IUFRO 2007 - Seoul, Korea

Virtual Field Trip

cwhitlock — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:38:10 +0000

Personal Time in Korea

Randy D. McCracken — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:49:23 +0000

Beginning on Sunday morning, May 20, I gave myself a couple of days of personal time before returning to the states. With so many things I wished to do and so little time (an additional 2 months would not have been enough time either) I chose to spend one day around Seoul sightseeing and geocaching and one day “up north” visiting some places I remember from my time in service.

Note: This blog entry is fairly long so you will have to click on the more link for the rest of the story

Geocaching in Seoul was fantastic! Before traveling to Korea I was able to contact (email) a fellow geocacher (renegage9) and we spent the day walking around part of the city and found 13 caches. Caching is a great way to experience any place and I went to places a regular tourist would not visit and even met a few people along the way. The “Fish’s expressway” was a treat as was the Seokchon East Lake cache but the best part of the day was walking around Olympic Park. I knew the place existed but I had no idea how large and beautiful the park would be. To top off the day we were able to see a few performances of traditional Korean dancing and drums. Awesome. Simple awesome. I highly recommend these shows to anyone visiting Korea.

On Monday I took the subway to Ueijonbu and met US Army PAO Margaret Banish-Donaldson to continue my 20-year reunion tour of Army installations. We took the short drive over to Camp Stanley that seemed only vaguely familiar. I pride myself on the ability to remember and navigate on roads even after a long absence but the road to Songsan was almost unrecognizable. The two lane road winding thought the sparsely populated hills of Gyeonggi Province has been replaced with a 4-lane highway surrounded by high rise apartments. I found myself having to look at ridge lines to orient myself.

Once we arrived near Camp the memories came rushing back. Unfortunately because of an ATFP (Anti Terrorism Force Protection) drill we could not enter via the main “prison” gate and had to go through the aviation gate instead. Years ago we used to this gate when deploying and returning from the field.

Being on Camp was odd…. the building remain, the memories are vivid, and I felt connected and distant at the same time. Because of the drawdown of US forces in zone one (the northern part of Korea) the camp population has dwindled. I suppose there are less than 20% of the soldiers stationed there now as compared to the 80s.

Margaret and I were probably on post less than an hour before returning to CRC (Camp Red Cloud). I wish we had time to “go down range” and see how the Vil had changed but some memories are best left untouched. Margaret and I had lunch at CRC and she burned me a CD of the photos we took earlier in the day before dropping me off at the nearest train station. 2ID should is lucky to have here as a PAO and I am fortunate that she took the time to show me around the area.

Back on the train I continued north to Dongducheon (DDC). While never stationed at Camp Casey I spent a fair amount of time at this location. The HQ for 2ID might be down at CRC but Camp Casey is still the heart of the division.

The Vil around DDC has changed little. Perhaps it is a little smaller but the shops and bars are pretty much the same. I walked around the neighborhood a few times looking for bargains on trinkets and luggage before finally deciding on the usual tourist fair and a “one way” bag that I hope will make it back to Asheville.

Before leaving DDC I decided to cross the river (on a spiffy new bridge) to wander around the streets not influenced by GIs and their targeted shops. About a mile into the village I saw lotus lanterns and markings for a Buddhist Temple. This temple was nothing like the grandiose structures I had seen in Seoul and Kyongju. It was nothing more than a traditional Korean home made into a sanctuary. As I was peering though the door of the home I was noticed by a monk that invited me inside. The people in the temple did not know a world of English and I was unable to communicate in Korean but through smiles and hand gestures we communicated well enough. I took off my shoes, entered their shrine, and tried to mediate as best as I could. While Buddhist are a minority in this country I felt like this experience was Korea: a small home, a religious shrine, burning incense, kind people going about their lives while they go out of their way to welcome strangers. As I was putting on my shoes to leave a monk gave me a Buddhist trinket. The gift was small but the gesture was great and of all the material things I am bring back to the states, I will value this most of all.

Traveling to Stanley (and the other places I was stationed) seemed to be important. I don’t know what I am making these pilgrimages but for now I am trusting my intuition and believing that the reasons will make sense in time.

