tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59282809904095696882024-03-13T15:47:28.650-04:00Weed WarriorI've joined a Strike Force to combat invasive exotic plants in the South Cascades. Previously, I was killing weeds in the Florida Keys. This is my story.Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-6994507102160716602021-01-16T01:13:00.004-05:002021-01-17T18:53:43.507-05:00<p>I've learned a lot about human nature in the past 5 years. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol">The attack on our nation on Jan. 6th, 2021</a> is very disturbing, as are the votes of the GOP to erase valid election results based on provably false accusations. So far, the USA looks as if it might stay a republic, at least for a little longer. <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/534449-former-gop-congressman-says-hes-leaving-party-this-has-become-a-cult">GOP rep Edwards summed things up fairly clearly as he quit the party</a>, "It’s gone. I mean there is no Republican Party anymore that has values, principles, morals, anything". To underscore his statement, GOP senator Kinzinger has been called an evil demon and disowned by his family for voting to impeach after it was clear Trump incited rioters and did nothing to stop the violence as it unfolded.</p><p>However, the most disturbing behavior I have personally witnessed are from the GOP voters themselves. The conspiracy mindset and tossing words like "democrat, nazi, christian values" in a ranting manner that show they use those words as weaponized labels stripped of meaning. A close relative referred to democrats as nazis for stealing the presidency, while I'm literally watching a video of a r<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-camp-auschwitz-shirt-photographed-u-s-capitol-riot-arrested-n1254070">ight wing extremist deface the capitol wearing a shirt with Camp Auschwitz</a> on it. I watched a man and his son laugh at a woman who would not enter the grocery store because they were blocking the doorway without covid masks and they got in a truck with a christian symbol and trump sticker. Support for their chosen messiah is fading, yet the unthinking, closed-minded, and cruel attitudes persist with no introspection on what their actions have wrought.</p><p>Scientists and philosophers struggle with why <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/truth-lies-uncertainty/">humans can be blind to reality</a>. Watching my country dabble with demagogues has made me realize how delusional I've been in buying into some of our patriotic narratives of the past that bend truth. I hope we can still learn from our failings, and our recent rabid nationalism serves as a warning to others. <a href="https://www.livescience.com/ghastly-future-global-crises.html">The world has too many real problems</a> to waste precious time and energy on hostile bullshit.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j78wFaSoeM4Eifpbu0gRtrwYZlwOAOngBynmTTcvx0KkAtogu9cYIUrfy8ew0R-cYx0rLt2R2loLG0bXeWow-1CHXZI_trqIHWRFVJUAZ0xBjMetSqU1I7atKYXD0-DAeQk2CBe4TtQ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j78wFaSoeM4Eifpbu0gRtrwYZlwOAOngBynmTTcvx0KkAtogu9cYIUrfy8ew0R-cYx0rLt2R2loLG0bXeWow-1CHXZI_trqIHWRFVJUAZ0xBjMetSqU1I7atKYXD0-DAeQk2CBe4TtQ/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-41002358533678520312020-08-14T11:28:00.000-04:002020-08-14T11:28:01.240-04:00<p> Time to clean house and donate a few books. Here's a few quotes to remember from a few of them:</p><p>"A man is what he thinks about all day. Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. Did we enjoy today?" - Mr. Bean, from notes taped on his locker in SkyLab, <u>Homesteading Space</u>.</p><p><br /></p><p>"Socrates is evidence enough that classical Greece was something less of a utopia. Yet there is an interesting contrast between one lone man sipping poison for ideological reasons and an entire city of millions slowly inhaling a lethal mixture as the price of a lifestyle committed to certain technological and material wants that have become needs. .... How have we arrived at these goals? What price are we willing to pay?" - H. Morowitz, "Prison of Socrates", <u>Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life</u></p><p><u><br /></u></p><p>"Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves." F. Mowat</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-16354413679516363672016-11-12T12:47:00.001-05:002016-11-12T12:51:40.417-05:00Dark Catharsis<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmZq3Au_gv5Ixac99iP4s9baOQ-eG1pUMj5v8b9D2zl9rJp-H5" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmZq3Au_gv5Ixac99iP4s9baOQ-eG1pUMj5v8b9D2zl9rJp-H5" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a>I should be busy with my research right now, but I have not
been able to concentrate. As you might
guess, I cannot reconcile why my country has chosen such a symbol of intolerance
and greed to be president. </div>
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For perspective, if I overheard a punk talking, even in a
locker-room, about my niece using these words, “I moved on her like a bitch… when
you’re a star you can do anything, whatever you want, grab em by the pussy”, I
would warn them never to come near any of my family. I’m a poor judge of character, so maybe if he
was a smooth talker, he might convince me he was just joking. Yet if I already knew he <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/27/politics/donald-trump-insults-groups-list/" target="_blank">bullied kids at school, called girls that fought off his advance fat and ugly</a>,
paid<a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2016/09/10/trump-calls-art-deal-ghostwriter-dope-basket-case-loses-huge.html" target="_blank"> kids to do his homework</a>,
and <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/10/75-lawsuits-against-president-elect-trump.html" target="_blank">an exhaustive record of cheating others</a>, the greasy sales pitch would only solidify my judgement. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAW9OhygMd0RO-Bxg43LWx0rFTvKBu1SQVILPMwnMckymsinU0kBeYFCr7mnF2ldydKUr_4dAJi3EnQ8fTiDZTP0rKFufSi8aepVMm3apED6cB7sHTPtfZGwGbQE0nLAXSkd2A93I0l8/s1600/bitch.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAW9OhygMd0RO-Bxg43LWx0rFTvKBu1SQVILPMwnMckymsinU0kBeYFCr7mnF2ldydKUr_4dAJi3EnQ8fTiDZTP0rKFufSi8aepVMm3apED6cB7sHTPtfZGwGbQE0nLAXSkd2A93I0l8/s200/bitch.png" width="145" /></a><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Instead 49.9% of voters
want the same creep I wouldn’t let near my niece to be the most powerful </span></div>
person
on the planet. The most cited reason for
his support is the need to “shake things up”, and that this whiny playboy’s <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-texas-vote-fraud-230384" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">bullying tactics</a><span style="text-align: center;"> are just “clearing the air”. The idea that a game show host style
brashness and a savvy for luxury real-estate qualifies as leadership, while
ignoring </span><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/02/hugh-hefners-son-trump-is-a-hypocrite-who-was-on-the-cover-of-playboy/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">fundamental character flaws</a><span style="text-align: center;"> is why the only newspaper in the country
to endorse him goes by the moniker “Sin City”.
It is difficult to believe that even deeply conservative newspapers have
such a bias that they cannot see the virtue in such a shallow character. </span><br />
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I do not understand the willingness to disregard those
warnings and the moral ambiguity to dismiss the hateful rhetoric as “locker-talk”
or “keeping it real”. I can only
question the lapse of judgement that brought us to this moment, and it leaves
me with a sense lasting distrust. Of all
the campaigns I’ve experienced, this one reached new lows in the treatment and
respect we have for each other. The
wound is raw and I fear it’s infected. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqS1Tp076e8N4caI7T5JH4w3Z4CPSEJvQaa3wo3KcED-tx9DeRoh5FyN65BrOHVHCtnLr8JwO4nhKyKJe6rQdD3hSJ1BPbVLV0LTi3yQwMQI68ITJJPfpSvdYDyd76yDIheY8PQ8knVgU/s1600/yourfired.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqS1Tp076e8N4caI7T5JH4w3Z4CPSEJvQaa3wo3KcED-tx9DeRoh5FyN65BrOHVHCtnLr8JwO4nhKyKJe6rQdD3hSJ1BPbVLV0LTi3yQwMQI68ITJJPfpSvdYDyd76yDIheY8PQ8knVgU/s320/yourfired.png" width="233" /></a>Aside from the obvious and well-founded concerns most people
around the world have about the character of our playboy president-elect, the
personal pain for me goes beyond this.
The 100 day fast-track plan has many items that are deeply concerning to
me, but #2 on the list affects my own dreams directly - to work for the
National Park Service. The only new
federal jobs over the next 4 years will be for the military and attrition will
shrink all other departments. </div>
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At my house, I leave the chimney uncapped. This allows the migrating <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chimney_Swift/lifehistory" target="_blank">chimney swifts</a> to
raise their family there each spring.
They circle our house each morning and evening and their bright calls
can drown out the din of the city. That
such a tiny bird can migrate each year to Argentina and somehow know how to
navigate across the ever-increasing sprawl of urban and agriculture is amazing
to me. Unfortunately, they do not earn
income or pay taxes, therefore they have no perceived value in Trump’s plan
(despite the fact he also does not pay taxes).
Maybe one of the fledglings this
year ate a mosquito that could’ve trigged a Zika outbreak near my home and saved
many lives. Maybe it didn’t. It does not matter to men who value
gold-plated toilets in luxury hotels. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our wildlife refuges, forests, parks and other natural areas
are already being attacked, exploited, and sold. Agencies needed to protect both our health
and the economy will shrink drastically, and science needed to monitor them
will be cancelled. Our own health and
security is at risk, as agencies such as the EPA that track lead and mercury in
our water supplies will be abolished, and other agencies that interfere with
profits, such as the SEC, will be sharply curtailed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are many more grave concerns in just the first 100 day
plan, so I will spend the next few months writing about some of them with a constructive perspective. Yet I feel so sad that nearly half of my
country is only concerned about short term gains regardless of long term
consequences to our economy, health, and God’s creation that we selfishly
exploit. </div>
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If my soul had a vagina, I feel
like it was just grabbed it with cold, greasy fingers and half of my country
cheered as the light in me faded.<o:p></o:p></div>
Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-44095445621878935352015-07-08T16:02:00.002-04:002015-07-08T16:02:43.866-04:00Bottom of the 9th<a href="https://newsela-test-files-f331e.s3.amazonaws.com/article_media/2015/04/jupiter-earth-df09cea5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://newsela-test-files-f331e.s3.amazonaws.com/article_media/2015/04/jupiter-earth-df09cea5.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
I recall as a kid in elementary school a special presentation in the cafeteria during lunch. Someone from the Johnson Space Center gave a talk about Voyager passing by Jupiter. The slide that showed the relative size of earth next to the image from Jupiter was stunning. The volcanoes on Io were also amazing. It was huge. <br />
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Then Voyager 2 went on to complete the <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?id=10742" target="_blank">Grand Tour</a>, a voyage of discovery likely never to be repeated in our solar system. Voyager 2 zoomed past Saturn the following year in 1980. I was in high school by the time Voyager 2 flew past <a href="http://nineplanets.org/uranus.html" target="_blank">Uranus</a>. I was in college when she sailed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune" target="_blank">Neptune</a>. That was a quarter century ago and those brief encounters are still all we have of 2 of our largest planets. At that time, the internet as we know it did not yet exist, so it was often months before a decent image could be seen in a magazine and over a year before interesting discoveries discussed. <br />
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What was missing in the Grand Tour was a visit to the 9th planet: Pluto. This is because Pluto has a strange orbit and it was too difficult to change Voyager 2's trajectory to reach it. Pluto orbits so far away from the sun it takes 248 years to complete 1 orbit. It was discovered during late spring-time 85 years ago, and now Pluto is just entering fall!<br />
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Pluto is known to have an atmosphere, and calculations made it seem possible that during winter the planet would get so far from the sun that the entire atmosphere would freeze onto the surface. That was one reason why there was a rush to send a spaceship out to photograph the planet while the atmosphere, surface, and amount of sunlight were all optimal. Missing this window would mean waiting 180 years to try again! Fortunately, NASA was up to the now-or-practically-never challenge. The Pluto Fast Flyby was proposed in 1992, but it was 10 years later when a mission was proposed that had the right amount of science for the right cost. New Horizons was launched in 2006. Even as the fastest spacecraft ever launched, it still takes a Jupiter assist and 9 years of waiting.,,,<br />
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But here we are! The doorstep of Pluto is already beginning to reveal its secrets and the flyby next week will finally finish what we started. Pluto may have changed its status from Planet to Dwarf, but in many ways Pluto is in a class of its own. It is sometimes called King of the Trans-Neptunian Objects, although Eris is larger. However, Pluto is unique in that it is our only known double-planet system; Charon is so large and close to Pluto, that the two orbit around a barycenter that is outside the radius of Pluto... they orbit empty space. Even more cool, Charon and Pluto may share an atmosphere, at least part of the time.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/EightTNOs.png/800px-EightTNOs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/EightTNOs.png/800px-EightTNOs.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are sure to be many more exciting space missions, some that have the potential to really shake things up (lets get to Europa already!!). But finally getting to see a map of Pluto is for me the finale of the original foray into our backyard.<br />
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Try downloading <a href="http://eyes.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">Eyes on the Solar System</a> and virtually fly along with New Horizons as she speeds past Pluto and beyond. The preview mode is pretty cool, and its the next best thing to waiting 5 hours for the radio signal to reach home.<br />
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<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/7-8-15_pluto_color_new_nasa-jhuapl-swri.jpg?itok=XMkK-PPr" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/7-8-15_pluto_color_new_nasa-jhuapl-swri.jpg?itok=XMkK-PPr" height="182" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-6865496570530633632015-05-21T23:08:00.001-04:002015-05-21T23:14:34.410-04:00Endangered Species Day<br />
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Wow - another year has passed! <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="David Starovoytov, 6th, Margaryta Chaplinska Art Studio, CA" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8827/17032033116_469632465b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Kentucky arrow darter</span></b><span style="font-size: 14px;">: </span><span style="font-size: small;">credit </span></span><span style="background-color: #f3f5f6; font-family: 'Proxima Nova', 'helvetica neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">David Starovoytov</span></span></span></i></td></tr>
