I went out today with one of the two Emilys to work on conducting habitat and forest surveys on one of our streams. After some confusion with Matt and Dana changing the reaches on the stream, as well as doing a little bit of unnecessary work (due to the confusion), we finally got a rhythm going and finished up the habitat survey. We left at about 9:15 in the morning and didn't finish the habitat survey until around 1:00. Doing the survey with only two people was a big burden on us and took up a lot of our time. But oh well, got the habitat surveys done with that entire site. Definitely a good thing. After our lunch break, we needed to get started on some forest surveys. We needed to do 4 plots for either the old growth or second growth section, so we decided to work on the old growth (so much prettier, plus we had been working for 3 hours in the second growth; we needed a change in environment). We ended up with some nice plots and some huge ass trees. Managed to finish the four plots in about 2 and a half hours (would have been quicker if the terrain was better on the last plot), and was quite fun. We ended up with this gigantic douglas fir in one of our plots. One of the largest trees I've ever seen. It was far more relaxing than the rest of the work we were doing prior to the forest surveys. Our last plot ended up having a hill in it that was a 60 degree incline. Damn that was tough to ascend and descend, but I got the job done. We called it a day and got back to the HJA headquarters around 5:00.
The rest of my evening has consisted of a little bit of cooking and food preperation for tomorrow, eating, and relaxing. Although the forest surveys were more relaxing, it was definitely an exhausting day. I also managed to drink through all 3 liters of water that I brought with me and I was still extremely dehydrated by the time I got back to HJA. It's intense how much sweat I lose when I'm hiking up and down these streams, but I should hopefully be losing some weight this summer which will be good.
Tomorrow will consist of lots of forest surveys at two different sites and deploying fluorescein into one of our furthest streams. That means that in a perfect world, I'll be at our first site for three hours or a bit less (so done around noon), and then will go back out around 2:30 to do more forest surveys and then deploy fluorescein by 6. That would put me completely done for the day around 7:30, with a 2-3 hour break midday. Doable, but I'll still be exhausted (like always).
Stay fancy.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Day 8 - Ever Have the Feeling that You Didn't Actually Accomplish Anything?
Come Monday morning, I woke up and went out into the field with Matt and Kate. Our goal was to scout out sites because Matt needs one more stream which has a section of both old growth and second growth surrounding it. This consisted of hiking to and through streams, looking for both old growth and second growth, and specifically a dark second growth (just for contrast to other streams), as well as fish. We found some potential streams, but never found the right combination of everything. So we ended up empty handed after hours of work. We made our way out to place called Mack Stream, and we were going to measure out our reaches and lay out tiles, but we ran into more problems and weren't able to measure out the reaches. We literally wasted an entire day. Bummer.
Dana came back up to HJA for the evening to hang out with us all and to get an early start to the morning on Tuesday. Matt had caught a chinook salmon on Sunday morning so we decided to grill up fresh salmon, veggies, and had some roasted potatoes and watermelon. Plus beer. Can't forget the beer. We had a fantastic dinner, which concluded with some cookies made by Hannah. The highlight of the evening was a crew shotgun. Basically, every single one of us each shotgunned a beer together. Definitely a good bonding moment for all of us. This was of course a bad idea since we had just finished a huge dinner; we all survived. Afterwards, we ended up playing some Beer Frisbee. Brian and I versus Matt and Dana. Damn, Dana has a great throw. Was not expecting that. Brian and I ended up losing, but only 19-22, so it was a close game. We finished the night by just hanging out at a picnic table and drinking beer. A fantastic evening.
Stay fancy.
Dana came back up to HJA for the evening to hang out with us all and to get an early start to the morning on Tuesday. Matt had caught a chinook salmon on Sunday morning so we decided to grill up fresh salmon, veggies, and had some roasted potatoes and watermelon. Plus beer. Can't forget the beer. We had a fantastic dinner, which concluded with some cookies made by Hannah. The highlight of the evening was a crew shotgun. Basically, every single one of us each shotgunned a beer together. Definitely a good bonding moment for all of us. This was of course a bad idea since we had just finished a huge dinner; we all survived. Afterwards, we ended up playing some Beer Frisbee. Brian and I versus Matt and Dana. Damn, Dana has a great throw. Was not expecting that. Brian and I ended up losing, but only 19-22, so it was a close game. We finished the night by just hanging out at a picnic table and drinking beer. A fantastic evening.
