well, for the past month and a half, i have been busy busy with my field work. this has entailed mainly snowmachining, learning about plants (of which i knew precious little prior to now) and measuring lots and lots of moose browse.

my MS thesis that I'm working on is something
along the lines of spatial heterogeneity of post-fire vegetation regeneration and its implications for moose winter foraging habitat.

this winter, my work is out in the Rosie Creek Burn measuring measuring measuring twigs to get at an estimate of browse production and removal by moose over the course of this past winter.

It's been a nearly solitary endeavor, but Evan has come out and helped once a week...here he is getting some much needed rest on the snow machine!


Amy also came out and was a trooper, measuring twigs with me! Her snowshoes are strapped to the back of my snowmachine.








And here I am, hard at work!

The winter is waning here in Fairbanks. We've moved from just over three hours of sunlight to over 14 in an incredibly short span of time. The mid-day temperatures are hitting around +40 and the snow is melting fast.

By Thursday I'll be done with my field work - for this year at least!

Also on Thursday (goodness, that's tomorrow. time flies when you're having fun) Sara Scott is flying up from NYC to spend the week! More updates to come later...I'm a slacker on this thing but at least I keep up with it every once in awhile!