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I hope everyone celebrated Endangered Species Day by learning and helping the rare living things in our world.<br />
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Many species are endangered by one huge problem: habitat loss. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/opinion/our-land-up-for-grabs.html" target="_blank">A really unwise and shortsighted resolution passed by the Legislature this spring</a> threatens to sell nearly all our public lands. There are economic, environmental, ecological, philosophical, and ethical reasons why this is a really bad idea and the article sums the problem up nicely. Our public lands are already economically important, and even our <a href="http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Hagerman/resource_mgmt/oil_gas.html" target="_blank">wildlife refuges do not restrict oil production</a> or other resources extraction. It's very important to remember that most resource extraction is very short term economic impacts. Often, there are costs that industry does not portray, such as acid-mine drainage, soil erosion and land slides, water pollution, and many many other problems that are damages that short sighted profiteering does not consider.<br />
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These lands are our natural and historical heritage, and any politician that thinks selling them off to the highest bidder is in the best interest of the nation should reconsider their position carefully. Please consider voicing your opinion to your politician and let them know you consider our battlegrounds, historical trails, forests, rivers, grasslands, oceans, caves and other resources too important to sell off to a foreign company to strip mine or log. <a href="https://secure.wilderness.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2807" target="_blank">Sign a petition and get involved</a> before this ill conceived idea goes one step further.<br />
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The good news is that my thesis research is forging ahead. I want to understand how "modern" plant communities have changed over time, particularly in response to drought and/or temperature. This is best accomplished via palynology: the study of microscopic planty things. Pollen is very tough stuff and fossilizes well, so it is often the best choice for reconstructing what an ancient ecosystem looked like. The problems with pollen is it doesn't tolerate drying out and its only produced when plants flower. Some plants reproduce vegetatively and may not produce pollen. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/wma/images/gus_engeling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gus Engeling WMA" border="0" src="https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/wma/images/gus_engeling.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area</span></i></td></tr>
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I am conducting my research in North Central Texas. Texas is a big state, but it has no natural lakes. There are a few bogs and ephemeral ponds, but these are rare near SMU in Dallas. The closest bogs to Dallas are at <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2007-06-15/492043/" target="_blank">Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area</a>, and I am coring the pitcher plant bog there to look for pollen. But when pollen can't be found, there is another trace plants leave behind... phytoliths!<br />
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Pytholiths are a bit of a mystery why plants produce them, but there are tiny crystals of opal-silica<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT5qTfcnlUnrcxlYb8mXkWGVjmlkirS0Pvz4SF4fmtBYUJtvUA2" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Image result for phytolith pictures" border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT5qTfcnlUnrcxlYb8mXkWGVjmlkirS0Pvz4SF4fmtBYUJtvUA2" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: small;">Sorghum phytolith </span></i></td></tr>
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that form in all parts of the plants. Exactly what plants use them for is still being debated.<br />
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By a stroke of luck, Dr. Reid Ferring serendipitously discovered one of the oldest archaeological sites in North America during the construction work of a<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.centerfirstamericans.com%2Fgallery%2Fgallery-clovis.php&ei=oZteVdzpHYGWsAXs14GIAQ&bvm=bv.93990622,d.b2w&psig=AFQjCNGEULc4sDhNbZNDYV34zGja-O2VsA&ust=1432349984947417" target="_blank"> reservoir spillway along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River</a>. He discovered many Clovis era artifacts, fossil animals from the pleistocene, and in thin layered sediments from a small pond, pollen. As the last ice age faded 13,000 years ago, the spring feeding the pond dried up. Therefore, the pollen record does not continue forward into the Holocene. He has generously offered his research samples from 25 years ago for me to prospect for phytoliths! I'll write more about Dr. Ferring's research in my next blog.<br />
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Stay tuned as I spend the summer testing different places and layers of time for what plants grew when (and why it's important).<br />
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-66829605542962924102014-04-22T15:32:00.003-04:002014-04-22T15:32:44.388-04:00Happy Earth Day!<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm excited to announce I've been admitted to the <a href="http://www.smu.edu/dedman/academics/departments/earthsciences" target="_blank">Masters of Geology program at Southern Methodist University</a>! I plan to research<span style="line-height: 115%;"> the resiliency of ecosystems and
how past disturbances impact biodiversity, and hope to focus on events from the past ten thousand years. I'm mulling over ideas for a thesis project, so any suggestions are welcome. I'll be learning a lot about Earth over the next two years!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Smilodon_Skeleton.jpg/600px-Smilodon_Skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Smilodon_Skeleton.jpg/600px-Smilodon_Skeleton.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Kitty cat from the good ol' days</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A really fun exploration event has live camera coverage from the ROV aboard the </span><a href="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/welcome.html" target="_blank">Okeanos Explorer</a>. A few days ago, they were exploring shipwrecks 4,000 feet deep. So deep, they haven't seen light in 200 years, so it was a thrill seeing the live feed from the ROV's camera. They discovered the ship's sextant and a clock frozen in time, and an <a href="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/apr19/apr19.html" target="_blank">engineer for the ROV speculated on the implications</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/apr18_b/media/crab-gulf-home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/apr18_b/media/crab-gulf-home.jpg" height="160" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Life on an eternally dark shipwreck</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also to celebrate Earth Day, <a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=330" target="_blank">Kepler has found a cousin for earth</a>, now called Kepler-186f. The planet is about the same size as Earth, but the star is smaller and dimmer.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov/images/mws/Kepler186f_ArtistConcept-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://kepler.nasa.gov/images/mws/Kepler186f_ArtistConcept-sm.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Exciting real-estate opportunities abound!</span></td></tr>
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-76122656229814704142014-03-04T17:29:00.001-05:002014-03-04T17:29:13.905-05:00On Seeing MoreA few days ago, the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html" target="_blank">Kepler team</a> announced the confirmation of 715 new planets from other solar systems, which is the largest number of planet discoveries ever announced and almost doubled the total in the Exosolar Planetary Catalogue. This refinement served greatly to understand some census statistics for stars; how common are planets, are they usually in a group, and how massive are they. <br />
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<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/946xvariable_height/public/k2_explained_25nov_story.jpg?itok=AwBp7N8O" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/946xvariable_height/public/k2_explained_25nov_story.jpg?itok=AwBp7N8O" height="360" width="400" /></a></div>
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The telescope lost its ability to continue its original survey last year, so these planets were "discovered" by munching the existing data set. However, Kepler will be given a new mission design called K2 since it can still find planets.<br />
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However, my title of my blog isn't about Kepler hopefully getting a second life to see more. Instead, it is one of the more poignant quotes from a wonderful book I just read, <a href="http://www.onearth.org/articles/2013/10/telling-our-way-to-the-sea-review" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Telling Our Way to the Sea.</a> The book is written like field journal entries from an educational trip to the Sea of Cortez, and transitions between story telling and lecturing with such poetic ease that it is very enjoyable and thought provoking to read.<br />
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The title I use is from the last sentence of the chapter "<i>Mobula lucasana</i> / The End of Nature", as he reflects upon an amazing underwater encounter with devil rays: <span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We go in search of wilderness, and so it is wilderness we find. We tell the story of our rediscovery of nature. We compose suitable lyrical prose. We send back photos... ...These are our dispatches from the wilderness. But when these photos are held up against images of the past, something is a bit off: Our fish is rather smaller, or... rather an enormous squid. That beach is hardly pristine. In fact, before the oysters were removed, it was not a beach at all. And that ray, it was 2.5 feet across, not 25. I too am awestruck by the monstrous squid, lured by the beach, thrilled by the leaping ray. But how can we reconcile our sincere wonderment with the recognition that what we are seeing is miserably dilapidated? ... What we must do, perhaps, is cultivate our craft of seeing more than one thing at a time.</span><br />
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His first chapter is about Learning to See, and he has a great quote from Thoreau,<br />
"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><i>I take infinite pains to know all the phenomena of the spring, for instance, thinking that I have here the entire poem, and then, to my chagrin, I hear that it is but an imperfect copy that I possess and have read, that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages, and mutilated it in many places... I wish to know an entire heaven and an entire earth</i><span style="font-size: 14px;">.</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10264.Henry_David_Thoreau" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Henry David Thoreau</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/6157981" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">The Journal, 1837-1861</a></i><div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Part of what I hope to learn at school this year is to join Thoreau and Hirsch and many others in this quest to gather up these "ragged bits and scraps" that remain and try to glean what pages are lost from this epic, and hopefully paste some of it back together. </span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We live amid the wreckage, yet we hardly notice that something has changed</span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, he has set a litmus for me... for all of us. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Turtle-Pursuit-Earths-Dinosaur/dp/0805083189" target="_blank">Sea turtles</a> have been around for over 100,000,000 years and counting. The species are incredibly robust and global in distribution, and have survived many major extinction events. Humans have pushed all species to the brink. If we cannot save the sea turtles from extinction, it is an indicator that there really is not much we can save.</span> "<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it is a stupefying but not unrealistic possibility that an entire bough of the tree of life -- on that diverges deep in the tree of life... may reach no higher than the next few decades.</span>"<br /><br />
I like the passage where he explains that when you flush a toilet in Denver, you are stressing the few remaining totoaba fishes left in the Sea of Cortez. Yes, you're right in wondering how in the heck Denver's toilets impact flow on the other side of the continental divide. That is just a tiny glimpse at our mighty reach and the cascade of impacts we have. Any know where I can get a bumper sticker that reads "Integrate information on a vast geographic and historical scale; act as an extensive collective to formulate and apply policies on a scale commensurate with the problem."?<br />
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There book is full of many deep philosophical and ethical considerations to go along with the story telling. But one last quote I wish to hold on to: "<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were the eyes of a wild animal, wreathed though he was in our creeping domestication. And now I do take him to be a sign... ...He is another reminder that... ... we are already out there in profound and unavoidable form; and that despite all that, there is something there that is other, something that is not our own reflection.</span>"<br />
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If I can hold on to that image, maybe I can finally read a book that's been on my shelf for many, many years... The End of Nature.<br />
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-45034575984955502972014-02-18T16:46:00.002-05:002014-02-18T16:46:55.352-05:00Free Dinosaur CourseSome of the technicians that lead the volunteer preparations of <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/collin/Prehistoric-sea-serpent-discovered-in-Garland-almost-ready-for-museum-display-173944771.html" target="_blank">Mosie the Mosasaur</a> informed me about a FREE online, self-paced course from the University of Alberta that is an introduction to dinosaur paleobiology. The course is titled <a href="https://class.coursera.org/dino101-002" target="_blank">Dino 101 (https://class.coursera.org/dino101-002)</a>, and has a deadline of completion in mid April. Now I need to add Dinosaur Provincial Park to my world travelling bucket-list. <br />
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Canada also made the news with another site already on my bucket-list, a new awesome <a href="http://www.livescience.com/43270-new-burgess-shale-fossils-canada.html" target="_blank">quarry location for the Burgess Shale</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Chasmosaurus_bellis_RTM_01.jpg/594px-Chasmosaurus_bellis_RTM_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Chasmosaurus_bellis_RTM_01.jpg/594px-Chasmosaurus_bellis_RTM_01.jpg" height="400" width="396" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Ceratopsian dinosaur Chasmosaurus bellis</span></td></tr>
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In other news, I just submitted our <a href="http://gbbc.birdcount.org/" target="_blank">Great Backyard Bird Counts</a>. This year we recorded 17 species in our little backyard of suburban DFW. The most exciting was watching 120 Cedar Waxwings descend upon our neighbor's red oaks. It's fun to watch the submissions keep coming in real-time.<br />
