Journal Entry
Polar Date July 5, 2008
What a day! This journal is just going to have to speak through pictures. I’ll preface it by saying that I rode in the helicopter twice to the 2004 remote burn site and this is a day I will never forget. I have video footage I’m working on to upload, so for now, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. If you get a chance, visit the photo gallery to see more – there are no words to express beyond the captions and pictures what this day was like.
This is the helicopter used by the Field Station research teams to travel to remote sites that cannot be reached by truck, boat or foot. Later in the summer, a second helicopter will be available because even now, there are so many researchers doing work in remote areas of the tundra.
Some of the research team is shown as the team gathered to finalize the sampling and surveying plan at the burn site. From left, Lauren, Yu Wei, Matt Cahill and someone in a bug suit. It's very hard to identify people in their bug suits, in fact later on in the day, I was asking somebody that I thought was Elise about the location of the soil cores and found out that it wasn't Elise at all, it was Christy!
Dr. Bret-Harte was pleased to see the moss and lichen were doing well. They were the last to recover from the burn and this year found much more moss and lichen than August, 2007 when the area was sampled and surveyd last.
No one could ask for a better setting for lunch than this! After working hard on two burn plots, the group regroups for a well-deserved lunch break and rest before moving over to the control plots.
Laura and Jen set up the transect at the Control-Fertilized plot. This plot was established as a comparison plot to see if the burned plots are re-vegetating at an increased rate due to more available nitrogen. When a fire burns plants, the nitrogen contained in the plant tissue is returned to the soil.
The contrasts in this vast wild place with the ever changing clouds and light patterns are unceasingly spectacular. It's difficult to imagine a place that provides a better horizon. The tundra stretches flat or ripples until rocky hills and mountains take over and stretch to reach the sky.
Signing off from Toolik Lake, and remember, "There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew”. ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964