"This image was captured during my crew's penultimate field day as forestry technicians for Dr. D'Amato's Applied Silviculture and Forest Ecology lab at the Mud Pond/Long Pond site in Greensboro, VT. The last block of plots we were scheduled to measure was a control block (no tree cutting was done on them) that was a bit further off into the woods than the rest of the blocks, requiring us to bushwhack through a dense, wet understory of ferns, saplings, and herbaceous plants and shrubs. The foggy scene was documented just minutes before the final rain storm of the field season fell upon us, making for a rather arduous day of taking measurements down on non-waterproof data sheets. Nonetheless, the rain inevitably stopped and we hiked down with soggy shoes and high spirits. I chose this photo because it felt emblematic of both the field season that my crew had as well as the summer that the state endured. It's not exactly an ugly forest, either."