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Next on my to do list is to start recording observations to http://www.inaturalist.org/<br />
That's another fun place to look at observations... like someone just posted river otter tracks near Bastrop, TX. Very exciting!<br />
<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-55931415002513604782014-01-31T15:08:00.000-05:002014-01-31T15:15:30.300-05:00The Haunted End to the Ice Age<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXxSW-DDzs4O83KGGhie1T20X_ySgXb4TVqDc90A5UPq2cVFxE0NWKzyljcwaECDu0XXiBH4wVxsWaY6qk2wUNQb1PdZOUvWIDelpiGMcEmopkTLVvkJPDfUClxonJHxNRZs-VNz6K38/s1600/IMG_6664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXxSW-DDzs4O83KGGhie1T20X_ySgXb4TVqDc90A5UPq2cVFxE0NWKzyljcwaECDu0XXiBH4wVxsWaY6qk2wUNQb1PdZOUvWIDelpiGMcEmopkTLVvkJPDfUClxonJHxNRZs-VNz6K38/s1600/IMG_6664.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Snowstorm approaches Sunshine Mountain</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did you know that we live in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age" target="_blank">Ice Ages</a>? No, I'm not talking about the snowmageddon commute from this winter's <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/01/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/" target="_blank">polar vortex</a>. Technically, I mean we live within an interglacial period, some ten thousand years after the last big Ice Sheets melted away. Don't worry though, despite the lower 48 having a cool winter, it's still warm on a global scale. In fact, it is likely due to the <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/01/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/" target="_blank">warming arctic that our winters will have harsher cold fronts</a>. Most models predict our carbon dioxide and methane contributions have us on course to assuredly end the cycle, with our climate resembling the balmy Eocene by the end of the century. This means we are witnessing the official end of the last Great Ice Age.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this winter is a fitting time to read up on times gone by. I'm halfway through The Ghosts of </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Antilocapra_americana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Antilocapra_americana.jpg" height="167" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evolution, and it's a fun look at why certain plants and animals do things that don't make sense. My favorite example so far has been my beloved </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronghorn" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Pronghorn Antelopes</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Pronghorns are, by far, the fastest land animal in the Americas and it's easy to wonder why they think they are being chased. Deer and elk certainly don't bother, so what is haunting our antelopes? The answer is they once were chased by a beast that could match their speed, the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheetah" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">American Cheetah</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, which was about the size of a Puma but with the speed of our surviving African Cheetah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another example most of us in the Eastern half of USA are familiar with, <i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Maclura pomifera </i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg/800px-Osage_orange_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg/800px-Osage_orange_1.jpg" height="143" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; font-size: medium; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Maclura pomifera</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">(aka </i>the Osage Orange, Hedge Apple, Horse Apple, Bodarc, etc...). It makes large, softballsized fruits that plop around but rarely eaten by animals other than gnawed on by a rodent. During the ice age, the tree was growing from sea to shining sea. However, once the last <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomphothere" target="_blank">Gomphotheres</a> were driven into extinction, the tree couldn't disperse its seed and has been fading away ever since, aided into oblivion by humans who used their wood to fashion the same bows to perform the coup de grace of the incredible, Serengeti-like wildlife North America once had. The trees still faithfully make their fruit, but their dance partner is a ghost only they can know. Scientifically, these haunted antelopes and trees are referred to as <a href="http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/68743105773/mango-seed-evolutionary-anachronism" target="_blank">evolutionary anachronisms</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130610022061/dinosaurs/images/thumb/e/e5/Stegotetrabelodon.jpg/640px-Stegotetrabelodon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130610022061/dinosaurs/images/thumb/e/e5/Stegotetrabelodon.jpg/640px-Stegotetrabelodon.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Stegotetrabelodon</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I feel the lonely, cold wind blow standing beneath a haunted Hedge Apple tree, I strain to listen to the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49831.The_Call_of_Distant_Mammoths" target="_blank">Call of Distant Mammoths</a>. I wonder what my walk in the woods would be like if peeking at me over the tree would be a gigantic <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=megatherium&sa=X&espv=210&es_sm=122&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDgxUHyyNGU26Blz_uCUvpTFpz8hqjGhdXcEZ-uWteSWZJpZAEFxuUxcfFI8Whn6tvkGtamKXBwJP3PExW7PnHiTUb7_nmfd02-XGssDsAW2KNMFcAAAA&tbm=isch&imgil=E0iSEjHUMSiApM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcTvD4wgYRmrA1d2Si-Bzd-eEX4ZJ1uazOPTu_Oclp7eJAfWSG4LKA%253B400%253B315%253BL89eVC24oJX9tM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.abc.net.au%25252Fbeasts%25252Fevidence%25252Fprog5%25252Fpage4.htm&source=iu&usg=__-R6BAdEkCa9iHgpenh-Hd_Zf_cQ%3D&ei=rf_rUpurCuWwygGCmoDABg&ved=0CKgBEP4dMAw&biw=1639&bih=913#facrc=_&imgdii=E0iSEjHUMSiApM%3A%3Bzw4VGyGoUxWpqM%3BE0iSEjHUMSiApM%3A&imgrc=E0iSEjHUMSiApM%253A%3BL89eVC24oJX9tM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.abc.net.au%252Fbeasts%252Fevidence%252Fprog5%252Fimages%252Fevi_megatherium_large.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.abc.net.au%252Fbeasts%252Fevidence%252Fprog5%252Fpage4.htm%3B400%3B315" target="_blank">Megatherium</a> munching on the fruits. (I also wonder if I'll go to graduate school and study this lost Serengeti, and end up wearing hipster glasses like the narrator of the following video.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a great PBS video to sum up the book in a nutshell (get it, nutshell?):</span><br />
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-38143433961465126152013-12-31T14:44:00.000-05:002013-12-31T14:44:40.209-05:00For auld lang syneFast away this old year passes, and as it comes to a close, the last of "The Old Guard" died. Margi was our last cat from the 20th century, and we had her euthanized yesterday morning since her kidneys had failed and she was starting to have serious trouble moving and eating. She had a good life as cats go, and lived to the grand ol age of 21. She did complain a lot about moving, but always claimed the bed wherever we went. She now joins the rest of the gang of cats she shared most of her life with: Sunshine, Muffin, George, and Pumpkin.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-wl5HvHAj6NadJBRVEbDzs6dfo2xwPnCTWoOMe713KJWG31sF3G2eDotB9Oe26iUvgNgl9mxfUwpOxcf6yHmq10aaNOS8Uc5Fihq-sXgNZCLjDimWRVVoMwedwbkkjI4hzkYzHZQGtK8/s1600/IMG_0066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-wl5HvHAj6NadJBRVEbDzs6dfo2xwPnCTWoOMe713KJWG31sF3G2eDotB9Oe26iUvgNgl9mxfUwpOxcf6yHmq10aaNOS8Uc5Fihq-sXgNZCLjDimWRVVoMwedwbkkjI4hzkYzHZQGtK8/s400/IMG_0066.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Good bye, Margi.<br />
<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-83302012925903860222013-11-07T18:25:00.000-05:002013-11-08T11:51:08.805-05:00Urge For Going<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvF3TMu3yI-tVsWd0hJ1NTu1k3RyZBzCbXBF5s5b-5CXteW58qSCGeojSV2Tbbn0re0j4LGOmOb6vWHVkK4_9qmORx0Bgglz-OnN-xkwJ_L1sTOc-4lAGSvmcoNP6d3gYEvqmvq6VnqY/s1600/DSCF2687.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvF3TMu3yI-tVsWd0hJ1NTu1k3RyZBzCbXBF5s5b-5CXteW58qSCGeojSV2Tbbn0re0j4LGOmOb6vWHVkK4_9qmORx0Bgglz-OnN-xkwJ_L1sTOc-4lAGSvmcoNP6d3gYEvqmvq6VnqY/s400/DSCF2687.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i style="background-color: white;">See the geese in chevron flight flapping and racing on before the snow<br style="border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />They've got the urge for going, they've got the wings to go</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i style="background-color: white;">They get the urge for going<br style="border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />When the meadow grass is turning brown<br style="border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i style="background-color: white;">I'll ply the fire with kindling and pull the blankets to my chin<br style="border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And I'll lock the vagrant winter out and bolt my wandering in</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><i style="background-color: white;">-- J. Mitchell</i></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Pipe Shrine Spiral</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It's amazing to realize another year at the Four Corners has passed. It was a strange ending to the season; I only felt half present on the hectic last day of work. I looked for the ravens that had greeted me many years ago, but they were elsewhere. So at the end of the day, I went to the south wall of <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/historyculture/mt_far_view_sites.htm" target="_blank">Pipe Shrine House</a> to see the stone spiral, and then hurried on to watch a cold sunset over <a href="http://4cornershikers.blogspot.com/2010/09/point-lookout-trail.html" target="_blank">Point Lookout</a>.</span></div>
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We had a short break before moving, so I took the chance to return to Silver Mountain. The last of the aspen leaves were falling, and the overgrown path to the old mine near tree line fit my mood. From there, it was a steep hike up to the ridge where the frosted summit waited. Strange to think I will likely never stand on this mountain again.</div>
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We took our last weekend to do the Great Circle drive around the mountains. Scotch Creek, where we began our season, was again covered with a dusting of snow and ice forming along the rocks in the stream. Since the trails were going to be muddy at altitude, we instead went to a <a href="http://dennisweaverpark.com/" target="_blank">small park south of Ridgway</a> along the shores of the Uncompahgre, where a magnificent eagle statue was frozen in mid flight. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Silver Mountain</span></td></tr>
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We then spent a nice anniversary evening at a bed and breakfast in Ouray called the Secret Garden. The room was so comfortable, we slept in late and missed our morning hike. We stopped at Jackson Lake to dig snow out of the grill at the picnic area and roast some hot dogs, as a meek attempt to appease my need for a campout on our last weekend. At least the ravens in the cold mountains took notice of our activity!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Scotch Creek and the Coming Winter</span></td></tr>
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Then it was packing up the house and driving to visit family in Conifer. <a href="http://community.geosociety.org/2013AnnualMeeting/MediaCenter/NewsBlogs" target="_blank">The 125th anniversary of the Geological Society of America</a> was being held in downtown Denver, so I had to peek in for a few days to attend talks on paleoecology, evolution, meteorology, planetary geology, and dirt. I learned of species that have come and gone, climates that have come and gone, and even National Monuments that have come and gone (have you ever heard of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Cycad_National_Monument" target="_blank">Fossil Cycad National Monument</a>)?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">GSA 125th Meeting</span></td></tr>
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Again, before I was ready, it was time to hit the road one last time for the final journey back to Texas... where Jury Duty, Dentists, and broken appliances await my return.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Good night, Sleeping Ute.</span></td></tr>
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-17524263213455477852013-10-07T18:51:00.000-04:002013-10-07T20:46:52.378-04:00United We Stand?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Have you ever wondered what it's like to work hard on a job where you're
consistently asked to take on more responsibility and accomplish the same amount
of work with less resources, only to be told you're "non-essential"
and your career and all that it depends on is placed in limbo? In case you haven't, I've included a graphic
photo to show what it does to morale and productivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Non-essential government worker receives furlough notice</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Last Tuesday, I listened to the sound of trees dying as printers across the
country delivered approximately 1.6 million pages of furlough notices to
800,000 "non-essentials" and begun the cycle of wasting time, money,
and resources; both public and private.
As I drove through the entrance of Mesa Verde National Park, watching our
Law Enforcement rangers turn back confused campers, I began thinking about the
campground, restaurants, lodge, museum stores and the private workers who are
now jobless with all the food lost as waste.
It occurred to me that this scene was playing out across the entire
country; experiments ruined, research and work left unfinished as their season ends, projects delayed
or canceled, grants frozen, contracts lost... Perhaps the best example I know
of and care about is <a href="http://notice.usa.gov/" target="_blank">MAVEN</a>, the latest spacecraft ready for launch to visit
Mars. If it misses the launch window
this November, the cost of delaying it for 2 years for the next possible window
would cost $50-$100 million. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">All this waste is in the name of politics; essentially shredding
mounds of cash for no results. Now
threats of a default loom, sure to spark instant inflation and likely the next
recession, causing a much larger budget hole than anything being debated...
wait, debate sounds like too rational of a process... anything being rabidly
thrashed around in the dysfunctional pit of politicians known as Congress. <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/does-tea-party-want-shutdown-100027944.html" target="_blank">An article by MarketWatch sums up my opinion perfectly</a>.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Seventh Falls, Silver Creek</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN"></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN">Despite this stink of politics tarnishing the season, I have attempted to
use the time given to enjoy a few more</span> unexplored corners of the area. A bushwhack up a mossy mountain creek
rewarded me with 7 waterfalls, some with snow and ice from last week's
weather. My goal was Silver Mountain,
but too much time wandering the creek and the sun setting early, I decided to
turn back rather than get caught in the dark.</div>
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<span lang="EN">The aspens seem to be having a dull show this
year at high altitude, but the oaks and willows of the canyons look stunning. A few juvenile hummingbirds are still around,
but soon they will be gone, and so shall we.
