Monday, January 21, 2008
Adopt a dog?
The wildlife project has officially started as I'm working with a wildlife biologist for the Lower Elwha Tribe. Kim (the biologist) has several different projects on her plate, but currently we're looking for otter latrines on the side channels of the Elwha. We throw our waders and backpacks on, and try to stay as dry as possible. There's a potential for some canoe action soon due to the high water levels and extensive bush-wacking needed for some parts of the river (I'll be crossing my fingers for that one!). The focus of this project is to get some idea of the resident otter population in the area by extracting DNA material from hair and scat. The population numbers will be compared to those following the dam removal to see how otters are impacted by extensive river changes and their influence on the survivability rate of spawning salmon.
Meanwhile, the hydrology project has been very entertaining. We've had gorgeous weather (knock on wood) while trekking around the Dungeness. On our last outing near "the Lounge", Dwight and I heard what we thought were coyotes. However, as we came around the bend, we discovered a hound dog with some odd tracking device-collar thing...of course, I immediately wanted to stop and see what the deal was as we had not seen anyone the entire day. After coaxing the dog over towards the Jeep, I noticed he was really thin and had some foot issues (no bare ground up there). Thankfully Dwight let me put the dog in the back seat and agreed to drive down to cell service. About 3/4 mile from the first dog pick-up, we found another dog in the exact same condition. She jumped into the Jeep after seeing her friend in the back seat, and we continued our journey down the road. In the end, we contacted the owners who said they were part of a "coon dog" group (8 total). Apparently, they release the racoon-chasing dogs in all directions over a wide area. Once the racoon is treed, the dog is expected to stay at the tree, barking until the owner finds him/her. The owner spoke as though it's completely normal to have a dog out for a few days before they find it...while I won't get into the ethics of this activity, I will say I was disappointed and for just a second thought I may be surprising Ben and Chris with 2 lovely dogs (I know we could have made it work!)...
Saturday, January 12, 2008
2008's Arrival
Dwight and I with the official snow tube and funky GPS antenna
2008 has officially begun with the start of Winter quarter - let the snow activities begin! Just before I left to go home for the holiday, we hydrology folks (Gus, Chris, Shae, Shaelee, Dwight, and myself) learned the insider's knowledge regarding snow sampling from NRCS representatives. Yesterday Chris, Dwight, and I went back out to start the official collection season - it was a ridiculously gorgeous day up the Dungeness and despite a few minor initial issues (like my inability to appropriately secure tire chains and the go-getter purple jeep getting lodged into the ditch...) we had a wonderful time absorbing the sunshine and stellar views. We measured the snowpack pack at BoJo (the uppermost site on the eastside of the Dungeness) and the Lounge (an open bog-like area with a random lawn chair adorning it's edge). Plenty of snow to trip, stumble, and get stuck in up at BoJo and the chair survived the holiday at the Lounge. The lowermost site on the eastside had no snow, and due to time constraints we didn't measure any of the sites on the westside. Yesterday was truly lovely!
My wildlife adventures will be starting up soon as I have made plans to accompany a biologist in her otter and elk expeditions - not totally sure what that means, but I'm looking forward to trekking out in Elwha country and continuing the learning trend...