Huckleberry monitoring in Pacific Northwest forests runs on plot-level repeatability. The VAME patch you assessed on Plot 7 last August needs to be reassessed from the same physical point, with the same canopy cover measurement protocol, by a team using the same species-level fruiting stage classifications — otherwise the multi-year phenological dataset is noise rather than signal. The field record is what makes the repeatability possible.
Plot Identity and Environmental Context
Plot Number, Latitude, and Longitude with Plot Elevation and Plot Aspect create the fixed spatial identity for each sample point. Elevation and aspect are the two variables that most strongly predict VAME fruiting timing in the Cascades — a north-facing aspect at 1,400m typically runs two to three weeks behind a south-facing aspect at the same elevation. Without both fields recorded per plot, the fruiting stage data can't be correctly interpreted across sites with different microclimatic profiles.
Snowline Height at the time of the survey captures the seasonal state of the snowpack that directly conditions fruiting timing. A plot at 1,300m with snowline at 1,200m is in a different phenological moment than the same plot accessed a week earlier with snowline at 1,400m. Snowpack drives the growing season calendar for VAME — late snowmelt delays leaf-out and compresses the fruiting window. Having snowline height in the per-visit record allows post-season analysis of how snowpack variation affects fruiting phenology across years.
Plot Aspect with Structure documents the forest stand characteristics that affect understory light availability. A VAME population in a mature closed-canopy stand has a different growth and fruiting response than one in an early post-disturbance open structure. Canopy Cover quantifies what the structure description qualifies.
Species-Level Cover and Fruiting
VAME % Cover and All Huckleberry % Cover together with Huckleberry Cover Distribution and Average VAME Height give the population density and structure metrics. The difference between VAME % Cover and All Huckleberry % Cover is the mixed-species component — where VAOV (Oval-leaf Huckleberry), VAAL (Alaska Huckleberry), and VAPA are contributing to the overall Vaccinium canopy alongside the target species.
VAME Fruiting Stage, VAOV or VAAL Fruiting Stage, and VAPA Fruiting Stage are the phenological state fields that capture where each species is in the fruiting cycle at the time of the survey — from flower bud through green fruit, turning fruit, and ripe to post-ripe. The stage classifications need to be consistent across surveyors and across years, which is why the field records the classification rather than a narrative description.
Beargrass Cover is the competition measurement. Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) has a mast-flowering cycle that in high-cover years can shade out VAME regeneration and reduce fruiting yield in the affected plots. Tracking beargrass cover alongside VAME fruiting provides the context to explain anomalous low-fruiting observations that would otherwise look like VAME population decline when they're actually competition-related suppression in a beargrass mast year.
Team Names closes each record with the surveyor roster — essential for data quality assessment when results from different teams are being compared and any systematic observer effects need to be identified and accounted for in the analysis.