Stay fancy.
Day 5 through 7 - July 4th and Back in Corvallis
I decided to surprise Hannah so I came back to Corvallis for the weekend. So no time spent at HJA. Had a good weekend; watched fireworks at the waterfront, ate lots of pie and cookies, and just relaxed.
Sunday, I went back to HJA and got there around 4. Made a simple dinner, hung out with the people here for a bit, and just continued to relax. Nothing much to write about, but I want a post that includes every day.
Stay fancy.
Sunday, I went back to HJA and got there around 4. Made a simple dinner, hung out with the people here for a bit, and just continued to relax. Nothing much to write about, but I want a post that includes every day.
Stay fancy.
Day 4 - Back in the Field
Dana Warren, the PI for the project, made it to HJA to help out with some of our work on Thursday. We made it out to the farthest sites to do some forest surveys, as well as measuring out a couple reaches in two streams and marking them (putting a flag every 10 meters), and laying out tiles. The tiles are going to sit in the streams for 6 weeks to grow algae, which will show the amount of primary production that takes place at those locations. The forest surveys consist of creating a 15x15 meter plot and measuring the DBH, or Diameter Breast Height, meaning the diameter of the tree at breast height, or roughly 1.3 meters up on the trunk. This also includes identifying all the trees. Fairly easy, but a long day, and there were a lot of changes in marking out the reaches with Dana around, which resulted in measuring it out, then realizing we wanted to do something else instead, and having to remeasure. Honestly, I don't remember anything else from this day; I was pretty tired. However, we got Friday off for the 4th, so it was nice to come back to HJA and relax, knowing I didn't have to wake up early to work.
Stay fancy.
Stay fancy.
Day 3 - Lab Work
Almost a week late on this one, just never got around to it.
Spent the entire day working in the lab. Emily and I just analyzed fluorescein samples for 3 or 4 hours, which includes pouring some liquid from a vial into another type of vial (blanking on the name of it...), which we then put into a machine... A fluorometer? Something along those lines. It measures the concentration of the fluorescein to determine how much photodegradation occurred. Then we just input the data into the computer. Simple stuff, just took a while. The rest of the day consisted of making up more fluorescein and filling vials with it. Simple, but tedious.
Since it ended up being a short day, I decided to try out fishing at the lake. Well, I definitely caught some fish! I had never caught anything before, and I managed to catch a total of 7 rainbow trout in 3 hours. One even bit literally the second the hook hit the water; incredible. I don't have any pictures ready at the moment, but I took a picture of my first fish. All were pretty small, and one was small enough that I had to release it, but I ended up keeping 4 of them. Had a nice dinner that night. I ended up saving the other two to bring back to Corvallis for the 4th of July. Definitely a nice relaxing day.
Stay fancy.
Spent the entire day working in the lab. Emily and I just analyzed fluorescein samples for 3 or 4 hours, which includes pouring some liquid from a vial into another type of vial (blanking on the name of it...), which we then put into a machine... A fluorometer? Something along those lines. It measures the concentration of the fluorescein to determine how much photodegradation occurred. Then we just input the data into the computer. Simple stuff, just took a while. The rest of the day consisted of making up more fluorescein and filling vials with it. Simple, but tedious.
Since it ended up being a short day, I decided to try out fishing at the lake. Well, I definitely caught some fish! I had never caught anything before, and I managed to catch a total of 7 rainbow trout in 3 hours. One even bit literally the second the hook hit the water; incredible. I don't have any pictures ready at the moment, but I took a picture of my first fish. All were pretty small, and one was small enough that I had to release it, but I ended up keeping 4 of them. Had a nice dinner that night. I ended up saving the other two to bring back to Corvallis for the 4th of July. Definitely a nice relaxing day.
