Sagehen News

Field Station struggles with tourism impacts.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:54:43 -0500

Here's an article about a serious, existence-threatening issue that one of our fellow field stations is dealing with in Colorado.

Many field stations find themselves faced with growing user group conflicts as people begin to enter these formerly quiet & remote areas for intensive recreation. As a measure of the growing problem, off-road motorized vehicles rose from about 5 million in the 1970's, to about 43 million in 2005.

So far, we haven't had major problems at Sagehen & we're hoping that the new Tahoe National Forest OHV Plan will help arrest some developing issues that hold the potential to grow into big problems for us.

Cat-cam!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:45:41 -0500

Here at Sagehen we are dreaming of [& working hard toward] the day that we can track critters through the basin in real time.

This will yield huge breakthroughs in our understanding of how animals use the landscape, since we can only get very periodic fixes on animal position using currently available technologies like camera traps, GPS collars & radio-tracking.

Here's a guy who is working on the same thing using his cat! He has developed a commercial cat-cam that snaps periodic images from the cat's P.O.V., & he is exploring real-time video transmission. Generously, he puts lots of relevant information on his website, including schematic diagrams & part lists. He also offers a GPS tracking system.

You can go along on his cat's travels, or subscribe to an RSS feed for news updates.

Users of the CatCam send in their own cat photo journeys. It's sort of an interesting meditation on the perceptual choices of human photographer-artists to see pictures of what cats think is important.

Wildflowers going off!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:43:11 -0500

Although last winter was pretty dry, this spring's prolonged, cool temperatures & a couple of rain storms resulted in one of the best wildflower years we've seen, including multiple unusual varieties of penstemon & currant, great camas lilies & outrageously prolific tobacco-brush blossoms.

Both the variety & quantities of flowers have been off the charts, so get out there before it's all over.

Also, Al Grigarick has updated his excellent on-line wildflower & conifer identification tools with new additions & some improved images.

Summer Speaker Series underway

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:04:08 -0500

The annual Sagehen Summer Speaker Series is underway. The next speaker is Joe Sapp, who will talk about Sagehen's slave-making ants on July 10.

More info.

Master's Thesis evaluating ARC Program effectiveness completed

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:39:54 -0500

Christine Hooper has completed her study of the Sagehen ARC Program. This appears to be the first thesis to emerge from Sagehen that is related to sociology & education rather than field sciences.

BRIDGING THE GAP: THE UNION OF PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC GROWTH
ARC: DELIVERING LITERACY AND PERSONAL GROWTH FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS THROUGH OUTDOOR EDUCATION

"This action research project is an evaluation of the effectiveness of experiential outdoor education, specifically the Adventure-Risk-Challenge (ARC) program, and its intent to bridge literacy and personal growth in order to support student success in the classroom. It examines the connection between personal and academic growth. The focus of this study is on eight English Language Learners (ELL’s) that participated in the ARC program during the summer of 2007. All were motivated individuals with a range of literacy gaps, including struggling with writing. This program is unique in its combination of ELL student focus, outdoor adventure and literacy instruction. Therefore, there is little or no research which directly addresses this integration of educational outcomes. The methodology of this research incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data centered on student writing improvement. The results indicate that an integrated academic and leadership curriculum improves student writing significantly."

SPLAT-related Thesis completed.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:51:08 -0500

Nicole Vaillant has completed her Ph.D. thesis: Sagehen Experimental Forest Past, Present, and Future: An Evaluation of the Fireshed Assessment Process. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

"The first chapter investigates the past through a fire history reconstruction of lower elevation Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and Jeffrey pine – mixed conifer stands within Sagehen. Using fire perimeter maps and dendrochronology, the historic fire regime (frequency and seasonality) was determined. This chapter explores the influence of Native American land use practices, Comstock Era logging, fire suppression and climate indices (Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Palmer Drought Severity Index) on the fire regime at Sagehen.

The second chapter focuses on the present comparing three geographic information system (GIS) data sets utilized in the fireshed assessment process available for Sagehen. Eight GIS data layers are required to model fire behavior in FlamMap (Finney 2006), a landscape-level fire behavior and propagation model. The eight layers required include: elevation, slope, aspect, canopy cover, canopy base height, canopy height, canopy bulk density and fuel model. The three GIS data sets being compared in this chapter included:
1) data created using LiDAR and plot information for Sagehen,
2) pre-existing Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project (Landfire) data (Ryan et al. 2006), and
3) pre-existing Tahoe National Forest Stewardship and Fireshed Assessment data (Bahro et al. 2007).

