With the new, second phase of NamTip officially launched on 1st September 2023, a small group from the team already started to work on selecting new sites for our studies, which will be conducted during the 2024 growing season. In the first two weeks of November, Vistorina Amputu, Mark Bilton, Diego Menestrey Schwieger, Ildikó Orbán (a postdoc from our working group) and Katrin Zimmer explored candidate sites where the effects of bush thinning measures in communal areas and on freehold farms will be assessed in detail. On the selected sites, the team marked out plots, acquired preliminary data using a drone and collected soil samples. Additionally, some maintenance work was also done on TipEx. And of course, the team had their fair share of sunshine and fun while at it!