With our SOS goals met and exceeded, field season is finally coming to a close. At the end of August, we traveled to the remote town of McGrath to make our final SOS collections via helicopter. Three days and forty-two collections later, we met our 70-collection quota for the season! Upon returning to Anchorage, the following week was spent digitizing and organizing data, and on Thursday we sent our seed off to the Plant Materials Center in Palmer for cleaning and processing. Since then, we’ve been mounting vouchers more or less constantly.

Floodplains just west of McGrath

Nomex and voucher-material-collecting

The panoramic vista from our collection site at Mystery Mountain

Polygonal tundra!

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Last week, I joined a handful of folks from the BLM Anchorage office, The Kuskokwim Corporation (a Native corporation), and the Army Corps of Engineers on a trip to Red Devil Mine. Red Devil Mine is a retired cinnabar mining facility is currently being rehabilitated by the BLM. Thus far, engineers have rerouted Red Devil Creek so as to minimize contamination from old pilings. My task was to collect seed and to scout for potential next-season SOS collections so that local seed sources will be available when the project reaches the revegetation stage.

Cinnabar! Presumably the namesake of the village, too.

On Thursday, we leave for our final stint with the NRCS Soil/EcoSite Survey crews. This time we’re headed up to the village of Central, which lies about 100mi NE of Fairbanks, and with the Alaskan Autumn already in full swing, it promises to be a chilly stint indeed.

Immersing myself in Alaska’s autumn ochre while backpacking in Kachemak Bay State Park

All in all, it’s been a wonderfully productive field season. I’m sad to see the long days fade, but I’m excited for the season of winter sports and kitschy sweaters to commence!

Until our return from Central,
BB