Field Trip Overview

Randy D. McCracken — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:56:08 +0000

The scientific demonstrations are better described by Kas Dumroese here and here so I will give a non-scientist impression of the post conference trip. Wow! The bar for future field trips has been set high. Way high! I had been on a couple of forestry field trips before but this one was amazing in its planning and execution. Because this was an IUFRO sponsored event I suppose that I should have expected a well-done excursion but I was still blown away at the attention to detail given by our Korean hosts.

At every demonstration spot we were greeted by local professionals who treated like visiting dignitaries. The attention to detail (small drinks when stepped off the bus, handouts and poster boards describing the demonstration area) was amazing as was the depth to which these foresters were willing to describe the restoration projects and science behind them.

With such a diverse group of people (every inhabited continent represented) and the inherent language problems of communicating in English when it is a second or third language to some of the group I was impressed at the patience of our hosts and the way the scientists worked together to describe things across many language barriers.

I would love to see something this well done by the US Forest Service. Maybe we already do field trips and demonstrations like the one for IUFRO – it so, we ought to publicize them more!

Conference Overview

Randy D. McCracken — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:54:57 +0000

Three days of Forest Landscape Restoration with over 200 representatives from 6 continents followed by a field trip to FLR sites in the eastern part of the country with about 50 other conference participants was invigorating!

As I have had some time to reflect on the conference I have tried to distill what was the most important aspects to me and I think it comes down to this: The best part of the meeting was spending time with people who enjoy their work.

Granted the trip was made more fun by intellectuals who are doing their best to restore damaged and disturbed ecosystems – admirable in many ways. And as much as I enjoyed Seoul I loved being out of the city and seeing the countryside and putting my feet in the Eastern Sea. Sill, the main point is that I got to spend time with folks who are bonded by a common purpose and enjoy what they do.

With all the admin work, performance accountability, and mind-numbing minutia that comes with my day to day activities it was a refreshing change!

Video Blogging from Korea

Randy D. McCracken — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 19:19:28 +0000

Here is a much delayed video of Kas Dumroese while attending the IUFRO conference in Seoul Korea. I ran into some technical difficulties and was unable to download videos from my phone to my PC and so this was the only video I took during the conference.

Future blogging should include more and higher quality videos!

UPDATE: This video is uploaded and distributed through YouTube and will not be viewable from FS, BLM, and other US Government computer networks. Please attempt to view this video from another network if you can not see it from work.

24 May: Paying My Dues – Presentations on Campus

Kas Dumroese — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:43:22 +0000

About 9 am I was escorted to campus by Zhang Peng and Guo Ying Bo, and as has been the case, I didn’t have to carry my bag (yes, my cloths looked pretty good after the steam treatment). It was rainy gently and I was glad we had done the nursery tours first and in good weather. At campus, I know this sounds unlikely, but I couldn’t get my computer and the projector to communicate for my PowerPoint (for those of you who don’t do PowerPoint, read that with a strong dose of sarcasm) but the next room over had a more friendly projector. I spoke to about 35 people. Dr Shen translated. The talk lasted about 90 minutes, and only a couple of folks dozed off. I guess that’s success. Lunch was at the Expert Hotel and I finally found a food that defied my chopstick ability: egg plant. It was cut into long lengths and was, well, slimy. I couldn’t even get it from the platter to my plate. I was finally given some insight but it was pretty comical. The beverage was a very liquid yogurt, and we had lots of laughs “gon bei”-ing it down with toasts! Finally, something I could gon bei… After lunch I got caught up on emails and had my second presentation. For this class, Prof Shen didn’t translate, I was talking about genetics and how nursery practices affect it (Prof Shen requested it), and the result was about what you might expect…. lots of blank stares. It’s really hard trying to concentrate on speaking slowly, using simple words, and yet talk coherently about a rather complex topic. Adding to that, we were in a lab that had shelves above the tables, so it was difficult to make eye contact with about half the class. I didn’t think it went well, but the better English speakers seemed to appreciate it. This was the most difficult topic, so hopefully the others will go better.

