Monday:  The week began as usual with office work and preparation. We use this day to research the area that we will be going to so that we know the species that have occurred in that area previously. While preparing to go to our field sites we make maps of the area so that we can get to our sites quickly and efficiently.

Tuesday-Wednesday:  We all arrive at the field office earlier than the time we plan on leaving so that we can load up the trucks with all of our equipment and water. Once the trucks are loaded we head out. This Tuesday we headed out to the Pinenuts to do some Fire Monitoring. Each of these sites required a bit of a hike in but provided a wonderful view of the valleys below and the fire scars marking the surrounding hills.

The view from one of our monitoring site.

The view of the burn scars on the hill sides from one of our monitoring site.

Thursday:  Half of us went to the Herbarium to verify vouchers collected for seed collections and from field sites.The other half of us went on a seed collecting adventure. We traveled to a riparian area where we collected four species. It was at this site that I found a beautifully constructed spider web.

A beautifully constructed spider web.