Lyle Usdin

Seasonal Technician, Forest Biodiversity Team

“We are working in a 20-hectare plot, which is about 47 football fields. We move relatively slowly through the plot, focused on fine scale data. I get to intimately know the landscape in this small area. I feel connected to this small piece of land, right here in between these two roads. Getting to know this place intimately also extrapolates to a feeling of being at home when I'm in similar parts of Missouri. That is one of my favorite things about working out here every day. I am developing an appreciation for this specific community of plants and this topography.” 

Lyle Usdin is a research technician on the Forest Biodiversity Team, but was an undergraduate fellow on the same team last summer and has done work in the ForestGEO plot (Smithsonian Forest Global Earth Observatory) during the academic year. He is interested in pursuing research in the future, but appreciates the early stages of his career where the majority of his work is out in the field. 

“The vast likelihood is that the older I get and the more progress I make in my career, the less likely I'll be spending time working outside. I thought it was a good opportunity to do that while I can, while my body is physically able and my career is in a place where that's possible.  

Working for the ForestGEO, a global network, is cool for a lot of reasons. One is the ability to address research questions at a plethora of scales from the minute, meter by meter scale, all the way up to the global scale. We can do that because our trees are mapped so accurately. I am contributing to that possibility.”