{"id":75928,"date":"2017-06-28T14:14:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T21:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=75928"},"modified":"2017-06-28T14:14:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T21:14:43","slug":"alaska-is-amazing-but-the-mosquitos-are-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=75928","title":{"rendered":"Alaska is AMAZING, but the mosquitos are NOT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my 24 years of living, I have maybe<\/em> encountered 7 mosquitos in California. In the last month, I have probably been fed on, at least 700 times. Currently, I am simultaneously typing with one hand and scratching both feet with the other. My mistake was wearing Chacos on the drive back from Coldfoot with a healthy population of mosquitoes thriving in our car.<\/p>\n

A month has gone by rather quickly. On my bike ride to work, I can see all sorts of wildflowers blooming-taking in the only three months of constant sunshine they will get all year. I, myself, am also trying to take in as much sun possible. I\u2019ve spent a decent amount of time on Chena Hot Spring Road, dogsitting for a family who works in the office. Somehow, I always find myself picking up this kind of gig over the summer (flashback to Susanville). I\u2019m extremely grateful to Chel Ethun, for allowing me to stay in her cozy house with her cozy dogs, Pickles and Anabelle. Side note: Pickles doesn\u2019t actually eat pickles.<\/p>\n

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Pickles waiting for me to feed him in the morning.<\/p><\/div>\n

Since AK is really big, we have a couple of field stations spread out throughout the state. Unlike the BLM office in Susanville, a lot of our sites are 7-12 hours away. So, our options are to camp, or stay at field stations. Most of my work this summer will be out of the Chicken Field Station in the small town of Chicken-it is super NICE! It is fully equipped with beds, wifi, hot water, showers, a full kitchen, a TV\u2026the whole enchilada.<\/p>\n

While I was in Chicken, I helped conduct wildlife and vegetation surveys at a reclaimed mine site. I worked with Casey Burns, the Wildlife Program Lead, and two contractors from the Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), Jeff Mason and Bryan Strong. We also had a UAF student, Renee Nowicki, act as our \u201cresidential entomologist.\u201d We spent the first couple of days delineating four plots and one control, which all varied in reclamation year. The goal was to collect all of our data from small mammal traps, bird counts, line point intercept (LPI), grazing, scat count, pollinator, plot characteristics, and insect surveys. Our insect surveys entailed searching for ants and setting six bumble pots, traditionally called bee bowls, in each plot. For the ant search, I followed Renee around while we flipped rocks and searched for colonies. Then, she used an aspirator to suck them into a container through a tube! I wish I had a video of that! I spent a fair amount of time applying 100% deet all over my body, but somehow, it was not enough. However, I\u2019m pretty sure that by the end of the summer, by body will naturally be producing deet, which will save me a lot of money for next year. On the drive back to Fairbanks, I got to see the Alaska Range for the first time! It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was so unbelievable. But, I didn\u2019t take any pictures. Sorry.<\/p>\n

The following week, I decided to join the crew for another week of surveying. This time, our site was thirty minutes south of Coldfoot, at Jubilee Mine. Unfortunately, on the morning of our second day, we had an eye injury, which required an immediate evacuation, and a stressful drive back on the Dalton. Luckily, I only hit one rough patch, and after six hours, we made it back to the ER in Fairbanks. The patient is doing well, and it was a non-life threatening accident. Enter mom rant HERE. Please be careful using bungee cords in the field. If it doesn\u2019t reach, it\u2019s not worth it. Eye injuries are very serious, so please be safe. End mom rant. I really wish I could have taken pictures of the drive on the way back, but the timing was, obviously, not appropriate. If I get a chance to go back north, I will definitely upload better pics. However, I was able to get a \u201cI crossed the Arctic Circle on the Dalton Highway\u201d tee.<\/p>\n

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Yukon River<\/p><\/div>\n

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I made it to the Arctic Circle!<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, it\u2019s no wonder time goes by quickly. I\u2019ve spent the last 3 weeks moving around from Chel\u2019s house to Chicken to Coldfoot. In the upcoming weeks, I have planned to attend an invasive species training workshop in Fairbanks and a sedge identification workshop in Anchorage. It\u2019ll be my first time in Anchorage, so I am stoked!<\/p>\n

On my personal time, I\u2019ve been volunteering at the herbarium in the Museum of the North at UAF. Hopefully soon I can start volunteering at the entomology lab too! I have also been birding with a group at Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. Later, I have a botany trip planned with the Alaska Native Plant Society (ANPS). AND\u2026I\u2019ll be going to Denali soon! Basically, I\u2019m slowly settling down some roots in Fairbanks, in hopes of staying here longer.<\/p>\n

Here is a list of common plants I\u2019ve seen near Fairbanks, Chicken, and Coldfoot\u2026So won\u2019t the real plant nerds, please stand up, please stand up (Eminem).<\/p>\n

Astragalus alpinus<\/em><\/p>\n

Mertensia paniculata <\/em><\/p>\n

Polemonium acutiflorum<\/em><\/p>\n

Polemonium pulcherrimum<\/em><\/p>\n

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Polemonium pulcherrimum<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Cardamine purpurea<\/em><\/p>\n

Epilobium angustifolium<\/em><\/p>\n

Epilobium latifolium<\/em><\/p>\n

Vaccinium uliginosum<\/em><\/p>\n

Hedysarum alpinum <\/em><\/p>\n

Potentilla norvegica ssp. monspeliensis <\/em><\/p>\n

Cerastium beeringianum<\/em><\/p>\n

Ledum palustre ssp. Groenlandicum<\/em><\/p>\n

Hedysarum mackenzii<\/em><\/p>\n

Oxytropis campestris <\/em><\/p>\n

Potentilla spp. <\/em><\/p>\n

Vaccinium vitis-idaea<\/em><\/p>\n

Spirae beauverdiana<\/em><\/p>\n

Cornus canadensis<\/em><\/p>\n

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Cornus Canadensis<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Eriophorum spp.?<\/em><\/p>\n

Salix alaxensis<\/em><\/p>\n

Salix arbusculoides<\/em><\/p>\n

Salix scouleriana<\/em><\/p>\n

Salix pulcha<\/em><\/p>\n

Gallium boreale<\/em><\/p>\n

Betula neoalaskana<\/em><\/p>\n

I find myself overwhelmed with how much there is to see and I think my writing reflects that. I apologize if I was all over the place, but I have a hard time keeping track of my days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my 24 years of living, I have maybe encountered 7 mosquitos in California. In the last month, I have probably been fed on, at least 700 times. Currently, I am simultaneously typing with one hand and scratching both feet … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7318,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75928"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76220,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75928\/revisions\/76220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}