Difficulty Ratings For Field Digs?

[BillsBayou]

Collecting bonsai material from the ground isn't always a walk in the park. Ease or difficulty in collecting is affected by numerous factors. Thus, I thought it a good idea to attempt a classification system for rating bonsai digs.

Here are the factors I consider when approaching a bonsai dig:
Accessibility - How far do I have to walk to get to the material?
Terrain - What obstacles must be overcome to get to the material?
Soil - Getting the tree out of the ground is affected by the ground itself.
Equipment - What do I need to extract the material?
Bonsai Material - What species-specific factors come into play?
Hauling Equipment - What do you need to get the material to your car?
Land Ownership - What permissions do I need in order to dig?
Wildlife - What animals might come into play?
Calendar - When is the best time to dig?
Assistance - Need help?

Here are the factors broken down by difficulty:
Accessibility:
Easy - The material is in someone's landscape. This can be the yard of a home, the side of the road, or in an in-ground nursery. Mobility-impaired people can easily get to the site.
Intermediate - A long walk is involved. Mobility-impaired people will have great difficulty getting to the site.
Advanced - Terrain becomes a factor in limiting access. Able-bodied people only. Over-night hike.

Terrain:
Easy - Flat ground or easy slopes. No large rocks or other trees blocking access to the material.
Intermediate - The land slopes. Hiking trails lead to the material. Rocks, sand, and trees block access to the material. You can use a wagon or wheelbarrow to carry your material back to your vehicle
Advanced - Steep slopes. No hiking trails. Boulders instead of just large rocks. The dig site is a swamp or on the side of a mountain. Equipment requirements come into play on just getting to the site.
Extreme - Uncommon skills are required to get to the site such as rock/mountain climing.

Soil:
Easy - Soil can be worked with a shovel or hand trowel.
Intermediate - Hard-packed earth. Shovel work requires working up a sweat.
Advanced - Material is growing out of rock or swamp.
Extreme - Explosives are used to remove material from stone fissures.

Equipment:
Easy - Material can be pulled by hand or just a shovel.
Intermediate - Material cannot be pulled by hand. Shovel work is easier when using pry-bars and saws.
Advanced - More than hand-held equipment is used. Power tools, land-moving equipment, and boats would put the dig in this category.
Extreme - Explosives.

Bonsai Material:
Easy - Dig it up and put it in a pot and it survives.
Intermediate - The material will need to be cleaned and prepped to put it in a growing container.
Advanced - The material needs special care for weeks after the dig to increase it's odds of survival. This can be due to digging at the wrong time of the year (see Calendar constraints), or extracting few, if any roots, due to pulling the material from stone.

Hauling Equipment:
Easy - None. Material can be carried back to the vehicle by hand.
Intermediate - Wagons or wheelbarrows are used.
Advanced - A boat or skiff for watery terrain. Ropes and tackle for steep sloped terrain.
Extreme - The Coast Guard had to rescue you and let you take your tree with you.

Land Ownership:
Easy - Your yard or the owner invites you to dig.
Intermediate - You approach the land owner for permission to dig.
Advanced - You approach the land owner and pay for permission to dig.
Illegal - You're trespassing or unsure of the land ownership.

Wildlife:
Easy - None, or domestic animals should be restrained.
Intermediate - Hostile wildlife is undetermined, but you've checked to make sure.
Advanced - Hostile wildlife is known to inhabit the area.

Calendar:
Easy - Dig at any time during the growing season.
Intermediate - Digging is only allowed at certain times of the year.
Advanced - Digging in the Winter because you want to avoid the hostile wildlife in the area.

Assistance:
Easy - You can do this alone.
Intermediate - The only reason you need help is because the material is to large to dig or haul out on your own.
Advanced - One of the other factors is difficult enough that you must have help with the dig, or you should at least tell someone exactly where you went and what time you're due back.

I've only included the legality of being at the dig site. There are other legality issues which make the dig inadvisable. Such as trespassing to get to the site. Use of explosives where not permitted by law. Protected species of trees. Protected habitats of wildlife. This category came down to:
Easy - No legal issues in gathering the material.
Hard - Men with guns come when you gather the material.

[lewisjk]

Extreme - Explosives are used to remove material from stone fissures.

Please add -- and not just because of the quoted line -- a category for the environmental damage you might leave behind.

I have seen landscapes -- especially out west, but including one at a mountain park in the southeast -- pocked with holes and broken rock shards from collectors who had more interest in their booty than in the mess they left behind for others to find and see. This can be caused just as much by picks and prybars as by a stick of dynamite.

Frankly, I can't imagine a bonsaiest being so greedy that he (I doubt it would be a she) would stoop to using explosives to get a TREE for his collection, and if I could imagine it, I'm quite certain I would have no interest in knowing or associating with that person. And if they were used for commercial collecting . . .

Sorry, but this is one of my important triggers.

I call to your attention my "The Ethics of Collecting" in the Winter 2000 (vol. 34 #4) issue of the Bonsai Journal.

[BillsBayou]

Sounds good.

Environmental Impact:
Easy - Extraction hole is easy to fill or non-existent. Private land owner does not care.
Intermediate - Large hole is not so easy to fill. Land owner wants land restored to prior condition.
Advanced - Hole difficult to fill. Extracted tree must be replaced with similar species of tree.

[lewisjk]

I guess that works.

[BillsBayou]

Here's one:

Danger:
Easy - No danger.
Intermediate - Risk of cuts, bruising, sprains.
Advanced - Risk of broken bones
Extreme - Risk of death

I go into the swamps every January looking for bald cypress material. Sink-holes and risk of getting lost is enough to make me bring a GPS, compass, and cell phone every trip; I also give the exact location of my parking spot to my wife. If I were to make the trip in the Summer, alligators and poisonous snakes would make me bring a gun (thus, I never go in the Summer). I'm not looking to risk death for a good looking tree.