Hello again,

I am currently working on my 6th month here in Coos Bay, Or and it has been a few since I last posted. Things have been going well here on the coast, still plenty of weeds to inventory. I have found it very interesting to watch each plant as well as all the native plants go through their phenology as the summer season progressed. Now that the fall season has arrived, many of these species are shutting down with the much shorter and overcast days and everything is coming to full circle for the year.

One of the most exciting personal side projects I have out in the field along with my bird, herptile, and mammal lists is finding and sampling all the different berries Oregon has to offer. I believe I have successfully sampled all known edible berries except a few that I am currently waiting on to come into season. Each day out in the coastal mountain range never seems to get old. I enjoy so much getting to work in or near some of our late successional reserves and get to enjoy the look of an old growth (some sights not even logged) mixed coniferous forests. It has been such a great experience here getting to experience an entirely new ecosystem and have learned so much.

Luckily, I get to continue working here through the middle of December and will continue surveying as long as it is possible then switch to do some GIS work on the data collected from this season. I have very much enjoyed this position and look forward to the next 3 months I have left here in Oregon.

Nathan Reese