Two of Professor Shen’s students, Huang Jian and Wang Ai Zhi picked me up at the hotel at 6 pm, just as a dandy thunderstorm was waning. Big lightening, big thunder, and big downpour. We taxied to a local restaurant known for its “strange flavors” and like the night before, a huge caldron of boiling broth was centerpiece. Tonight, however, the additives were mutton, pork, beef, potatoes, mushrooms, and a sausage like thing. They enjoyed speaking English; I enjoyed talking to them about life as a Chinese graduate student. Wang is a new mother to a baby girl, her mother-in-law lives with her, her husband is a salesman for a Chinese fast food company, and she works on campus in a tissue culture lab to make ends meet. Sounds similar to the plight of some grad students in the US. Her English was petty good…. she kind of stuttered her way into sentences. Huang was part of the delegation that visited me in Idaho last year, so he also wanted to catch up on the happenings in Moscow. And like many US PhD candidates, his project was taking longer than expected.

23 May: Hong Shi to Harbin – What’s a Mu? Mushroom?

Kas Dumroese — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:41:30 +0000

After breakfast we headed off for Dong Xing Nursery, about a 30 minute drive. As we neared the nursery, we drove through the village where the workers lived. My, how dismal the surroundings. Fences surround everything, and they are made out of rag-tag assortment of sticks of various lengths, all crooked, and all adding to the general disarray of the setting. Some buildings had thatched roofs, some tile. Everything just looks old, tired, and dirty. Most have little gardens, no yards per se. All have an outhouse outback; they look “well ventilated” and I can’t imagine “hanging out” there in the winter, if you get my drift, or draft…. And, everywhere, wood and scraps and cornstalks are stacked, ready to be used to cook the next meal. They reuse the plastic weed-barrier sheeting from the fields to cover things, but it phytodegrades, and the result is bits of pieces of plastic blowing everywhere. It makes the countryside look cluttered and messy. It’s in the trees, on the ground, in the streams. Literally everywhere. Despite what I perceived as gloomy surroundings, the people were smiling and waving and living in the moment…. seemingly having pleasant conversation with their neighbors. The nursery was a 35 ha spread, and grew the same plants as the others, and shipped about the same quantity each year: 10 million. This nursery, however, had a huge office building, three stories and probably 30 offices, more than the 4 they needed for staff. This seems to be a common occurrence; huge buildings built and then only partially used. This nursery had, by far, the best soil. It had pretty good tilth and didn’t seem like recycled paddy soil like the others. The crew was busy sowing spruce, transplanting larch (for a 1+1 crop), and sowing soybeans as a cover crop. Some were using single-seed planters, others were using their hands and scuffing the seeds in with their feet. Although a nice John Deere tractor was parked nearby, a cow was the plowing implement of choice. One assistant nursery manager wore spiffy western clothes (he was the nicest of the managers I met, and the most eager to talk about his crop and his production limitations). The other assistant had on his official Chinese military camo outfit, hat, and shoes. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, a trait I found with every Chinese person I met. As we walked toward the gate to leave, we walked past the crew of 40 or so soybean planters and heard them calling out “hello, hello.” Like at the other nurseries, I passed out some Forest Service pins, which they gratefully accepted. We had lunch at the hotel in Hong Shi, and then turned north for our 5 hour drive back to Harbin. (It wasn’t until we got back to Harbin that I realized how close we were to the North Korean border).

Along the way I had the driver stop so we could see some rice planting up close and personal. The workers laughed and laughed at this gringo taking pictures. It’s really a fascinating process to see. The plants are grown in very small containers on the ground in greenhouses in the villages, transported out to the paddy. At the paddy, a machine has beat the soil into a muddy slurry into which the plugs are stuck. A typical planter can plant 1 mu (moo like a cow) per day. A Chinese mu equals 1/15 of a hectare (I think that’s about 0.2 acre per day). My back ached just watching the process. I can’t imagine being bent over like that, slopping rice into mud.

Back in Harbin I was delivered to the “Expert” Hotel on the Northeast Forestry University. Along the way we took some back streets and the aroma of humanity was present, sometimes the delicious smell of meat cooking, or lilacs blooming, or the stench of diesel exhaust or the pungent aroma of only God knows what. At the hotel, my room is huge. Massive. My first room has a table for four, large couch, easy chairs. My bedroom has a large bed (but sill a foot too short) desk, HDTV. The bathroom has a shower, pedestal tub, a window that looks out to the bedroom (no, I have no idea why), a very modern design sink, and another HDTV to keep me occupied while I do my duty (too bad all that’s on is Chinese). I ran the shower to get some steam in the bathroom and hung my dress pants and shirts to see if they would de-wrinkle a bit before I have to wear them. Prof Shen picked me up and took me for dinner….