Two more weeks and we drive off to Denver to spend a week there, and
then back to Dallas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih5rP8nKHgdmncVsQdI96D2tYGKZmLyvb8Ff0T9frTSGwki9yipKk8xAEeKh5h8cXRmXk-rGUXsR-ZNrgRlMXaiRXDnpRvOqJ_YakBz1HbdELqzmvwz60grPHaMXLCBxE-kpvSw1UrLSg/s1600/IMG_7685.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih5rP8nKHgdmncVsQdI96D2tYGKZmLyvb8Ff0T9frTSGwki9yipKk8xAEeKh5h8cXRmXk-rGUXsR-ZNrgRlMXaiRXDnpRvOqJ_YakBz1HbdELqzmvwz60grPHaMXLCBxE-kpvSw1UrLSg/s400/IMG_7685.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Bear Creek Canyon</span></td></tr>
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The garden is done for the year, so the last of the meager harvest is just a few peppers, tiny tomatoes, and 2 small pumpkins. Tonight, I hope to catch a few more bright fireballs of the Draconid meteor shower in the crystal clear night skies we've had the past few days.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyvipMTFbHutCoD4C77XK3LceibQeLURokcE3-KUViM1ph6n56H3JoR6k022IrDnUmGTsGHHhAxWPKMVjBwda8jUb0TJ81HH2p0vfarI1IvtlTo3KlklIXrLm1uqN89-fVptRIF9xSgI/s1600/IMG_7748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyvipMTFbHutCoD4C77XK3LceibQeLURokcE3-KUViM1ph6n56H3JoR6k022IrDnUmGTsGHHhAxWPKMVjBwda8jUb0TJ81HH2p0vfarI1IvtlTo3KlklIXrLm1uqN89-fVptRIF9xSgI/s320/IMG_7748.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Last of the Summer's Harvest</span></td></tr>
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-63495074226418273392013-09-09T20:48:00.004-04:002013-09-09T20:48:40.123-04:00Coyote Camping FTW<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm9stbeP10TPR1z-NGpXnR_QGM6sG6YBuNgiaBN49l79a9PUy5D6aW33q6_4rZY3heM1uF84h6cME9-9i10VOwyvS4ASeZg7j1_QphaVWpyLVCf1HvCU3nLdAGRwnwru7YQ75vDOiKmlw/s1600/DSCF2631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm9stbeP10TPR1z-NGpXnR_QGM6sG6YBuNgiaBN49l79a9PUy5D6aW33q6_4rZY3heM1uF84h6cME9-9i10VOwyvS4ASeZg7j1_QphaVWpyLVCf1HvCU3nLdAGRwnwru7YQ75vDOiKmlw/s320/DSCF2631.JPG" width="240" /></a>So there I was... following game trails on a hot, august afternoon, trying to find my way across Wildhorse Mesa on tribal land to reach a wildfire. <br />
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I was part of a type-2 crew that was organized to fight a few wildfires that cropped up in the Four Corners area. Most of the full-time wildland firefighters in the area were deployed to big blazes burning in Oregon, Idaho, and California. Our crew of 9 only had 2 full time wildfires, 3 members of the Mesa Verde natural resources department, 1 archaeologist, and 3 auxiliary members of the <a href="http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/RegionalOffices/Southwest/WeAre/UteMountainUte/index.htm" target="_blank">Ute Mountain Ute</a> fire department. Each of us carried a full line-pack with over a gallon of water, and I swapped with another guy carrying a shovel with 3.5 gallons of water on the end and a chainsaw.<br />
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We bushwhacked up a canyon and passed the empty windows of several cliff dwellings. Most of the ancient Puebloan sites here have not been visited in a long time, since the Ute Mountain Utes typically only allow access to some of the more showy and accessible ruins. We also passed by a wonderful sandstone arch that had a scattering of pottery sherds lying enigmatically on the ground.<br />
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Hiking back up to the final mesa to reach the fire really tuckered the crew out, but the wind had settled down and allowed us a chance to battle the 1 acre blaze. Our closest air support was the Wyoming border, so we were essentially on our own. We made decent progress putting in a control line around the main fire, and our Law Enforcement lookout posted on the adjacent mesa noticed that there were two spot fires just below the mesa rim. We split into 2 groups to hit those spots. The one we worked was on a steep slope that allowed burning logs to roll down, so we dug in a cup trench and lined it with rocks to stop the slop-over.<br />
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We were all hot, tired and sweaty as the sun went down. We had no camp gear, and the canyons were too steep to safely bushwhack 5 hours at night by headlamp -- even if anyo<span style="text-align: center;">ne had the energy to do so. So we camped as the coyotes do, finding a cozy spot in the deep duff of an old Utah Juniper, and went to sleep watching distant lightning flash in far-away Arizona.</span><br />
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One perk of setting up a spike camp with no gear is that its considered a hardship (rightly so), and we actually got paid to "sleep". I think I managed to doze off a few times, and at least 2 of the Navajo sleeping near me were able to get some sound sleep. Whatever rest I received was enough, because I was able to shake off the soreness and hike out without too much complaining. After hiking out and drinking our fill of warm water stashed at the truck, we stopped at the Far View terrace for an ice cream cone. I recall a story by another Tom from Florida about the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130522-why-you-might-prefer-more-pain" target="_blank">psychological importance of ending a tough experience with a pleasant one</a>, as it softens the memory. <br />
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So we return to the fire cache and begin rehabbing tools, when the chief walks out and says there's another fire in the park. We all exchange glances and realized we aren't going to get any more filthy, so off we go to <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/historyculture/mt_sun_temple.htm" target="_blank">Sun Temple</a> ruins in Mesa Verde to put out another fire. Fortunately, this fire is just off the roadway. The storm that created it is fortunately still raining on it, keeping it suppressed. Unfortunately, it is still tossing lightning bolts everywhere, so after hiding in the truck for a little bit, we decide to return an hour later... with a pump truck. We hose it down with a solution of foam... so much easier than cutting, digging, and scratching control lines.<br />
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But no rest for the weary. The next day we rode down Moccasin Mesa road to fight a small blaze near a beautiful rimrock pour-off at the head of Pine Canyon. Our archaeologist was excited by the ruins in the canyon below, and there were plentiful lithic fragments and other artifacts in the nearby woodland. As the 2nd-string militia works through Saturday chasing fires, we were finally called up to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JSOh7Y-IWY" target="_blank">helibase at Mesa Verde</a> to potentially fly out to a remote fire. Finally a crew arrives from Kentucky to take over operations, ending an exhausting week of overtime... but no fly time for me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaTe0AiZHzZrhqIRuga2KHmDOBdg6Y57itblFy-HEFnYn683P5cDnb_abvsDHGqjSg9hUxNVzjBOczWLwgraszhzP0kXNW5iubelcETnuahyphenhyphenxa3_w_06qGpjs_QQ-l2_wWaZVw06AbWQ/s1600/IMG_7571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaTe0AiZHzZrhqIRuga2KHmDOBdg6Y57itblFy-HEFnYn683P5cDnb_abvsDHGqjSg9hUxNVzjBOczWLwgraszhzP0kXNW5iubelcETnuahyphenhyphenxa3_w_06qGpjs_QQ-l2_wWaZVw06AbWQ/s320/IMG_7571.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaTe0AiZHzZrhqIRuga2KHmDOBdg6Y57itblFy-HEFnYn683P5cDnb_abvsDHGqjSg9hUxNVzjBOczWLwgraszhzP0kXNW5iubelcETnuahyphenhyphenxa3_w_06qGpjs_QQ-l2_wWaZVw06AbWQ/s1600/IMG_7571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaTe0AiZHzZrhqIRuga2KHmDOBdg6Y57itblFy-HEFnYn683P5cDnb_abvsDHGqjSg9hUxNVzjBOczWLwgraszhzP0kXNW5iubelcETnuahyphenhyphenxa3_w_06qGpjs_QQ-l2_wWaZVw06AbWQ/s1600/IMG_7571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><br />
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Work has had some fun moments too; working with the Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring group again, which is always a good time to learn new plants; finding new occurrences of rare plants such as <i><a href="http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/grindelia.htm" target="_blank">Grindella arizonica</a></i> and searching for populations of <i><a href="http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/White%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/iliamna%20grandiflora.htm" target="_blank">Iliamna grandiflora</a> </i>that hadn't been surveyed in nearly 30 years; and vouchering a new species to the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/naturescience/meve_herbarium.htm" target="_blank">Mesa Verde herbarium</a> of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguisorba_minor" target="_blank">Sanguisorba minor</a></i>.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">All this hiking on the job has made me lazy on the weekends, and the monsoons don't make it any more tempting to reach the back-country. Instead, we chose an easy hike to Piedra River Falls and a guided tour of lonely ruins atop </span><a href="http://www.chimneyrockco.org/%E2%80%8E" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Chimney Rock National Monument</a><span style="text-align: center;">. Wildlife has not been lazy, with many bears active in the Park eating chokecherries and acorns. Elk, deer, hummingbirds... everything seems to be on the move now, getting prepared for autumn. In a way, we are too, already making preparations for our remaining weeks here. I'll want to make the most of the beautiful a</span><br />
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spens and hopefully some snow-covered peaks.<br />
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We just saw Ken Burns's documentary on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">America's Best Idea</a>, and I realized there are sooooo many National Parks <a href="http://www.nps.gov/gaar/" target="_blank">we've never been to</a>.... and ones we <a href="http://www.nps.gov/seki/" target="_blank">must return to</a>....<br />
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-29213753084635425342013-08-18T18:53:00.000-04:002013-08-18T18:53:08.689-04:00Is There an App For That?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBCt2TY0mWGW7yRToWsQ-snHvAImg3tVHhFcXmNLy6Dc9uFtcBcPszbAJL039YUh_sA7ymQOuTbYchEvOdnN3WcRrLmhnkQ-QOTk7dJVp54grP6FXAauPNPnF0-EKH4tINylzK9ZX6e0/s1600/IMG_7443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBCt2TY0mWGW7yRToWsQ-snHvAImg3tVHhFcXmNLy6Dc9uFtcBcPszbAJL039YUh_sA7ymQOuTbYchEvOdnN3WcRrLmhnkQ-QOTk7dJVp54grP6FXAauPNPnF0-EKH4tINylzK9ZX6e0/s320/IMG_7443.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Scotch Creek Sunflowers</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...” </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5297.John_Muir" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">John Muir</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9MaOixjAn_iJqw7kNn0EO-dzo2Wg5GHO0rLJOs4b0v6t5wxZid2TdkIE-B1SmIYDpc9Mbpr4fFwPn93h0q5LyU364XsfavAbhb9sckMPTmiRqcMl_0G8i8WOibq8Kn06aAV00kZSM4o/s1600/DSCF2596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9MaOixjAn_iJqw7kNn0EO-dzo2Wg5GHO0rLJOs4b0v6t5wxZid2TdkIE-B1SmIYDpc9Mbpr4fFwPn93h0q5LyU364XsfavAbhb9sckMPTmiRqcMl_0G8i8WOibq8Kn06aAV00kZSM4o/s320/DSCF2596.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">First Snow on El Diente from The Meadows</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3blEego1z7epE3Z9FSOjhMd9wk4duWIFEOOvlXVV9ulMr4lUkt1ysIbkhiJ8Aikpakxd1fU5-jy1UMKxYPmDyUdn4XOWWgcRehGP1mMCEzbrPpw5xp-Rgh2o0-qI3hUPXMCsrFp7kDUY/s1600/IMG_7480.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3blEego1z7epE3Z9FSOjhMd9wk4duWIFEOOvlXVV9ulMr4lUkt1ysIbkhiJ8Aikpakxd1fU5-jy1UMKxYPmDyUdn4XOWWgcRehGP1mMCEzbrPpw5xp-Rgh2o0-qI3hUPXMCsrFp7kDUY/s320/IMG_7480.JPG" width="240" /></a>There has been lots of research and philosophizing on why the <a href="http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_nwps.html#three" target="_blank">Great Outdoors</a> is good for you. I recently gave a few cheap shots at my relatives for being a little too jacked into the Matrix, and then stumbled across this article on how <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/features/set-sun-escape-electrical-lights-synchs-our-circadian-clocks-solar-day" target="_blank">sunshine resets your internal clock</a> (while doing a little web browsing for potential grad skool - how's that for irony?). Alas, my own plans at getting my nieces and nephew a taste of the Rockies and the Canyons of the Ancients mostly fell flat, but it was in part to a family reunion of sorts, but also of the technical distractions that I know (and love, and loathe) so well.<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">Sometimes I would like to have a cheap smart phone, since there are some interesting tools available, such as </span><a href="http://www.highcountryapps.com/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">flora guides</a><span style="text-align: center;">, </span><a href="http://www.backyardchirper.com/blog/the-best-smartphone-apps-for-birders/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">birds</a><span style="text-align: center;">, mammals, stars, and rocks. I watched in envy as my fire crew boss pulled up the latest weather radar along with a map of the latest lightning strikes in the area, information than can be handy. However, access to real-time data is fairly limited in these blissfully remote places I like to work and visit, so the temptation to enter the 21st century has not forced me to cough up hundreds of dollars for the latest gadget... so far.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">BridgeKeeper of Groundhog Trail</span></td></tr>
