The Dalton Highway opens up to a beautiful blue sky and evergreen trees.
Ending the Experience but not the Momentum It’s been three weeks since my Alaskan expedition ended. On Friday, June 25th, I made my way down the Dalton back to Fairbanks (a quite uneventful trip…
Caroline and Lucy stand and take notes around an OTC.
The PolliNation A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my core family up here got a little larger with the addition of the “Pollinator crew”, or what we now call “the Polli-Nation”: a group of three…
Jeremy stands very tiny surrounded by massive amounts of ice.
Finally… the Aufeis! I’ve been told that every year there is a trendy site-to-see or a hike-to-hike around Toolik and that it shifts locations from year to year. This year that site is the Aufeis.…
The group stands in a green landscape in front of the river.
Sunday Funday After a six-day workweek, you may be wondering what scientists do on Sunday. To be honest, it varies from Sunday to Sunday and person to person: some folks use the time to finish up a…
Liza stands in front of a red helicopter.
One Fiery Day! Yesterday, after a wonderful PolarConnect event, I headed out with Lexy Salinas to learn more about what she does while she’s up at Toolik. While Lexy grew up in the Rio Grande Valley…
The whole team stands in front of the solar power box.
A Day with Team Vole Voles are rodents, and similar to mice, it seems like once they’re around they don’t go away. The plots that Sarah and I monitor for phenology have been torn up by voles, and…
Dennis stands next to a wood palette with a wheelbarrow on it. On the corner of the wood palette is a puddle of fake blood.
Caution Warning This blog post discusses a seminar held on Field Safety and contains mentions of fake blood and theoretical injuries. Rest assured that all members of my team are physically safe…
Save the Date! If you’ve been dreaming of joining me in the tundra picking berries, running the MISP, or trucking up and down the Dalton seeing amazing wildlife and awe-inspiring rocks, your chance…
Sarah walking through a forest.
Don’t worry, Mom, I’m doing Berry well! Saturday marked the start of the spring annual Berry survey: something this group only began recently (which is unique as most of the projects at Toolik are…
A powerpoint presentation is open in front of two empty chairs.
What is phenology anyway? When I was first told the title of my project “Phenology and Vegetation in the Warming Arctic 2021”, the most I could tell you about it was that the group was monitoring…
A piece of paper with red markings to explain NDVI.
Settled and Conversational Before arriving at Toolik, Jeremy warned me that our first week would be incredibly full of work and that at the end of each day we would just fall in bed exhausted. And…
A brown field is dotted with several Musk Ox lying down.
Another day another drive There’s another crew of ITEX-AON people in Utqiagvik (otherwise known as Barrow), so Steve had to leave us yesterday to help get them all set up with another MISP zip line…