frolicking in forests.: first impressions

Thursday, June 23, 2011

first impressions

From above, the clouds are white and pewter, with small but steep ravines like rolling prairie hills cut by a stream. Descending through the clouds, tufts of blue flash above. Forested peaks take shape, scattered and emerging from the clear blue Pacific Ocean, and I see Alaska for the first time.

Riding the light rail to the airport felt like any other rushed trip around Seattle. I was sad to say goodbye to Marie for the summer, but not as sad as she seemed to be. I was amazed at how fast my stress and preoccupation with obligations of a few hours earlier dissipated after the plane took off. Waiting in Ketchican for my transfer, I enjoyed the last swigs of Seattle tap water from my bottle.

Lauren met me at the airport in Juneau. We’d Skyped for the interview and emailed plenty but it is still exciting to meet in person for the first time. Lauren had previewed the other teammates accurately: Odin is tall, competent, reserved, Alaskan; Kate is enthusiastic, industrious, and motivating. We met up with them at the easternmost house in Juneau, where miles and miles of national forest extend north and east, and the Gastineau Channel, long ago carved by the now-receding glacier, passes to the south. Lauren secured the house from her out-of-town friends, and it is beautiful and simple, with thick wood and abundant windows. The house is my first indication of Lauren’s knack for getting people excited about her work. After a team meeting we go to bed; Odin and Kate leave early in the morning to catch the ferry to Sitka. I will stay with Lauren in Juneau. I am surprisingly doubtless that this will be a fantastic project.

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Lauren is pursuing her PhD through Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and the 2011 recipient of the Wilderness Society's Gloria Barron Scholar Award. Her work stands at the interface of ecology and land change science to address questions of resource management and conservation in a changing climate. In addition to the geek stuff, Lauren has always been captivated by the power of narrative and visual media to document land use changes. She often considers archival photographs and oral accounts of forest uses equally important to the biophysical data she collects. Lauren believes scientists should share their stories, even if it means writing late night under a tarp in the rain. This research project is the center of her dissertation, and the book is work in progress, one day combining the science with photography and narrative. The fieldwork comes together with quite a team...

Paul believes that environmental integrity and human quality of life depend on critical improvements to our stewardship of natural resources. To this end, he is finishing his MS in sustainable forestry and a MPA in environmental policy at the University of Washington. His research focuses on forest carbon sequestration under improved management practices in the Pacific Northwest. As a lover of northern climates and wilderness adventures, Paul is excited for his return to Alaska this summer. Secretly, his favorite part of forestry field work is stealing hugs as he wraps diameter tape around tree trunks – Paul’s hug diameter is about 20 inches. After completing our work in Glacier Bay National Park this summer, Paul (Captain DBH) will be the only person to have hugged more than 3000 trees in this study.

Tomás Ward studied literature and was a student horticulturalist at U.C. Berkeley. With a keen interest in the natural world, Tomás has served as a field researcher for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, a watershed science consulting firm in Oregon, and a conservation non-profit in Alaska. He has also worked as a construction laborer, cook, teacher's assistant, and writer. A lover of fresh air and sunshine, Tomás splits time between the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest regions. Working with the Sitka Conservation Society in 2011, Tomás helped relieve many logistical challenges. He back-loaded our float planes and moved kayaks while conducting Wilderness monitoring surveys with local volunteers. He will be the mainstay for the 2012 full season measuring understory in Glacier Bay and assisting in West Chichagof.

Kate studies forestry and art practice at the University of California - Berkeley. There are a few things that stand out about Kate: 1) she has a lovely voice that is useful in fending off bears; 2) she can eat more citrus than is humanly possible and experiences fruit deprivation on the outer coast; 3) she always has dirt or ink stains all over her clothes (we are grateful for both in the field). Her favorite tree is the redwood (though love of yellow-cedar is growing); her favorite bark beetle in the western pine beetle. Her favorite stage of forest development is the understory reinitiation stage, and she is champion of the laser for measuring tree heights. Following her second season of field work on this project, Kate will begin her Master's degree in Forestry at UC Berkeley.

Gregg Treinish is the Founder and Executive Director of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation (ASC), a non-profit organization out of Bozeman, MT that links outdoor enthusiasts with scientists to collect data in remote places. ASC’s partnerships around the world contribute valuable information for researchers, from Bar-headed geese observations in the Himalayas to sediment samples in the Caspian Sea, and inspire adventurers to use their time in the “wild” by giving back to the areas they visit. Gregg will be joining the trip to West-Chichagof this summer to help develop a protocol ASC can carry forward in 2013 for continued collection of temperature data across the study area and ongoing wilderness character monitoring. He also hopes we see a bear wresting a shark out there.

Sarah is PhD candidate in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University. Her research addresses the distribution of, connectivity between, and genetic diversity among forests of western North America. Sarah is currently working on a fine scale study of conifer distributions across a hydrological gradient in Southeast Alaska, with support from the George W. Wright Climate Change Fellowship. She believes it her responsibility as a scientist, forest ecologist, and lover of natural ecosystems to work to characterize and understand how, where, and why trees grow. Sarah strives to advance scientific knowledge and conservation of these the landscapes where she works and inspire future generations of ecologists.
As another lover of Southeast Alaska, Sarah will be sharing some of her stories of her own ongoing research through the Forest Frolic blog.

Caitlin is a Sitka native and has lived with the cedar decline in Southeast her whole life. She met Lauren at Stanford where she is an undergrad. She has been exploring architectural design and earth sciences at Stanford and often leads backcountry trips. During the 2011 field season, when she was not entering tree data or making yet another trip to the hardware store for the team, she was picking blueberries or climbing mountains. We call her "Captain Sitka," and she has been known locally for her car full of stinky researchers. Back at Stanford, Caitlin continues works as a research assistant during the academic year, helping with data, tree cores and all the other little pieces involved in what she calls "making the magic happen."

Odin grew up hiking, camping and sea kayaking in southeast Alaska in a family involved in the salmon troll fishery. His fascination with the geography and indigenous cultures of the Circumpolar North has directed his adventuresome path at high latitudes. Odin's latest endeavor took him to Siberia, where he helped collect data on methane ebullition for NSF’s POLARIS and Thermokarst Lakes projects. Odin led the charge on understory measurements during the 2011 field season, while speaking Russian to the trees.