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The summer is now winding down, with the alpine areas already having their first snow of the season. Some of the hardier wildflowers like the gentian, castelia, arnica, and penstemon still have blooms, but the show is mostly over. Some of the service-berry bushes are already turning yellow at Mesa Verde, and the humming birds and night-hawks are beginning their migrations.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht3FV58OFuWR8RtH0J9v9Aph7_TSq4djU2fcACEQetI-UfXqJI9mqGaJwSelz1G_N4JGX-qabEKhebQZeSgYeY5-BgQ8Asb_qJ6TT_UH_vuBiO_XUgfcsXxZfvjrY-DLcNjR3LE9YUlHw/s1600/IMG_7474.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht3FV58OFuWR8RtH0J9v9Aph7_TSq4djU2fcACEQetI-UfXqJI9mqGaJwSelz1G_N4JGX-qabEKhebQZeSgYeY5-BgQ8Asb_qJ6TT_UH_vuBiO_XUgfcsXxZfvjrY-DLcNjR3LE9YUlHw/s320/IMG_7474.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">The Forgotten Forest Floor</span></td></tr>
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The visit from family was great, since it's rare to get the bro's together in the same place anymore. My bro scored me a free ticked to the Clockwork Angels tour, which was awesome. We made quick visits together to see Cascade Falls in Ouray, the ghost towns of Ironton and Howardsville, and Scotch Creek near Rico. As always, time flew way too fast and we all went back to our respective hobbit holes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQYXuck909FNGgEtEl1ZqnXtS0wfVCN3OPo-_wWqJ_IPrcdG6YGle26dVc5AWOW1gI9Qco__DBu2J-EnQCUJa31i25umhDsB_e7S7mC6XFLXtrBGjj8R7ASBw8FUkkK6i8Yf9Kt2dJEs/s1600/IMG_7535.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQYXuck909FNGgEtEl1ZqnXtS0wfVCN3OPo-_wWqJ_IPrcdG6YGle26dVc5AWOW1gI9Qco__DBu2J-EnQCUJa31i25umhDsB_e7S7mC6XFLXtrBGjj8R7ASBw8FUkkK6i8Yf9Kt2dJEs/s320/IMG_7535.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I also managed a quick visit to George and Pumpkin, along with a short hike along the Navajo Lake trail to see the old Dipper Nest. Just yesterday, I dodged a few storms to ascend Sheep Mountain and watch a juvenile Bald Eagle shake off some haunting ravens on the ridges below me. The monsoons have been good this year, quenching the West Fork Complex and giving rise to another fascinating fungal bloom in the woodlands.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Soon autumn will return and with it all the changes that come with the season, both to the wilderness and to my own circumstances.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvc9NYhhe7oyGtxpc_1jz7QAIP27Zoztiwx7U-OKQef_iPh9cv_8GThst1OQEOMIp8m3H96xHX7-eIMIxTIm3ZF7NxEpa5bKTJnQrWvbTZPuEYiQADDxRnGtVoGLaj53OL1MCXkUkAf54/s1600/IMG_7498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvc9NYhhe7oyGtxpc_1jz7QAIP27Zoztiwx7U-OKQef_iPh9cv_8GThst1OQEOMIp8m3H96xHX7-eIMIxTIm3ZF7NxEpa5bKTJnQrWvbTZPuEYiQADDxRnGtVoGLaj53OL1MCXkUkAf54/s320/IMG_7498.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
In the rise and the set of the sun </i></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #351c75;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
To the stars goes spinning </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Spinning 'round the night </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Oh it is what it is and forever </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Each moment of memory aflight </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
The arrow flies while you dream </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
The hours tick away </div>
</span><span style="line-height: 23px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
The cells tick away</div>
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- G. Lee</div>
</span></i></span></span>Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-35432441587303874462013-07-26T22:10:00.001-04:002013-07-26T22:10:36.584-04:00Mesa Monsoons<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Ko1wPmFkTu5aGW_NezHFcHTCoi965ju2sSK5TDM2ONesuJjxpu-PDj1aRyus5KfXknaAboFqX2iqosaViQfK9jXr8VBOJkHlwgIerwsQ-grPQHKAe2Dek7ZbYOvfStoK5oQzsuFKTd0/s1600/IMG_7313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Ko1wPmFkTu5aGW_NezHFcHTCoi965ju2sSK5TDM2ONesuJjxpu-PDj1aRyus5KfXknaAboFqX2iqosaViQfK9jXr8VBOJkHlwgIerwsQ-grPQHKAe2Dek7ZbYOvfStoK5oQzsuFKTd0/s320/IMG_7313.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Storms at Hope Lake trail</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The summer rains have begun, a little behind schedule but all the sweeter considering the drought and high temperatures. The rains contained the West Fork Fires near Pagosa Springs, and brought cooler temperatures to Mesa Verde. Colorado is experiencing a below average fire season to date. Whew!<br />
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At Mesa Verde, we've begun sampling the Long<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0LX3YP0BZBh_wjqQXpZEY5ibugd9mTtdFjBqrbNPPvJxFF-bNTSGZxlKiO62QSAFdH8V_ZY-ZLuzt7xzT59LoEQ442xWSGqEAf2Q8V_foSIC_VAqjpasv-eFO5qOK4R8z8HeQGxrHP3g/s1600/IMG_7324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0LX3YP0BZBh_wjqQXpZEY5ibugd9mTtdFjBqrbNPPvJxFF-bNTSGZxlKiO62QSAFdH8V_ZY-ZLuzt7xzT59LoEQ442xWSGqEAf2Q8V_foSIC_VAqjpasv-eFO5qOK4R8z8HeQGxrHP3g/s320/IMG_7324.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Long House Ruins</span></td></tr>
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Term Fire Monitoring plots. With 100 plots, it takes some time to complete. The goal of that study is to understand how the pinyon-juniper woodlands at Mesa Verde are recovering from <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/parkmgmt/upload/fire_history_09.pdf" target="_blank">its large fires</a>. As I've mentioned before, there is a lot of uncertainty about what <a href="http://www.upproject.org/landscape_assessments/restoration/seral_stages.htm" target="_blank">seral stages</a> the burned area will grow through, how long each stage might require, and what the species-mix is during each stage. The classic textbook view of woodland post-fire seral-stages is grass yields to shrubs which yields to forest. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbPxym3qGeKaszXLXB9irYGba5hDpllEArO56ItOHmdOoF3gN0wy4_QE6DQh_9m_VtMoh8ubZsyWTVSlAyedy6Ow5iyyLbWZTPF62tbc3uibM0RzIc_RcpJ61scqpy1SHtCb_-KiJorc/s1600/IMG_7353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbPxym3qGeKaszXLXB9irYGba5hDpllEArO56ItOHmdOoF3gN0wy4_QE6DQh_9m_VtMoh8ubZsyWTVSlAyedy6Ow5iyyLbWZTPF62tbc3uibM0RzIc_RcpJ61scqpy1SHtCb_-KiJorc/s320/IMG_7353.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Plants are our Friends</span></td></tr>
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However, the real world is never so tidy, and at Mesa Verde these classic stages are muddled by factors such as fire intensity, future fire frequency, human intervention with post fire reseeding of grasses (at unnatural densities and without forbs), unnatural feral horse grazing pressure, and post-fire recolonization with invasive plants. These factors may create a new path of seral stages for Mesa Verde, so the climax community may end up resembling something different. Since Mesa Verde has several endemic plants and that aerial reseeding is expensive, studying how fires and related management plans are changing the biotic community is an important goal.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZZHfJ31VOnNhI_VZqJyPcZGT6L9HblLx_H1OIMTpFpqkArRBk2SX3Yo6W4NhVdNezipH8S9-DOmaR3aavGa_F5QlbnKshe71SDxz6n6b8wYR7JvwIY3Bsxsf-z3SBlvCvucH_sOESr4/s1600/IMG_7361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZZHfJ31VOnNhI_VZqJyPcZGT6L9HblLx_H1OIMTpFpqkArRBk2SX3Yo6W4NhVdNezipH8S9-DOmaR3aavGa_F5QlbnKshe71SDxz6n6b8wYR7JvwIY3Bsxsf-z3SBlvCvucH_sOESr4/s320/IMG_7361.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Coppers feast on Arnica</span></span></td></tr>
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Many of these factors are active areas of study, as we found out first hand at a visit to <a href="http://riomesa.utah.edu/" target="_blank">Rio Mesa Center</a> -- a new research facility for the University of Utah. We camped out at the new tents and learned about the current research projects, such as inventorying the plants & animals, reclaiming weedy fields to grow native seeds for restoration projects, and peering into the past to understand the past fire regime. I met several paleoecologists and they encouraged me to learn more and come visit their department in Salt Lake City. I've been mulling graduate school in either ecology (systems and/or restoration) or paleontology (evolutionary ecology) for a really long time... this year it seems like the fates are coalescing into new potentials to consider.<br />
<br />
So as I walk through the mountains here, I wonder what next year will bring. Any suggestions for my next career?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvn02n_Upu7JaYHMYJH-dQkIvHHrysPi5ywETDW3RH37sE49Dvdy-jzhAAUoFCGfXw5pl5s9djBKXZI2f3YaonFdL8DvwHtuJnJoItjF-In22rEToVBZxx2K5vYmNXKpPKCyM_MsnI2o/s1600/IMG_7387.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvn02n_Upu7JaYHMYJH-dQkIvHHrysPi5ywETDW3RH37sE49Dvdy-jzhAAUoFCGfXw5pl5s9djBKXZI2f3YaonFdL8DvwHtuJnJoItjF-In22rEToVBZxx2K5vYmNXKpPKCyM_MsnI2o/s400/IMG_7387.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Cascade Cascades (yeah, the names here are that original)</span></td></tr>
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-3436647058933711022013-06-21T13:49:00.000-04:002013-06-21T13:58:09.504-04:00On a Clear Day<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT3XNJLjn2vWE-hmQRShqnegabbXglLMlItzfmKu6l7H1v0kLGv64nayNqfPGowCLgKHHiPVDQ9qQeit-JQcwbalvk1CBZJBcig3ND0pwbYZLVPIjzI97EWHDZCI5-XZtwYG4e-QW_ls/s1600/IMG_7053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT3XNJLjn2vWE-hmQRShqnegabbXglLMlItzfmKu6l7H1v0kLGv64nayNqfPGowCLgKHHiPVDQ9qQeit-JQcwbalvk1CBZJBcig3ND0pwbYZLVPIjzI97EWHDZCI5-XZtwYG4e-QW_ls/s400/IMG_7053.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Sheep Mountain near the old <a href="http://www.narrowgauge.org/ngc/html/excursion1/excursion1-troutlake.html" target="_blank"><b>Galloping Goose Trestle</b></a></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgySLFURINYjht0xNmSIPzeSzRIVIQH0RaIFklcDoCDYgRpblOcJlyIlNyBDPRdX0uJ5Tj8VZkz8kShbLMAJryihkxyQM_Rtx8EgvHrzZeMuoOMTk5SGePuSFneufsOp2X-s05mAP7t1iM/s1600/IMG_7089.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
Today, June 21st, is the first official day of summer. From our house near Dolores, we can use the distant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abajo_Mountains" target="_blank">Abajo mountains</a> as our celestial calendar. Last night's sunset from my observation post in the hot tub, the sun set above the northernmost peaks, the Twin Peaks. One of my first tasks on the job this year was to scrub the cover for the <a href="http://gec.cr.usgs.gov/projects/regional_cams/mvnp_cam.html" target="_blank">USGS regional air-dust camera</a>, which looks out over the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrizo_Mountains" target="_blank">Carrizo mountains</a> in Arizona. It's not the best view, but you may be able to catch a portion of our sunset skies from it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgySLFURINYjht0xNmSIPzeSzRIVIQH0RaIFklcDoCDYgRpblOcJlyIlNyBDPRdX0uJ5Tj8VZkz8kShbLMAJryihkxyQM_Rtx8EgvHrzZeMuoOMTk5SGePuSFneufsOp2X-s05mAP7t1iM/s1600/IMG_7089.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgySLFURINYjht0xNmSIPzeSzRIVIQH0RaIFklcDoCDYgRpblOcJlyIlNyBDPRdX0uJ5Tj8VZkz8kShbLMAJryihkxyQM_Rtx8EgvHrzZeMuoOMTk5SGePuSFneufsOp2X-s05mAP7t1iM/s320/IMG_7089.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Bear Creek Falls</span></td></tr>
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<br />
Summer in the mountains also means wildfire season, and southwest Colorado continues to extend the decades long drought. The Dark Canyon Wilderness we visited just a few weeks ago has <a href="http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/3429/18655/" target="_blank">a fire burning</a> we could see from our porch 60 miles away. The <a href="http://kdvr.com/2013/06/19/west-fork-complex-flares-up-on-wolf-creek-pass-in-sw-colorado/" target="_blank">beetle killed fir forest on the west slopes of Wolf Creek pass</a> is doing much worse this past week. The afternoon smoke plume from 80 miles away looks like an H-bomb was dropped on Pagosa Springs. That fire has tripled in size each day this week. With luck, the monsoon rains will start soon and help snuff some of these out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi390Ag9y1F5kJIHta-hEXAz6YlEX5kY6ZnB3ORZXO3ko9CjQKcOahAvk3-ffmJkH0yk2XB1yHy1MBWPTNGWuzLCXUUleTx3oJJB5hzG3ZW-3JlT5PWE5R8xdy4S7lAI8jqapiFhqTw9bo/s1600/smokey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi390Ag9y1F5kJIHta-hEXAz6YlEX5kY6ZnB3ORZXO3ko9CjQKcOahAvk3-ffmJkH0yk2XB1yHy1MBWPTNGWuzLCXUUleTx3oJJB5hzG3ZW-3JlT5PWE5R8xdy4S7lAI8jqapiFhqTw9bo/s200/smokey.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 38px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;">semper vigilantissimi</span></span></td></tr>