The three GIS data sets were evaluated against the extensive grid of fuel and vegetation plots to test the correlation of canopy cover, fuel model, canopy base height, canopy height and canopy bulk density to current conditions. Modeled fire behavior metrics (fire type, flame length and fireline intensity) were compared between the three GIS data sets to better understand the implications of different source data on management decisions made during the fireshed assessment process.

The third chapter will again concentrate on the present comparing six SPLAT treatment plans created for Sagehen. Four of the plans were created by the Tahoe National Forest in conjunction with University of California, Berkeley using the fireshed assessment process. These four plans take into account accessibility, cost, landownership and ecological objectives. The second two plans were theoretical. The first is based on the pattern outlined by the fundamental research on the SPLAT theory (Finney 2001). This plan does not consider any of the above limitations. The second was created using the treatment optimization model within FlamMap (Finney 2007). This SPLAT plan excludes areas not available for treatment including watercourse protection zones, archeological sites and locations protected for sensitive or endangered plant and animal species. Potential fire behavior metrics (fire type, flame length, fireline intensity and arrival time) were modeled in FlamMap to evaluate the effectiveness of the six SPLAT plans.

The fourth chapter assesses the longevity of treatment effectiveness to reduce potential fire behavior for one of the fireshed assessment SPLAT treatments into the future. A forest vegetation growth simulator was utilized to model natural regeneration and growth of trees in Sagehen from 2005 through 2055 for the untreated and treated landscapes. Modeled fire behavior (fire type, flame length and fireline intensity) was used to assess the effectiveness of the treated landscape compared to the untreated landscape from 2005 to 2055.

There is much to be gained by integrating the past, present and future of Sagehen Experimental Forest into a spatial and temporal evaluation of the fireshed assessment and SPLATs. To my knowledge, no other watershed has the amount of information available for such a detailed analysis. Nor has there been a detailed evaluation of proposed SPLAT treatments created through the fireshed process. This study would be a first for both SPLAT placement and fireshed analysis, and should be of great value to land managers."

Big improvements to basin network & communications.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:52:31 -0500

Campus & AT&T installed our new T-1 line in May, tying us into the Berkeley campus network for the first time ever. It was a big effort to get the phone lines from Hobart Mills conditioned & up to snuff.

The T-1 line also allows us to escape from the usurious satellite internet charges that rose dramatically after the war started & sucked up our entire discretionary budget last fiscal year.

Also, Kevin Browne & Marshall Minobe of the UCNRS spent a couple weeks here at Sagehen in May.

Marshall helped us install the sensing instruments & communications equipment on the new 100-foot towers, while Kevin worked to get the basin wireless communications sorted. We now have a new Meraki wireless mesh network around the station facilities for user access to the internet & Kevin will be moving us to professional-grade Cisco mesh networking equipment for the basin towers in July.

Sagehen Speaker's new book

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:35:53 -0500

Last year, Sagehen researcher Pam Ronald spoke at the Sagehen Summer Speaker Series about genetic engineering in agriculture. "Tomorrow's Table", her new book on the merging of organic agriculture & genetic engineering is now available.

Read the author's blog here.
Order the book here.

Blue Grouse attack!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:59:51 -0500

Some friends on a recent ski tour had to deal with a cranky male Blue Grouse that attacked their legs & chased them out of his territory. I had no idea they were so aggressive!

Here's a pic of the belligerent bird.

Snowcat arrives!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:10:03 -0500

After 7 long years of trying, Sagehen finally has a bladed snowcat again--and it's a beaut! Thank you, thank you, thank you to our Faculty Director, Jim Kirchner.

At 275 horsepower, it can really move snow. Jeff's used it to clear 6' of snow off our 2-miles of access road, & the sun has now dried it out so it's drivable again. He's also stripped the huge piles away from the edges of our buildings, allowing the roofs to slide & taking pressure off the walls.

Great learning tool.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:21:34 -0500

I just found a fantastic learning tool for math & science: Explore Learning provides really interesting & illuminating on-line math & science simulations for grade school kids. There are hundreds of modules, ranging from algebra to biology.

There's an intro video on the homepage.

Get automatic notifications of new blog posts.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:52:51 -0500

This is a great new service: instead of having to remember to check our site regularly, you can now receive an e-mail whenever "Sagehen News" [& your other favorite blogs] gets a new post added.

Go to Blogarithm & add our URL to start getting notified about new posts.