We ended up at a restaurant famous for its preparation of mushrooms/fungi. The entire meal was fungi. Each place setting had a little boiling pot of broth and caterpillar fungus (yes, you can guess what the fungi grow on). Into the pot you tossed more fungi to cook. As the fungi became tender, you ate them. As desired, you spooned out the broth and sipped it. As the meal went on, the broth became better and better tasting. It was a slow meal (we were there about 2.5 hours), but more about the conversation and process than the rapidity of eating. Even the liquor had been steeped in fungi.

22 May: More Nurseries Around Lu Shui He

Kas Dumroese — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:39:39 +0000

Got up early this morning (about 5 am) to do some bird watching. It was gorilla style… no book, just binocs, trust memory later when it comes to putting names to what I observed. Lots of bird sounds but it was hard to get good views of anything. Best bird? Blue-and-white Flycatcher. At that hour people were already up and at it; motorcycles chugged by, people walked by, men herded cows, the cow bells clanging. Yelling back and forth to welcome the morning and say hello. We headed back into Lui Shui He for breakfast (stopping at a ginseng farm for a photo and surprising the heck out of the woman who lived there) and then it was off to Jing Shan Nursery in the San Cha Zi Bureau. Air quality in China is not good; we went past a charcoal factory and I could see why. Huge plumes of acrid gray smoke were pouring from the dozen or so chimneys, and wafting down the valley. It was several minutes before we finally drove clear. We pulled into the nursery about 10 am and after the introductions in the parking lot, it was, as guest of honor, my duty to go first. As has been the case every time, I’m suppose to go first…. the difficulty is that I usually have no clue where I’m suppose to be going. But, as honored guest, I start walking, realizing that they will eventually point me in the right direction. It’s a curious custom: make the honored guest look like an idiot because he has no clue where he is going. Eventually we ended up in a conference room with a wonderful fresh fruit spread. It was good to get some fresh fruit, especially watermelon. Eating it is all about eating, not about the mess you make. So, slurp up the juice (the louder the better), let the juice drip on the floor, spit the seeds wherever… just enjoy the moment and the taste. This nursery was similar to the first…. 33 ha, 10 million seedlings shipped each year (all spring planted and all hot planted). This nursery manager was more interested in talking with me than the last, so I picked his brain on cultural practices. He seemed to be very competent, and like most nursery managers, complained he didn’t have enough money to do things he wanted to do. His crew was busy sowing 2 ha of spruce. Lunch was served at the nursery. Rabbit (complete with its grinning smile), crayfish, chicken parts (including the head and feet), and more fresh greens from the forest. They brought me a fork and more homemade liquor, and were impressed I didn’t need the former and would drink the later. Plenty of toasts but no “gon bei”. They are pretty good sports about the tradition as long as you honor them with a sip each time they toast. Except for the hotels, there’s no indoor toilets. Everything is outside and stark. I had been warned to be prepared for them, but no matter how descriptive the stories were, they pale in comparison to the real thing, and especially the real thing at this nursery.

After lunch we motored to Hong Shi, a quick (less than an hour) drive. We toured a small nursery where they had grafted spruce for a seed orchard. Right next door women were planting/setting out (not sure what to call it) bags of wood chips inoculated with fungi. They had their system going, and were setting out, in neat order, the bags. Each was about 10 cm in diameter and probably 30 cm tall. Once positioned, they covered them with straw mats to keep them dark. It wasn’t clear how long it takes for the mushrooms to grow. We went to the hotel, again, owned by the group, and checked in. I had the deluxe suit…. a big living room with soft chairs and sofa, fresh fruit, a huge bedroom with a bed, that, like all others, is about a foot too short. The doors were pretty crazy; I felt like a giant going through them. For dinner we had more fresh forest plants and a big bowl of the mushrooms we saw the women planting. That was nice of them to do that.

