15 in long and can be used to make quick
measurements in the field. Use 4 shingle nails – one at each corner of the pad. Hang a
small carpet pad from a nearby tree branch (5 ft from the ground). The best placement is
within sight of and at about 9 ft from the hair-snare – no more than 15 ft. First, select a
tree branch that is at least 6 ft from the trunk
of the tree, as high as you can reach and with
few obstructions below the branch. You will
probably need to cut brush and other
branches that might tangle the pie-plate.
Then, cut off the amount of wire that is
needed. Push the wire through the center of
the small carpet pad (2.5 X 2.5 in) provided in your kit using a twisting motion. Gently
putting pressure on the wire is better than brute force here because the wire can easily
buckle. Twist the end of the wire in a single loop below the pad to hold the pad on the
wire.
Figure 3. Example showing a transect crossing an open area. One hundred meters were
measured between 1
st
and 2
nd
station; then 80 m was measured from 2
nd
station and edge
of an open area. The open area was crossed without measuring distance and 20 m was
measured on the far side to get to the 3
rd
station.