Stay fancy.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Day 2 - Back in the Field and Feeling Better
I woke up this morning feeling much better than last night. An early start had me well awake by the time we needed to gather. We got a late start hopping into the cars, but Brian (the crew leader helping Matt), both Emilys (one is doing her own undergraduate research, the other is an intern just like me), and I ventured out to one of the streams. We did a full habitat survey, which ended up taking close to 3 hours over the course of 140 meters. This included measuring the bankfull and wetted lengths of the stream (I explained those terms in the previous post) every 10 meters, measuring the width, length, max depth of every pool plus the depth of the outflow (self explanatory, where the water flows out of the pool), estimating the substrate every 10 meters (the % of different types of rock sizes basically, using terms such as fine/pebble/gravel/boulder) using a quadrat, as well as measuring/estimating the dense wood (defined as wood that has a 10 cm diameter or greater) within and over the stream. I measured the bankfull/wetted/pools which I thoroughly enjoyed. I basically got to spend a lot of my day just walking in a stream and measuring the water, which was refreshing to stick my hands in. After that, we didn't have enough time to do any other serious work, so we decided to head back and take a break. We got back to HJ at 3:30.
Then at 5:30 we headed back out, with the addition of Matt, to collect all the fluorescein from the streams. Much cooler than the afternoon (it got up to 94 degrees here) and very peaceful. I was alone going up and down the stream, so it was a nice 30 minutes or so to myself in the forest next to a stream. In total, it took us 2 hours 15 minutes to get back, and probably close to an hour of that was spent driving to the spots. That will definitely be a burden this summer, just the travel time to get to the sites. But with this collected fluorescein, we will be analyzing it in the lab tomorrow all day. Although, apparently, a couple people will go out into the field tomorrow. So who knows what I'll be doing. I hope to stay in the lab.
Other than that, nothing else happened today. Played a little bit of Beer Friz and have just been relaxing this evening. I'm hoping to go fishing tomorrow after work; it's all I've been waiting for since I got here on Sunday.
Oh, and today I saw two frogs (not 100% on the species, but they were different - I can't quite remember their patterns), a few fish in the streams, as well as a deer (and maybe another just a few hundred meters away, although it was difficult to tell as we were driving by). A good day for all of us!
Stay fancy.
Then at 5:30 we headed back out, with the addition of Matt, to collect all the fluorescein from the streams. Much cooler than the afternoon (it got up to 94 degrees here) and very peaceful. I was alone going up and down the stream, so it was a nice 30 minutes or so to myself in the forest next to a stream. In total, it took us 2 hours 15 minutes to get back, and probably close to an hour of that was spent driving to the spots. That will definitely be a burden this summer, just the travel time to get to the sites. But with this collected fluorescein, we will be analyzing it in the lab tomorrow all day. Although, apparently, a couple people will go out into the field tomorrow. So who knows what I'll be doing. I hope to stay in the lab.
Other than that, nothing else happened today. Played a little bit of Beer Friz and have just been relaxing this evening. I'm hoping to go fishing tomorrow after work; it's all I've been waiting for since I got here on Sunday.
Oh, and today I saw two frogs (not 100% on the species, but they were different - I can't quite remember their patterns), a few fish in the streams, as well as a deer (and maybe another just a few hundred meters away, although it was difficult to tell as we were driving by). A good day for all of us!
Stay fancy.
Day 1 - First Day and Sick
Basically, I felt like I was coming down with a cold Saturday night. Sunday I felt it and new I had gotten sick, and come time to wake up for my first day of work, and I felt like shit. But it was time to get moving. I hung around for a couple hours before I actually had something to do. The crew leaders were just finishing up some lab work. After the other 2 interns arrived (I got there Sunday night, they made it there Monday morning), we got started on some mundane work. We simply had to attach 3 vials to a flag, over and over again. Took us around 90 minutes for us to finish up 200 flags. The vials have fluorescein in them; the vials (attached to flags) go into the water in the evening, and then 24 hours later we retrieve them. Doing lab work on Wednesday, we'll be able to measure how much photodegradation has occured over the last 24 hours in the streams.
