Come with me as I “cruise” a forest! “Cruising” is the word that foresters use for the process of gathering data about a forest. It often starts by generating a basic map of the forest, on which we overlay a grid of data points. When we arrive at the forest, we navigate to each of those data points (I use a compass and an app on my phone to navigate) and at each one we collect data about the trees that are there. Most people that collect data in ecosystems will use “fixed-radius plots” counting