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A new skill to add to my resume is I'm now trained to serve as a Fire Lookout. I may fill in for our expert lookout at <a href="http://www.firelookout.org/cohost-co/parkpointsuccessstory7-09.pdf" target="_blank">Park Point Tower</a>, and perhaps volunteer to work at the<a href="http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110710/COLUMNISTS02/707109968#/storyimage/DU/20110710/COLUMNISTS02/707109968/EP/1/5/EP-707109968.jpg&maxw=620&maxh=400" target="_blank"> Benchmark Watchtower </a>on days of severe weather. In the past, <a href="http://www.firelookout.org/cohost-co/News0619benchmark.html" target="_blank">Benchmark was staffed during the summer months</a>, but now it is vacant. Having 2 watch towers cover a region is really important to obtain a cross-azimuth on a sighting, which is used to triangulate the position much more accurately. Each year, a few more lookout towers are decommissioned. Most are historic structures with antique equipment (the navy glass at MEVE served in WWII). Attempts to preserve the old towers in the San Juans has led to novel ways to secure funding for them; <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/rentals/" target="_blank">you can rent them out</a> as a weekend getaway, such as <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5202063.pdf" target="_blank">Jersey Jim Tower</a>!<br />
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Another new experience, but much more solemn, was working on a <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/parknews/13_17_searchcontinues.htm" target="_blank">Search and Rescue</a> team at Mesa Verde. Lost hikers are very uncommon at Mesa Verde, so this was the first time most of us had been involved on a SAR assignment. We used canine teams, helicopters, and lots and lots of man-power sweeping the canyons where he was last known to be, but after a week still had not found him.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0rWJoFXGbbpcXqsF4Hz4zF1PX71RJEPlCui8M2E55BD4XdK9CkQ2Ig8D0eKEQ6HPLPIuJ9JIOleFlpFl2FAKxr4X7GjmGu1RkIgZ48yQ1EjRzlOI0RDvmqds8ZXbEOPJi_3i6Q5poeI/s1600/IMG_7135.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0rWJoFXGbbpcXqsF4Hz4zF1PX71RJEPlCui8M2E55BD4XdK9CkQ2Ig8D0eKEQ6HPLPIuJ9JIOleFlpFl2FAKxr4X7GjmGu1RkIgZ48yQ1EjRzlOI0RDvmqds8ZXbEOPJi_3i6Q5poeI/s400/IMG_7135.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Wasatch Trail</span></td></tr>
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For some weekend R&R, we hiked along Bear Creek (no, the other Bear Creek) from Telluride. There were still patches of snow by the falls, and especially up along <a href="http://www.visittelluride.com/things-to-do/trails-huts/wasatch-trail-bear-creek" target="_blank">the Wasatch trail</a>. I wanted to see what the upper falls looked like, so I bushwhacked down an avalanche chute to finally get a good view. Sadly, even this remote area could become the next victim of sprawl... I didn't realize it during my peaceful hike, but the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18721962" target="_blank">Wasatch trail is under assault</a> by a greedy tycoon that makes his riches through aggressive and dubious hostage tactics (multiple avalanche chutes imply you'd be a moron to build or stay there). Further up the trail are some beautiful cascades. After hiking across a snow field and a rickety, old bridge over troubled waters, I arrived at an old gold mill site now occupied by yellow-bellied marmots. There were many funky-rusted contraptions on the ground, so I've nicknamed it Steampunk Mine. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnk4qv5IxZGjv5-wdianqW5mC6ABf3fOFQcLOd8HatKDbm9Q7Mv2uLS2fPypGafrB4OPWCbkNWLS0qDQNTTxWxusPUmqsKN_0uvwzTCk2CoviQDJrSjl-YWEHKCN4TQfiRXVfQa5Yp4s/s1600/IMG_7163.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnk4qv5IxZGjv5-wdianqW5mC6ABf3fOFQcLOd8HatKDbm9Q7Mv2uLS2fPypGafrB4OPWCbkNWLS0qDQNTTxWxusPUmqsKN_0uvwzTCk2CoviQDJrSjl-YWEHKCN4TQfiRXVfQa5Yp4s/s400/IMG_7163.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Nellie Mine (aka Steampunk), Wasatch Trail</span></td></tr>
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I'd like to close with this quote from the late <a href="http://www.arlingtonarchosaursite.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Derek Main's dissertation on the Arlington Archosaur Site</a>:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">“Come my friends, </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">tis not too late to seek a newer world. </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Push off and sitting well</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></i></b></span><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">in order smite the sounding furrows, </span></i></b><br />
<b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">for my purpose holds to sail </span></i></b><br />
<b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">off the bathes </span></i></b><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">of </span></i></b><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">all the western stars, </span></i></b><b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">until I die. </span></i></b><br />
<b style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">To pursue knowledge like a sinking star. </span></i></b></div>
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</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. “</div>
</span></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>---- Alfred Lord Tennyson</b></span></span></div>
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-82870615613470318192013-06-10T01:16:00.001-04:002013-06-10T01:18:07.047-04:00Behind the Bear's Ears<div>
Before I leave the topic of the brave new world of genetic engineering on the back-burner, I just wanted to share an exciting story about using this technology to potential heal our eastern forests: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/genetically-engineering-an-icon-can-biotech-bring-the-chestnut-back-to-americas-forests/276356/" target="_blank">restoring the Chestnut Tree</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_SmUui6CuXO3G1RbVFoWH1F3DAdKnbuSf-Rrm9XisKduKILttnoss1l34Ypb4z_fdqD0KU2qpaCItQ71Ab9rca1IBRa6sECt08UqpzrmFntB0tyb28OxAjUK-26FWtjcprzZ8aAjvfg/s1600/DSCF2535.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_SmUui6CuXO3G1RbVFoWH1F3DAdKnbuSf-Rrm9XisKduKILttnoss1l34Ypb4z_fdqD0KU2qpaCItQ71Ab9rca1IBRa6sECt08UqpzrmFntB0tyb28OxAjUK-26FWtjcprzZ8aAjvfg/s400/DSCF2535.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Edge of Cedars, ceremonial pottery</span></td></tr>
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Summer has arrived in the Four Corners, and the little bit of snow left on the La Platas is fading fast. We had ventured into Cedar Mesa country in Utah, and stopped in Blanding to tour the wonderful museum at <a href="http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/edge-of-the-cedars" target="_blank">Edge of the Cedars</a>. The museum is full of interesting artifacts, including a thousand year old sash made from macaw feathers. Outside is the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhA5UA7sDZk&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">ancient Anasazi pueblo</a>, and just beyond is one of my favorite "modern art" pieces. We had learned of it at a campfire talk in Chaco canyon led by famous Ranger Cornucopia. He discussed Chacoan archaeo-astronomy, and then mentioned this modern sculpture designed as part experiment. It stuck in my mind as a wonderful idea, so it was excellent to see it in person: Inspired by the Sun Dagger and other interesting archaeological sites, an artist had decided to create a modern timepiece using ancient pueblo motifs: <a href="http://www.clarkfoundation.org/astro-utah/vondel/sunmarker.html" target="_blank">meet the Sun Marker</a>. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z5eHKGVVv4hwWfwA3QtY7D3SsjSNFYf-pbymAjB2XiMZFwd4RN6neY09v2WLZn1FK_OQ03Qwa1rivj1YTlfwOx4XUslmQIlsyARLPtdvlrtH8K0KbOKs_ciI6vJYktL4JRy0xoH92KM/s1600/DSCF2555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z5eHKGVVv4hwWfwA3QtY7D3SsjSNFYf-pbymAjB2XiMZFwd4RN6neY09v2WLZn1FK_OQ03Qwa1rivj1YTlfwOx4XUslmQIlsyARLPtdvlrtH8K0KbOKs_ciI6vJYktL4JRy0xoH92KM/s320/DSCF2555.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Sun Marker</span></td></tr>
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This sculpture is designed to get people thinking about ways to mark the passing of time using the sun. Is it time to plant? Time to hunt? Winter Solstice? When archaeologists discover a potential astronomical alignment within a site, it is sometimes difficult to be certain what ways the Ancients may have used those alignments. Were some coincidental? Are the often more to the calendar than meets the eye? After completing the sculpture, students had found more ways to use the Sun Marker than the artist realized, such as predicting lunar events.</div>
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It was fun playing with the interactive archive at the museum, and the pottery designs are inspiring to me. Maybe one day I'll take up pottery? After walking like an Anasazi, we traipsed over to the <a href="http://www.dinosaur-museum.org/" target="_blank">Blanding Dinosaur Museum</a>. The entrance is filled with three enormous petrified trees found nearby and one of the largest ammonites I had ever seen. There are lots of interesting replicas and specimens, including a mosasaur. However, the most interesting thing was learning about the <a href="http://www.dinosaur-museum.org/featheredinosaurs/Are_Birds_Really_Dinosaurs.pdf" target="_blank">contentious cladistics behind the evolution of birds</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvlVETab3ydXGDLy2ab-Kv73v4LhSeLaQTHSz3eAJ3NpsgmFcmFwFcLCdvBzLzYVGYhwTNVsVRwvuBB_t_MxTot5QXSZTITA5lz41i4ya3dEqN7Io7f6CzaAZr-wGHLPDvGbItUtB2AXg/s1600/IMG_6850.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvlVETab3ydXGDLy2ab-Kv73v4LhSeLaQTHSz3eAJ3NpsgmFcmFwFcLCdvBzLzYVGYhwTNVsVRwvuBB_t_MxTot5QXSZTITA5lz41i4ya3dEqN7Io7f6CzaAZr-wGHLPDvGbItUtB2AXg/s400/IMG_6850.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Cave on Comb Ridge</span></td></tr>
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Off we went to my favorite formation in southern Utah, Comb Ridge. The previous weekend, we had visited a few granaries, cliff houses, and a huge cave. Each time I visit, I have a unique experience, as if I'm gleaning a little understanding of the metaphysics of Anasazi life just from osmosis off the fluid sands turned to white sandstone. I often wonder what these canyons were like before they were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Johnson-t.html?_r=0" target="_blank">ransacked by pothunters</a>, but maybe these little pieces I find are somehow better for myself - leaving room to merge my imagination with history and geology.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NkEPjZfKyEh16XdtH60ov0_keViD9GkLiNl7VFhM-JAyR4GACMk91YUKkAZ9AwIPgG3hs_qN8y9I5xZYksotKYjORF5N_THDrcHE3YsQiw2_GYj2EoxulqdbU0oXxAeSm2dALiU4Y7E/s1600/IMG_6884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NkEPjZfKyEh16XdtH60ov0_keViD9GkLiNl7VFhM-JAyR4GACMk91YUKkAZ9AwIPgG3hs_qN8y9I5xZYksotKYjORF5N_THDrcHE3YsQiw2_GYj2EoxulqdbU0oXxAeSm2dALiU4Y7E/s640/IMG_6884.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Ancient Anasazi Granary</span></td></tr>
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This time at the Ridge, I hiked again past a strange landscape of stones, cactus, and wildflowers that led past a few looted granaries and finally to an expansive overlook. I gaze out and the sweeping landscape as a wind gust blows my hat off. I look down to pick up my hat and find a tiny sherd of black-on-white pottery in the red sand. As I trace the fading pattern, a raven flies over head and "cahs" as he barrel-rolls past me. I think I'm turning Anasazi.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-ga46DrpJcztFbb1BhsWVuSGSqym3N2HTElI084rmiGGH4BX0nyKA-reN_C2bIVIehN95HBvskrNlyZF1gxtk4Y0I2KyRp71ql1H1hpGSVhbg7Vtnv8FHrM7S0mXuBIIV6oWgH0oWsc/s1600/IMG_6952.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-ga46DrpJcztFbb1BhsWVuSGSqym3N2HTElI084rmiGGH4BX0nyKA-reN_C2bIVIehN95HBvskrNlyZF1gxtk4Y0I2KyRp71ql1H1hpGSVhbg7Vtnv8FHrM7S0mXuBIIV6oWgH0oWsc/s640/IMG_6952.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Comb Ridge, Utah</span></td></tr>
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From there, we drive near the entrance of Natural Bridges National Monument, a place we had visited Auto-tour style several years ago. This time, we took a dirt road that ends up winding up to Elk Park in the Manti La-Sal Forest and goes right between the Bears Ears. I recall reading about a big site behind the Ears in the excellent book House of Rain, and sure enough, it's there. I take the remaining daylight's gift to huff up the eastern Ear to see another wonderful view and unexpectedly stumble across <a href="http://img.geocaching.com/benchmark/d1db79da-9293-4856-8c81-9fa1c4bfad1f.jpg" target="_blank">a USGS benchmark</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWX9h144UuXc6etSZ8vJiUCA67fnRTXb6egTsDzfsQGbT9TiiwEtlBATaakKLH363u7B8aIagl7JWpBRDy1txns_XaTjI0hMh1jiOla8m5fQDvfLHijtERiw32mLXby0BQUxxjmCCntS4/s1600/IMG_6985.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWX9h144UuXc6etSZ8vJiUCA67fnRTXb6egTsDzfsQGbT9TiiwEtlBATaakKLH363u7B8aIagl7JWpBRDy1txns_XaTjI0hMh1jiOla8m5fQDvfLHijtERiw32mLXby0BQUxxjmCCntS4/s400/IMG_6985.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Ears</span></td></tr>