Before we ditched the vials out there, we were going to get our feet wet (literally) out in the field to start us off. We went to a stream that took us 45 minutes of driving to get to, and that has pretty rough terrain to walk through. Dana Warren, Matt's (grad student) advisor and our PI, tagged along to help us out. I didn't have waders on, which proved to be a problem. I eventually slipped my feet into the stream which got my feet completely soaked. Oh well. But it was tough work still. We measured out a couple hundred meters of the stream, as well as took some measurements of the stream (called bankfull and wetted measurements), which are part of our habitat survey. This took a couple hours. Also, as I was attempting to catch up to a few people, I must have walked through a bee nest or something, because I ended up getting stung twice on my legs. If only I had my waders, then I wouldn't have gotten stung. But oh well, no problem. Tired as hell, plus with me being sick I was extremely wiped out at this point), we went back to HJA. However, an hour later, we needed to go back out to place the fluorescein. Matt ended up telling me to stay back and rest, since I was feeling pretty crappy and looked pretty crappy too. So I finished off my night by just relaxing on a couch for quite a few hours. But I was told that everything was successful, and they ended up leaving around 6:30 and got back at 10:15. Was a long work day.
Stay fancy.
Before we ditched the vials out there, we were going to get our feet wet (literally) out in the field to start us off. We went to a stream that took us 45 minutes of driving to get to, and that has pretty rough terrain to walk through. Dana Warren, Matt's (grad student) advisor and our PI, tagged along to help us out. I didn't have waders on, which proved to be a problem. I eventually slipped my feet into the stream which got my feet completely soaked. Oh well. But it was tough work still. We measured out a couple hundred meters of the stream, as well as took some measurements of the stream (called bankfull and wetted measurements), which are part of our habitat survey. This took a couple hours. Also, as I was attempting to catch up to a few people, I must have walked through a bee nest or something, because I ended up getting stung twice on my legs. If only I had my waders, then I wouldn't have gotten stung. But oh well, no problem. Tired as hell, plus with me being sick I was extremely wiped out at this point), we went back to HJA. However, an hour later, we needed to go back out to place the fluorescein. Matt ended up telling me to stay back and rest, since I was feeling pretty crappy and looked pretty crappy too. So I finished off my night by just relaxing on a couch for quite a few hours. But I was told that everything was successful, and they ended up leaving around 6:30 and got back at 10:15. Was a long work day.
Stay fancy.
Day 0 - A New Adventure
Yes I know, I was going to write in my blog. Didn't happen. Let's move on. Instead, I'm working out at the HJ Andrews Forest about an hour east of Eugene, working on a graduate student's stream ecology project. I am going to try to write about every single day, just to do some writing, keep myself busy during my relaxation time, and to let people know how things go. I'll try to post pictures as well, but no promises about what I'm working on, as I don't know if I'll many opportunities to snap pictures while working. I will have lots of free time, which will be my time to take pictures for everyone.
So Sunday, June 29th, I arrived at around 7 PM, and didn't really do anything. Just met a few people that are staying here as well, played some Beer Frisbee, and went to bed. The drive out here was amazing on Hwy 126 after Springfield. Even further down the highway I bet is better. We're basically stationed right next to the Blue River Reservoir, which is next to Blue River (I recently found out that is a town, and I assumed when I saw Blue River on the map, that it was in fact a river). It's nothing but beautiful forests here and this stellar reservoir right next to us. I'm planning on lots of fishing this summer.
Beer Frisbee - Just what it sounds like. You mix frisbee, horseshoes, beerpong, and you've got Beer Frisbee. Basically, two posts, each with a beer bottle on it. You are trying to knock over your opponent's beer bottle with the frisbee, with a drink in your hand. First to 21 points wins.
My posts will be pretty short, but frequent (trying for every day, or at least a post about every day).
Stay fancy.
So Sunday, June 29th, I arrived at around 7 PM, and didn't really do anything. Just met a few people that are staying here as well, played some Beer Frisbee, and went to bed. The drive out here was amazing on Hwy 126 after Springfield. Even further down the highway I bet is better. We're basically stationed right next to the Blue River Reservoir, which is next to Blue River (I recently found out that is a town, and I assumed when I saw Blue River on the map, that it was in fact a river). It's nothing but beautiful forests here and this stellar reservoir right next to us. I'm planning on lots of fishing this summer.
Beer Frisbee - Just what it sounds like. You mix frisbee, horseshoes, beerpong, and you've got Beer Frisbee. Basically, two posts, each with a beer bottle on it. You are trying to knock over your opponent's beer bottle with the frisbee, with a drink in your hand. First to 21 points wins.
My posts will be pretty short, but frequent (trying for every day, or at least a post about every day).
Stay fancy.
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