FIELDS OF DREAMS // The volunteers: GETTING DOWN TO EARTH // Every ridge and rut must be surveyed

DATE                  09/25/94
NEWSPAPER             THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION               NEWS
EDITION               MORNING
PAGE                  L06
STORY LENGTH          10 INCHES
HEADLINE              FIELDS OF DREAMS // The volunteers: GETTING DOWN TO 
                         EARTH // Every ridge and rut must be surveyed
BYLINE/CREDIT         DAN FROOMKIN:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS         OC:COLLEGES:STUDENTS:VOLUNTEERS:CENTRAL 
                         AMERICA:LAND:AGRICULTURE:RESEARCH
 .
  Lunch is in full swing around the big wooden table in the main room
  of Lynn Carpenter's farmhouse when a muddy-booted Larry Young pops
  his head in the front door.
     "Your house isn't level!" he tells Carpenter cheerfully. "I just
  thought I'd let you know!"
     Then he merrily slogs back down the driveway.
     In contrast to his happy-go-lucky demeanor, Young's project
  consists of meticulously surveying every hill and dale, every ridge
  and rut of Carpenter's farm, then punching all the data into a
  computer to create a three-dimensional model in cyberspace.
     The grunt work isn't particularly thrilling, but Young, a native
  Hawaiian and 21-year-old senior biology major at the University of
  California, Irvine, has spent many previous summers doing surveying
  work. And this time, calculating elevations and distances is only
  the beginning.
     Once he is done, he plans to plug all the data into high-tech
  mapping software that will allow Carpenter to call up a topographic
  map on her computer.
     The map will ultimately show not only the layout of her farm,
  but information about growth rates, parentage, planting date, soil
  content, presence of fungi and experimental treatment for each and
  every tree on the place.
     That will allow Carpenter to compare and contrast the data to
  answer any number of questions. Are seeds from a certain tree doing
  particularly well in gritty soil? Are all the saplings interplanted
  with beans on south-facing hills doing poorly?
     Carpenter takes the news about her crooked house in stride. In
  fact, she doesn't seem to mind.
     She does care that Young is building her a new and extremely
  powerful tool that she can use to advance her research.
     "This will help me spot trends that I wouldn't otherwise be able
  to picture," she says.