Sagehen Researcher photographs rare animal in the Tahoe National Forest.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:58:07 -0500

Dear Agency Friends and Research Colleagues,

It is with a mixture of joy, and some trepidation, that I share the attached photograph and solicit your help in managing the circumstances it may precipitate.

The previous evidence of this species in California, by method other than sightings, dates back to the 1930s. The photograph was taken on the Tahoe National Forest during a marten research project managed by a graduate student named Katie Moriarty. It has been reviewed by Jeff Copeland, of the Rocky Mountain Research Station (a wolverine expert) who said that he "can't convert it into anything else" and that "it looks like the real deal".

It was photographed at one of a large arrays of cameras that are continuing to operate in the vicinity thru the end of March, at least. New effort will be dedicated to the collection of genetic information, to try to confirm the population of origin, and to expanding camera surveys.

Your thoughts and suggestions for next steps are welcome.

Bill Zielinsky

More info & updates about the sighting.

ARC Alumni produces radio program.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:45:59 -0600

Sagehen ARC graduate Tanya Cabrera participated in the KVMR Youth Voices radio program in 2007, producing this segment on Sagehen's ARC program.

More info about the "Youth Voices" program available here.

More digging.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:46:29 -0600

The break in the weather is giving us a chance to catch up with the digging. Which is a good thing since we almost lost the Leopold cabin during the storm.

Here are some pics of Jeff digging its roof off for the last time [hopefully].

And a couple shots of rafters. First is a normal one, resting nicely on the wall-top plate.

The other shot shows several rafters that slipped off the wall when the heavy load bulged the walls out. One of them even broke in half. Next stop: pancake.

Books by Sagehen researchers on Amazon.com

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:52:47 -0500

Here's a list of some publications available on Amazon.com about the Sagehen Basin &/or written by Sagehen researchers.

Takes a little while to load the widget--hang tight!

Amazon.com Widgets

Local mystery solved.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:31:57 -0600

This news from our winter pine marten researcher, Katie Moriarty:

Well, my curiosity is more settled and I wanted to share the wealth. I've been seeing what I thought were a lot of kill sites without any sign of struggle or fur... As it turns out, red pee in snowshoe hares (and other lagomorphs) is fairly common. Never had a rabbit as a kid, never knew...

Changes in urine color in hares seems to be linked to ingestion of conifer needles. The citric acid created contains porphyrins, which are some sort of circular carbon chain, and through digestion these combine to form heme (iron compound). Another source stated this is a symptom of excess calcium. It seems that the phenomena of red urine is temporary, lasting only a few days and does not occur uniformly across rabbits with the same diet.

Another website (probably unreliable) stated that blue urine in hares was caused by a diet of Rhamnus cathartica, European or cathartic buckthorn. The urine of domestic buckthorn eaters is initially yellow or brown, but within ten minutes of exposure to sunlight turns bright blue in the snow or on paper.

I never knew that urine naturally changed colors. I also thought it was curious that there could be photosynthetic blue urine (maybe) of all things.

Hope you have an enlightened day...

Peace, katie

Getting deep!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:50:27 -0600

The storm cycle that just ended has turned this winter into a pretty big one. On top of the old, dense wet snow that is firmly stuck to our roofs, the new snow has added significantly to the load: both the weight load & the work load!

Here are some pics.

It's not the biggest year on record [Shorty had to crawl in & out the 2nd story windows one year in the 1990's], but it's definitely the deepest, densest settled snow we've seen on the ground since our arrival in 2001. We can't pack it down anymore to get it out of the way.

We're definitely getting slapped around by Mother Nature at this point.

The icedams are impressive, heavy, & beginning to force water through the roof under the eaves.

The load is bulging the walls & deforming the roof lines of the Leopold Cabin.

The highway garage is getting pushed over sideways by the load on both the roof & sidewalls.

Fortunately, the ARC kids--visiting for a reunion--helped us shovel off the garage roof & dig out the garage driveway.

Watch a video of us mountaineering on the house to do "cornice control".

Winter storms continue.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:31:35 -0600

Since the new year the snow has slowly accumulated to the point that it is turning into a real winter, despite a slow start. We haven’t had a huge dump that dropped massive amounts of snow that buried buildings then settled out, but the steady trickle means that we probably have more dense, settled snow on the ground now than we’ve ever seen here at Sagehen.