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After logging a few geocaches, we camp out near <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=06011c84-74b8-4d3d-9ffc-d273dc1ad29d" target="_blank">Butt's Point</a> among ponderosa, aspen, fir, juniper, and pinyon trees all trying to decide who belongs in the forest. The following day, we make the steep hike down to <a href="http://www.editcraft.com/explore/Southwest2009/07_3fingersruin.html" target="_blank">Three Finger Ruins</a> (named for the massive natural pillars guarding the entrance to the side canyon). I was running out of time, so didn't make the hike up to the ruins, but on the way, found a spring gushing from the hillside. Cool, clear water in a desert canyon welling up is nothing but miraculous, so I take several deep drinks (ignoring the modern voice in my head telling me to treat the water) and refill my canteen. Ancient cultures around the world, even in rainy Europe, considered springs sacred. Now see this desert spring from Anasazi eyes.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRPsHBooFRW7wpNpQ7JqoAkEPJWkPmisjSGqmCh2sKgiQM9lwVTzTJjRsAveMcoBxw_VaTqx2RaDNjbWU0yCq1T0_VNVoKtkNUnKh_S6s4mtyzVGWVHWiYCFl8FDicOeF78DAlduL824/s1600/DSCF2554.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRPsHBooFRW7wpNpQ7JqoAkEPJWkPmisjSGqmCh2sKgiQM9lwVTzTJjRsAveMcoBxw_VaTqx2RaDNjbWU0yCq1T0_VNVoKtkNUnKh_S6s4mtyzVGWVHWiYCFl8FDicOeF78DAlduL824/s640/DSCF2554.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Abandoned Kiva</span></td></tr>
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The canyons now are getting hot as summer has arrived. In keeping with the Bear theme, we went to Bear Creek in Telluride, Colorado. More on that trip later.</div>
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-48058044932678472402013-05-17T17:48:00.000-04:002013-05-17T17:48:07.987-04:00Welcome to the Anthropocene<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fM_1ytvaQ7Zk65PQoAYz8sIOjuBKDWvQ7-W69nwzzN35DWK4y14u7SFgteKeyzp2vSlGwbKzTuV_aBcxZebZBiggrfDzegKx-wcgPsPRNV4NS7NpEoIyahMytrW-PwcJGZ8-0JQ_WBc/s1600/IMG_6776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fM_1ytvaQ7Zk65PQoAYz8sIOjuBKDWvQ7-W69nwzzN35DWK4y14u7SFgteKeyzp2vSlGwbKzTuV_aBcxZebZBiggrfDzegKx-wcgPsPRNV4NS7NpEoIyahMytrW-PwcJGZ8-0JQ_WBc/s320/IMG_6776.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Cutthroat Castle, Hovenweep</span></td></tr>
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The open skies and sweeping views of the Four Corners lend themselves to wondering and philosophizing. When I hike out to the ruins of an ancient dwelling built precariously upon the boulders at the head of a forlorn canyon, the remains of a village abandoned 700 years ago, a common reaction is to reflect upon who I am and where my civilization is going.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fM_1ytvaQ7Zk65PQoAYz8sIOjuBKDWvQ7-W69nwzzN35DWK4y14u7SFgteKeyzp2vSlGwbKzTuV_aBcxZebZBiggrfDzegKx-wcgPsPRNV4NS7NpEoIyahMytrW-PwcJGZ8-0JQ_WBc/s1600/IMG_6776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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The Anasazi ruins of <a href="http://www.gjhikes.com/2012/07/hovenweep-cutthroat-castle.html" target="_blank">Cutthroat Castle</a> are part of <a href="http://www.nps.gov/hove/index.htm" target="_blank">Hovenweep</a>, which is a Ute word for deserted canyon. These days, only a few miles from the Canyons of the Ancients, dryland farming of beans, sunflowers, and winter wheat again reform many acres that were once vast sagebrush scrublands. All rivers in the southwest are dammed for irrigation, with cattle ranching and sheep grazing occurring on all lands too steep and rocky for cultivation, including even alpine mountains so remote to be designated Wilderness Areas. The mountains have supported 200 years of mining and logging, and has changed the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Dying-Trees-Charles-Little/dp/0140158723" target="_blank">composition and resiliency of our forests</a>. Overgrazing in some areas has resulted in desertification and disruption of soils, causing dust storms to transport topsoil vast distances. The locals here have even adopted a Dust Bowl era cliche' when the strong south winds blow, "I expect Arizona is coming to visit today." Open pit mines of copper, uranium, palladium, and molybdenum near the Four Corners can be seen from space, as well as our brilliant night lights powered by the coal that leaves tell-tale traces of mercury, sulfur and nitrates in sediments.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwohZKkZVma5DRkmf4GHdeWcfb7QWv25W0juHMru0fuQZxIldbywAzpegkT0NwRyK0a0VxZXR_O_puFXxUWdwXRXw0ExL96R1tV5hAW-NDuM6mA_yV9ZbSybYNg-6QyluD5u24Mr_I8YA/s1600/IMG_6773.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwohZKkZVma5DRkmf4GHdeWcfb7QWv25W0juHMru0fuQZxIldbywAzpegkT0NwRyK0a0VxZXR_O_puFXxUWdwXRXw0ExL96R1tV5hAW-NDuM6mA_yV9ZbSybYNg-6QyluD5u24Mr_I8YA/s400/IMG_6773.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Tortured Utah Juniper and Cryptobiotic Soil</span></td></tr>
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Some of this man-made geologic epoc,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene" target="_blank"> termed the Anthropocene,</a> is really interesting to see in <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/13/jaw-dropping-space-station-time-lapse/#.UZZvbrWkoWQ" target="_blank">satellite images</a>; particularly <a href="http://earthengine.google.org/#intro" target="_blank">time-lapse LANDSAT images</a>, such as urban development, disappearing seas, island building, forest clearing, and a plethora of other signs of human "progress". Considering most of these images are less than 25 years old, it is stunning to witness the scope, magnitude, and pace of change. However, these changes have been happening in North America since the Holocene. In the book, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49831.The_Call_of_Distant_Mammoths" target="_blank">The Call of Distant Mammoths</a>, the extinction of most of our large mammals and their predators are linked to the shockwave of human expansion radiating from the Bering Land Bridge, which is stunning to consider how low the population density that can accomplish such irrevocable loss. Soon, a new stasis of North American biota was achieved, such as the expansion of great grasslands aided by the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_use_of_fire" target="_blank"> frequent fires humans intentionally set</a>. This would soon change again as the next migrants arrived in North America, the Industrialists, and set in motion the next wave of extinction events that are still in progress.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hxpbpP22oIZASNuakok-z7Ma3wsMpIwHKl8VVuKfsKkUdUkXyVYE0niXMfdiYQtOKruHADLaFLL7kT4x7ncx6SlVM-k6FYJIdg9fBx5nnM7y_e4Xx280lnyODp8qF09-b_v12UnUV88/s1600/IMG_6788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hxpbpP22oIZASNuakok-z7Ma3wsMpIwHKl8VVuKfsKkUdUkXyVYE0niXMfdiYQtOKruHADLaFLL7kT4x7ncx6SlVM-k6FYJIdg9fBx5nnM7y_e4Xx280lnyODp8qF09-b_v12UnUV88/s400/IMG_6788.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Mariposa Lily</span></td></tr>
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These new changes to the landscape, such as farming, logging, roads, and concrete do leave a geologic imprint that will be recorded in sedimentary layers for eons. The predicted <a href="http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/florida.shtml" target="_blank">moderate sea-level rise</a> is much more notable, but it's not as if <a href="http://www.fnai.org/ARROW/almanac/geology/geology_history.cfm" target="_blank">Florida hasn't been submerged</a> before just 20 million years ago. Impressive (frightening?) as these facts are, they pale in comparison to geologic changes such as the Great Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, Ice Ages, Lake Bonneville Flood, or the Laramide Orogeny. <br />
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What is more subtle yet powerful than geographical change is the recent fossil record of the biosphere. Not only is our biosphere changing in species composition and radical ecosystem shifts, but with the advent of the 21st century technology, we now have the power to shuffle 4 billion years of evolution, opening up an incredible potential and a new Pandora's Box.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCWJD8JpQiyTioWbT7Sl74ioZyDkdegiDVCO9q68-uEfUi5QF_Ucf6gLgFtww_nZUteQQC_FwvSC-jiVqm9uhinWw7Etf3yo3nH2mZkL_1pHUZUKH-V11DWav6IGGYaTLZB28QGWAt-U/s1600/IMG_6812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCWJD8JpQiyTioWbT7Sl74ioZyDkdegiDVCO9q68-uEfUi5QF_Ucf6gLgFtww_nZUteQQC_FwvSC-jiVqm9uhinWw7Etf3yo3nH2mZkL_1pHUZUKH-V11DWav6IGGYaTLZB28QGWAt-U/s400/IMG_6812.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Cutthroat Tower</span></td></tr>
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I just finished reading a book called<a href="http://www.onearth.org/article/frankensteins-cat" target="_blank"> "Frankenstein's Cat"</a>, which briefly presents several new bio-technologies that are rapidly developing and, in my opinion, will be the next technological revolution with the potential to change our way of life and the world as we know it. The book discusses current technologies including cloning, wiring the brains of mammals with micro-circuitry to become remote controlled toys and tools, and the big game changer... genetic engineering. The author briefly describes a few pros and cons of these technologies, but more importantly, wants us to think hard about how we want to use these new technologies. Is<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cloning-endangered-animals" target="_blank"> cloning species to prevent extinction</a> good (especially if the habitat has been lost)? How about cloning extinct species (particularly if their extinction was directly caused by humans... like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_extinction_hypotheses" target="_blank">Neanderthals</a>)? How about cloning your <a href="http://myfriendagain.com/" target="_blank">dead pet for fun</a>, or a <a href="http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/FDAVeterinarianNewsletter/ucm108131.htm" target="_blank">prize steer with robust traits for profit</a>, or your Supreme Leader? How about <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/content/308/5723/796.1.full" target="_blank">tweaking modern elephants to resemble their long-lost cousins</a> and help them stave off the next <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Green-Sky-Warming-Extinctions/dp/0061137928" target="_blank">potential Canfield Ocean cycle</a>? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwCao1e5OuW_uRGH0yxTBSla1XCoEVUa_OJVO2NVpC7_4ztcAvc8hP6bbjkxyiIK1F3UXuwuFgIOrMmDLKhHDAF1Mu75Jc3GtrclcznDTi0rw5Mn4lnormbUKDWQv9h8MfUa6SgZLhcc/s1600/IMG_6831.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwCao1e5OuW_uRGH0yxTBSla1XCoEVUa_OJVO2NVpC7_4ztcAvc8hP6bbjkxyiIK1F3UXuwuFgIOrMmDLKhHDAF1Mu75Jc3GtrclcznDTi0rw5Mn4lnormbUKDWQv9h8MfUa6SgZLhcc/s320/IMG_6831.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Scarlet Cup Cactus</span></td></tr>
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And cloning is the least complex of the moral and secular problems. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genzyme" target="_blank">Pharming goats</a> with genes spliced from bacteria to produce cancer drugs, GMO crops with genes from pigs, jellyfish, or even synthetic genes to resist drought, disease, or trademarked herbicides? How about corn with human genes? How about splicing in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/science/29mouse.html" target="_blank">FOXP2 gene to dolphins</a> and creating a new evolutionary path for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startide_Rising" target="_blank">civilized cetaceans</a>? How about gene therapy to cure diseases, increase longevity, or make your next transhuman child "advanced"? So much potential and topics that it's easy for someone like me who cannot even clearly define my own ethical standards to animals to wallow in a mire of hypocrisy. Perhaps the best thing I learned from Frankenstein's Cat is that it is normal to be <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Some-We-Love-Hate-Eat/dp/0061730858" target="_blank">stuck in the troubled middle</a>, where rational thought and emotions blend together in contradictions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwucXqph4ulDY9mUWcReOKoWkvpfym5k_JsnQJ5ROwVKyXaPpMklS2khKdhCbV7WSg2IjBl5YIg53p2_jBw2O9lyg23WmamhPvmSZ7yQiLVDaUT01rw8j3gEMSycHq5tguWGjag4XWCis/s1600/IMG_6765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwucXqph4ulDY9mUWcReOKoWkvpfym5k_JsnQJ5ROwVKyXaPpMklS2khKdhCbV7WSg2IjBl5YIg53p2_jBw2O9lyg23WmamhPvmSZ7yQiLVDaUT01rw8j3gEMSycHq5tguWGjag4XWCis/s320/IMG_6765.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Anazasi were awesome architects</span></span></td></tr>
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Every week a new article or radio broadcast makes me ponder this huge quagmire all over. Clearly, I need <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/business/energy-environment/a-dream-of-glowing-trees-is-assailed-for-gene-tinkering.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">a walk in the glow-in-the-dark woods </a>to help me see more clearly. The home I currently live in is built next door to some long-ago crumbled Anazazi ruins, I wonder who/what will be living here in another thousand years?<br />