Changchun to Lu Shui He

Kas Dumroese — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:37:39 +0000

Up in the morning, breakfast in the hotel, and into the waiting car. The driver had dutifully put a fresh bottle of water in my cup holder. Down the “People’s Way” in Changchun. A really gorgeous 4-lane roadway, bordered with trees and monstrous, well-kept buildings. The traffic lights all have timers…. when the light goes green the timer starts counting down to zero. I guess that’s so you know how fast to drive to get through the light! With a 4-hour trek to come, I got comfortable and watched a strange world go by the window…

Outside of Changchun we entered the “rural” zone. It was corn and soybean country and spring planting (by hand) was underway. The communities look so poor. Giant heaps of neatly piled cornstalks stood next to small, dirty-looking homes. The stalks ready to be burned in the oven to cook tonight’s dinner. Everywhere there’s people and Dr Seuss-like vehicles. One wheel, two wheels, three wheels more. Motorbikes, wheelbarrows, ox carts, mules, big trucks, small trucks…. all going somewhere. Everywhere there was someone, doing something. Sweeping the sides of the roads, pulling weeds, planting corn. Corn eventually gave way to rice, but there were still people everywhere.

About noon we pulled into Lu Shui He (named for the Lu Shui river; river = He). Here we met more people from the group, including Cui Ya Jun, a talkative woman who seem so grateful to see me. There were about 8 of us for lunch; they were proud to serve me fresh foods collected from the woods that morning, and I was delighted to eat them. I don’t know what it was, but it was good (okay, I could recognize the fern fiddleheads). We had about a dozen toasts (everyone had to make at least one) followed with a sip of some locally made liquor. No gon bei (bottom’s up) for me! I told them I drank like a woman; we all laughed…. but that relieved the pressure to get into a drinking contest with them.

After lunch we drove out to the Hong Wei Nursery… maybe 30 minutes. This 22-ha nursery grew Korean pine and spruce, mostly as 2+2 stock. They were busy sowing (all broadcast). From there we headed down the road to their 1800-ha Korean pine seed orchard. It was a drive-through. Whatever.

This region is in the northwest area of the Changbaishan Mountains, at about 900 m elevation. We stopped at a relatively untouched forest…. Korean pine, elm, basswood, oak, ash, birch, cottonwood. Really a splendid forest, jumping with birds. I wanted to stop and get out the binocs…. they wanted me to see the King Korean Pine. This big boy was 500 years old with a 1.25-m DBH… and 36 m tall. (Randy, I was thinking about you!).

Seoul to Harbin to Changchun

Kas Dumroese — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:31:36 +0000

Unlike my friends from the Southern Research Station, my saga continues in Asia. Instead of flying back to the US, I headed north to China with an invitation from Professor Hailong Shen at Northeast Forestry University in Harbin. So, at noon-thirty, I grabbed Asiana 339 for the 2-hour flight to Harbin. Leaving Seoul, we flew nearly due west for about 45 minutes before turning to head north…. keeping plenty of distance between us and North Korea. The weather was cloudy so not much to see until we dropped out of the clouds. I could see a very flat land.

Prof Shen Hailong and PhD candidate Zhang Peng met me at the airport. We drove about 15 km to Harbin, a sprawling city of 3.5 million. The road was straight as an arrow with a wonderful windbreak on the south side. The lilacs were blooming but their scent scattered quickly in the blustery winds. We hit the Metro store for dinner supplies, but passed on the live frogs and eels. After some good authentic Chinese food, Prof Shen drove Zhang and I to the train station…. Although I was planning on touring nurseries, I was not planning on leaving right away! I pitched everything but my backpack—rain gear, camera, toothbrush, hat, and a pair of undies and a jacket. Oh yeah, and some Forest Service trinkets to give away. Amongst a bazillion people we boarded car 14, seats 38 and 39, for a 2-hour trip to Changchun, which is south of Harbin. The seats were designed for Chinese; I felt like a sardine. Each car had an “official” that kept things tidy. Ours was a funny guy… when he needed to make an annoucement he had to put his hat on! And then shout over the hubbub.

Into Changchun a “bureau chief” and driver were waiting for us. The arrangements are interesting… The Jilin Forest Industry Group is touring me about. In Jilin Province, they have 8 bureaus dedicated to forestry… they also do bottled water, hotels, and who knows what else. Our driver pretty much uses his horn to drive (and wears white gloves while doing so). Driving is for the brave, the one driving the largest vehicle, and the most persistent with the horn. Dropped into bed (at a hotel operated by the group) exhausted.