We desperately need a real snowcat with a blade capable of moving snow. With such a machine, we could not only keep the road open but also maintain access to the upper basin sensing towers and move snow away from the building eaves so that the roofs can continue to shed their load. At present, the snow is getting so deep & compacted that the roofs can’t slide anymore, putting our structures at risk of collapse. A snowcat would also save incredible amounts of time & effort that we need for other things now that our use & workload has increased so dramatically. During the new year’s storm cycle, it took 5 of us [Jeff & me, the winter caretakers & a winter researcher] all day to work our way out to the highway on snowmobiles, then to clear the snow away from the garage so that we could get our cars out...a task that would take mere minutes with a bladed snowcat.

Historically, Sagehen always had a bladed snowcat, but during the desperate days of the 1990’s, it went away. Since our arrival in 2001, we have put incredible effort into finding a partner to purchase a machine, but we’ve had no luck. We even donated our personal tractor to Sagehen in the hopes that it would work for removing snow, but while incredibly useful for early & late seasons when the snow is shallower, it’s just not the right tool once the snowbanks get high & there is nowhere left to put the snow.

We applied for a National Science Foundation Field Station & Marine Labs Facilities grant last year—one of the few sources of grant money for facilities available to us. The grant would have purchased a snowcat & a garage to put it in. Unfortunately, we were shot down. Some of the reviewers felt that we should just use snowmobiles, since they are cheaper, demonstrating a profound naivete about winter in the Sierras generally & snowmobiles in particular. I guess snowmobile advertising is very effective if it has convinced people that a snowmobile is actually a real tool for getting around in the winter in untracked snow rather than the incredibly labor-intensive toy that our experience & observation has shown them to be when there is no packed snowcat track to follow.

Not one to give up easily [or ever, really], Jeff changed tacks & is trying to put together a group of interested parties to purchase a snowcat. He located a used machine in great condition for a very reasonable price. If we can get the various users of Sagehen data to pitch in, then we may finally have solved this largest of thorns in the Sagehen side!

Winter arrives at Sagehen.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:44:35 -0600

It never really feels like winter here at Sagehen until snowfall accumulates deep enough to close our access road to wheeled vehicles.

The storm that ended yesterday finally did that. We received about 5' of new snow that started out extremely wet & sloppy, but chilled down to light fluff by the end.

Fortunately, Jeff & I had help digging out. This winter's tenants include Avalanche Forecaster Brandon Schwartz & his wife Jamie: our fill-in caretakers again this winter. We're also hosting resident pine marten researcher, Katie Moriarty.

We keep the road snowpacked with snowmobiles & our little snowcat [when it works], so things are plenty firm enough to ski, snowshoe or walk into the station. Contact us before arriving if you need a snowmobile ride or trailer haul for your equipment.

Orphaned bear cub released at Sagehen.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:13:52 -0600

This summer was very hard on the black bears of the Sierra Nevada. Dry weather forced them out of the hills to look for food and water, where they bumped up against encroaching development throughout their range.

This arrangement seldom ends happily for the bears. 70 Tahoe-area bears lost their lives this year to traffic collisions. Animal control officers were also forced to deal with the consequences of irresponsible people who refuse to acknowledge that allowing bears to get into our food supply means that the bear will ultimately have to be killed.

There is at least one happy ending, though. Yesterday, we built a den and released an orphaned cub here at Sagehen in the same area where we successfully released 2 cubs in 2004. We know this previous release succeeded for several reasons: first, there were no skeletons in the den in the spring. Second, we found the radio collars that dropped from the cubs after their spring emergence. And finally--thanks to ear tags--Doug Updike was able to identify one of the cubs from Dept. of Fish & Game camera trap pictures this summer.

Read the background story of this latest release below. See our website for links to more articles & video of the release:

"September, 2007: The search for a bear cub that got loose in North Auburn ended successfully thanks to the efforts of several government agencies Tuesday. The cub was spotted in a redwood tree early Tuesday by residents of a home located north of Bell Road in North Auburn. The residents were alerted to the bear’s presence by the barking of their dogs.

The rescue was a joint effort by the California Department of Fish and Game, the Animal Services Division of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, Sheriff’s Office, Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, county Public Works Department and Cal Fire. At about 1 p.m. Tuesday, a Fish and Game veterinarian succeeded in sedating the 40-pound cub, using a tranquilizer mounted at the end of a long pole. The vet was able to reach the bear’s perch high in the tree by standing in the bucket of a boom truck supplied by Public Works. The tree’s branches broke the cub’s fall from the tree. After examining the animal, the vet pronounced the cub unhurt from the fall and said she is a little underweight but generally in good health.

'It was a heart-warming end to a very-challenging situation', said Dr. Jim Gandley, assistant director of the Health and Human Services Department. 'Each of the agencies pitched in to protect the public while taking every possible precaution to keep the cub from being injured during the rescue.'

The county’s Animal Services Division took control of the cub Monday afternoon after its mother was hit by a car and killed near Truckee. Animal Services transported the animal to its Auburn shelter because it was too late in the day to deliver her to a Fish and Game facility in Rancho Cordova. At the shelter, animal control officers placed the cub in an outdoor cage made of heavy-duty pipe and wire mesh after reinforcing it with extra panels. Sometime Monday night, the cub escaped by forcing its way through a small opening in the reinforced cage. Animal control officers and Sheriff’s Department deputies searched for the animal throughout North Auburn Tuesday morning. Animal Services officials had notified residents and schools near the shelter that the bear was loose, emphasizing that any bear cub should be considered a danger to humans and domestic animals."

Summary:

- Cub's mother hit-by-car and killed near Truckee.
- Cub observed in tree near highway and people became concerned that it
couldn't survive on its own.
- Cub captured by local animal control and transported to Auburn to be
housed for the night; DFG was to pick it up the following day.
- Cub escaped during the night.
- Cub immobilized the following day and taken to DFG animal pens
and cared for until January, 2008.
- Cub weighs at least 80-lbs and appears to be in excellent health
- Cub released at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station. Story & video | More press coverage here.

Forest Supervisor Steve Eubanks retires.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:24:25 -0600

Tahoe National Forest Supervisor Steve Eubanks is retiring.

Steve has been a great friend and ally of science in the forest, lobbying heavily to save Sagehen during the dark period of the 90's and helping to create the Sagehen Experimental Forest in 2005.

Good luck to Steve in his future ventures!

Thesis on male attractiveness completed.

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:19:41 -0600

Do females take better care of their children or have more daughters when the father is more attractive?

Elise Ferree has completed her thesis looking at these and other questions in Dark-eyed Juncos at Sagehen. Read her thesis or a recent article.

It's Mathias Grant time again!

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:38:09 -0500

The annual UC Natural Reserve System, Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant Program provides grants to support graduate students at UCB, UCD, UCI, UCLA, UCR, UCSD, UCSB, and UCSC for their independent and field science studies at NRS reserves.

The application and all required attachments must be received no later than midnight on October 18, 2007. Awards will be announced on or about December 17, 2007. The maximum award is $2,500, with a total of $30,000 to be awarded overall each year.

See the NRS website to apply.

"The Sierra Nevada Now and Then: Revisiting the Grinnell Survey" - October 6, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Faerthen Felix) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:38:02 -0600

Update!: Due to early snowfall in the Truckee area, this event has been moved to the Sierra College North Campus, 10725 Pioneer Trail, Truckee. Click on map for larger image.

Sponsored by the Institute for Sustainability at the Sierra College Tahoe-Truckee Campus, and UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station, the event will include an informative afternoon presentation by Dr. Craig Moritz and Dr. Stephen Long from UCB's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and a workshop that will focus on the Sierra Nevada habitat, human impact, and change through time.

The Grinnell survey is an environmental and mammal assessment that was completed nearly a century ago. The survey is now being revisited in an effort to assess the changes that have occurred to the natural environment in the past 100 years. An explanation of the survey, speculation concerning the cause of these environmental changes, and evaluation of the human impact will all be addressed.

Admission is free and all ages are welcome.

Saturday, October 6th at 1:00 p.m. at Sagehen Creek Field Station. Find downloadable map and directions to the station here, or meet at Sierra College's Pioneer Center by 12:30 to carpool. For more information, call Frank DeCourten at (916)789-2933.

* * *

In addition to the lecture, Frank DeCourten from Sierra College, Rocklin, will be giving a presentation on the Institute for Sustainability at the Tahoe-Truckee Campus. The Institute for Sustainability at the Sierra College Tahoe-Truckee campus is associated with the Center for Sierra Nevada Studies. The "Center" is an official entity of Sierra College and has been established under the Vice President for Educational Services and Programs. The Center has a strong reputation for its dedication to conservation and environmental issues, including the Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum and "Saving the Sierra", an award-winning oral history project. The Center provides an organizational placeholder for the growth and development of our sustainability efforts, which may someday develop into a separate district-wide initiative.

Within the current activities of the Center is a new sustainability initiative called the "Institute for Sustainability at the Sierra College Tahoe-Truckee campus". This "Institute" will concern itself with the promotion and implementation of the five point plan known as the Seventh Generation Project which addresses sustainability ethics and principles in five arenas of college activity: Policy, Educational Programs & Services, Educational Requirements, Operations, and Outreach.