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So <a href="http://www.anthropocene.info/en/home" target="_blank">welcome to the Antropocene</a> and the brave, new world that awaits us. After all, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself (and perhaps <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_eJg8d_YpE5w-CNMm0tHzhBy0tL69-Wci2Tinh01t86CfuBNenYFXuF2Nm9EqkEfvcLGnCuE5yI8v7Hgz1rIbElnN3t81rRZgRxeRtz6AgqWVMN4QK_BfGWHfmt99YGcReW-6KaOqxE/s1600/The+Flying+Spaghetti+Monster.jpg&imgrefurl=http://furoreforfreedom.blogspot.com/2012/09/sachin-tendulkar-and-flying-spaghetti.html&h=900&w=1412&sz=90&tbnid=jkhZya79AF14IM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=141&zoom=1&usg=__neauBVORRLa4T7ZJ5q8s7fBUv78=&docid=0IUTHtXwHyEISM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g3mWUbbADMG_0AHN3oC4DA&sqi=2&ved=0CFkQ9QEwBQ&dur=383" target="_blank">mutant-cyborg-sentient-terrestrial-jellyfish Overlords</a>).Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-6581080615100278832013-04-21T23:17:00.001-04:002013-04-21T23:17:26.046-04:00Happy Earth Day!<span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;">I can tell spring has arrived this week. Violet-green Swallows are circling the ponds and rivers, perfectly timed to catch the first round of bugs. Waterfowl are on the move too, and we saw Canada Geese, Northern Shovelers, Cinnamon Teals, Common Mergansers, and Buffleheads. A pair of red-shafted flickers were nest-building in the snag of an old cottonwood along the Dolores River, and a Bald Eagle Flew far overhead.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRMVhNkfezwWwNEoEFr-l8cAvvCcKtaw3JrLPLYiEc2hs02QsZlnsNodY-9fBL11PDhaQ5kMhC_Y-i84B-As_wA2heYIm_2DUvBW9BIU-lGVs8bhiPj_YMnMIhuGy_JbfkwusS7W9hlew/s1600/IMG_6744.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRMVhNkfezwWwNEoEFr-l8cAvvCcKtaw3JrLPLYiEc2hs02QsZlnsNodY-9fBL11PDhaQ5kMhC_Y-i84B-As_wA2heYIm_2DUvBW9BIU-lGVs8bhiPj_YMnMIhuGy_JbfkwusS7W9hlew/s400/IMG_6744.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">old growth pondorosa</td></tr>
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<span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here's an interesting art project to celebrate Earth Day and remind me why I'm out here:</span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.lostbirdfilm.org/">http://www.lostbirdfilm.org/</a></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">This afternoon, I was privileged to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3L7crGudVU" target="_blank">watch a swan reach orbit </a>for the first time!</span></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">To celebrate, I went for a hike up a ridge, past a raven's nest, to a sandstone arch near Taylor Creek to watch the moon rise in the window of rock.</span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NHdrbsmcBcVPO9jfOgqrxE9vtdPkmrHxRrRwX_JOmjHXXQUG19t4446TpA2YfvvezIAGcHWvqjjbB9HYp8Xl7H55KWdvYwVJSr8pU-GpxOi7gzpIl8jif5hXqK-BTb-9jXgprjeSox4/s1600/IMG_6752.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NHdrbsmcBcVPO9jfOgqrxE9vtdPkmrHxRrRwX_JOmjHXXQUG19t4446TpA2YfvvezIAGcHWvqjjbB9HYp8Xl7H55KWdvYwVJSr8pU-GpxOi7gzpIl8jif5hXqK-BTb-9jXgprjeSox4/s400/IMG_6752.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
<span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_1" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>On certain nights</i></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_2" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>When the angles are right</i></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_3" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>And the moon is a slender crescent</i></span></span><span style="color: #38761d;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></div>
</span><span class="line line-s" id="line_5" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>It's circle shows</i></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_6" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>In a ghostly glow</i></span></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_7" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Of earthly luminescence - Earthshine</i></span></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-11290130408180992312013-04-14T21:32:00.004-04:002013-04-14T21:41:58.581-04:00Fantastic Fourth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My fourth season at Mesa Verde National Park has begun. Between politics and career decisions, it was not a sure thing. All my co-workers from the past two years have also moved on, so I am the only returning employee. The crew will have the same structure as last year, 3 experienced technicians with 1 college-grad. We also should have a vegetation ecologist to lead the group, but a hiring freeze has kept that position empty. I'm hoping I know enough from past experience, even though I am not formally trained as a botanist. </div>
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My new crew starts next week. I began work with a little lead time to plan our work and organize some training. I hope one day to have time to visit the brand new <a href="http://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/meve_vc.htm" target="_blank">visitor center</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoxBn1ppYIhruP4TsYC_nNFsbil7_wEfTijg5xBWFdW8lOQeorxh0U_S4wOAoYhEZ9jUdwO2qXiP3_iY92qeLrrWhzKnSEIr5Mps9R_bmb4-9kwUKGASzW-Zelrf61lPqCbq7zd0Iyls/s1600/DSCF2506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoxBn1ppYIhruP4TsYC_nNFsbil7_wEfTijg5xBWFdW8lOQeorxh0U_S4wOAoYhEZ9jUdwO2qXiP3_iY92qeLrrWhzKnSEIr5Mps9R_bmb4-9kwUKGASzW-Zelrf61lPqCbq7zd0Iyls/s400/DSCF2506.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
This year, the<a href="http://www.cpachecojr.com/cgi-bin/work/snow/snow_update_2.cgi?area=colo&format=1" target="_blank"> San Juan snowpack is down 30% from normal</a>, but recent snows are slowly reducing the deficit. Last year, the spring was very warm and dry, so the already low snowpack faded too fast and Colorado experienced the 2nd worst fire season since 1960. New Mexico and Arizona also had bad fire years, with the Gila Wilderness burning many acres. The prescribed burn I attended at Zion last year was postponed due to exceptionally hot, windy weather and the Front range in Colorado had a<a href="http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2012/03/1887/" target="_blank"> prescribed burn </a>that rekindled with tragic results.<br />
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It's a tricky problem, since continued fire suppression in some types of forests can increase the chance of severe fires. Combined with the past decade of warmer than average weather causing insect damage and drier forests, the severity of fires in the Rocky Mountains continues to be a looming threat each year. So far, the Four Corners is off to a slightly better spring than 2012, but New Mexico and California have much worse snowpack deficits.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzRg77WmKZRX1olO-EXONfpzDAZy_POLb_wGOiI6ICGh-dA-kyjJVrhxqfFjXa6wNF6Ssq4eVgIRgbSBTtLbiqNi4Z9fyObD_qsQk64PhYQkYaJPWfohmqL4qFOiTq-lWUB5Eu0g42AQ/s1600/IMG_6644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzRg77WmKZRX1olO-EXONfpzDAZy_POLb_wGOiI6ICGh-dA-kyjJVrhxqfFjXa6wNF6Ssq4eVgIRgbSBTtLbiqNi4Z9fyObD_qsQk64PhYQkYaJPWfohmqL4qFOiTq-lWUB5Eu0g42AQ/s400/IMG_6644.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
This weekend, we went for a short hike up the old <a href="http://my.opera.com/TheDynamiteGuy/albums/showpic.dml?album=1484561&picture=20054191#bigimg" target="_blank">Pinkerton Trail </a>that follows Scotch Creek. Snow still lined the road, so it was a game trying to stay on the packed ski-trail so we wouldn't bust the crust and end up post-holing. A short hike up, and we were rewarded with a gallery of majestic rock formations (and cold feet). We drove up to Trout Lake, which always looks like Alaska this time of year, and then watched the winds whip snow of the summit of Sunshine and Mount Wilson.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvs4e0uCEorfk929-ygkk6i9nzEH24J023eek2yKsUIT3rZ3UuL0fSLqNLMwgp0ivW3biUOgZDHBdaJWsZnddF_JbnDqhcm3-PzP_JoyKv824B0Jz-i4B6DhZfqOhMw5RUkmYL-LRTh0/s1600/ninnemann.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvs4e0uCEorfk929-ygkk6i9nzEH24J023eek2yKsUIT3rZ3UuL0fSLqNLMwgp0ivW3biUOgZDHBdaJWsZnddF_JbnDqhcm3-PzP_JoyKv824B0Jz-i4B6DhZfqOhMw5RUkmYL-LRTh0/s400/ninnemann.gif" width="400" /></a><br />
Sunday was a nice lecture about photographing astronomical events that are tied to archaeological sites; such as the <a href="http://www.chimneyrockco.org/archaeoastronomy.php" target="_blank">Lunar Standstill events at Chimney Rock</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajada_Butte" target="_blank">Sun Dagger of Fajada Butte</a>, and fascinating alignments between the sun, moon, and Great Houses. I learned many new things, like the siting of Yucca House National Monument can view the winter solstice rise from Sleeping Ute's big toe. Like a good puebloan farmer, I planted my crops (most inside in seed trays, except for frost hardy spinach). There's occasional mule deer in our yard, so I have a feeling that I won't get much to myself.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoq6NvRjFhvqiBdkHaizqcNBe8lu565WJAiH6DM-jWfLfnL5bYGz-rMOdcGy2xcC8YOA3UjxdpsbfzfTe50X_41IjMfdHahoa-cppqS_jQh-RmIIawIBptUz6IRtUC0FLLpvB0GdT2i8/s1600/IMG_6653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoq6NvRjFhvqiBdkHaizqcNBe8lu565WJAiH6DM-jWfLfnL5bYGz-rMOdcGy2xcC8YOA3UjxdpsbfzfTe50X_41IjMfdHahoa-cppqS_jQh-RmIIawIBptUz6IRtUC0FLLpvB0GdT2i8/s400/IMG_6653.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
Speaking of astronomical events, I hope to catch a glimpse of the comet to the west tonight. This week, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/news/antares-rollout.html" target="_blank">Antares </a>might make its inaugural flight. My brother is busy as a beaver building the <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/100533/orion-capsule-accelerating-to-2014-launch-and-eventual-asteroid-exploration/" target="_blank">Orion spacecraft</a>, which now has a scheduled launch date too (Sept 2014)! I expect tickets to the launch.<br />
<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-83749695039003728782013-02-13T15:44:00.002-05:002013-02-13T15:44:20.531-05:00Happy Darwin Day!Whew, I'm glad we made it past the Mayan Apocalypse! It would be fun to research a list of all the purported doomsdays I've survived since my birthday.<br />
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Meanwhile, I've found some more fun citizen science projects to keep myself entertained and thought I'd post them here to share:<br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: blue;">http://www.zooniverse.org</span> -- my favorite is the Ocean Floor Explorer</li>
<li><span style="color: blue;">http://cosmoquest.org/Citizen_Science</span> -- exciting to think you could help discover a new minor planet!</li>
<li><span style="color: blue;">http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/ </span>-- just found this site, need to check it out</li>
<li><span style="color: blue;">http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citsci/projects</span> -- the Great Backyard Birdcount is nigh!</li>
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Of course, there's many other volunteer science projects. Museums, universities, hobby clubs, are all great places to get plugged into a project. I've helped a little at the Heard museum preparing a mosasaur, and hope to get out to the <a href="http://www.arlingtonarchosaursite.com/" target="_blank">Arlington Archosaur Site</a> sometime this spring.</div>
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We recently saw the movie The Big Year. It was a fun show and the paralleled story-line of the ruby-throated hummingbird will be in my mind this spring... although for us we have our resident chimney swifts that come to roost soon, at about the same time our juncos migrate north. </div>
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-42738734193929505742012-10-05T18:06:00.001-04:002012-10-05T18:06:26.846-04:00Time to Fly South<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpJ3rxzXIKiuptdIWHWsB8ftb5WxbBwH9PIH7XOVVGPMV-wi6-3GfNn3vjycMthL0dEX5UW9l4zheagPHk21N2xQP9il8ydFB_1_QRpid4gV_lNHZZpFdARhgxOQ-WCJjbnI-oLPlYzA/s1600/IMG_6087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpJ3rxzXIKiuptdIWHWsB8ftb5WxbBwH9PIH7XOVVGPMV-wi6-3GfNn3vjycMthL0dEX5UW9l4zheagPHk21N2xQP9il8ydFB_1_QRpid4gV_lNHZZpFdARhgxOQ-WCJjbnI-oLPlYzA/s320/IMG_6087.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Trout Lake and the Vermillion Peaks</span></td></tr>
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It is finished: another season at Mesa Verde just ended and we're on the move again. Almost all of my final day was spent hiking down a canyon I had never had the chance to explore yet: the aptly named Long Canyon. <br />
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Our goal was to investigate springs that in recent history were described by Marylin Collier as having pools of water. One site was a thicket of <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em>Forestiera
neomexicana, </em></span>the New Mexican Privet. It had lots of tiny blue berries and bright yellow leaves in a nice autumn show, but the thorns make it somewhat stand-offish. The next site was high up on a cliff and took some serious hiking to reach, and had a grove of 20 <i>Populus fremontii</i> (fremont cottonwood) trees, but like nearly all the springs in the park, no surface water. The final site we visited had a pool of water, but was trampled extensively by feral horses and cows so that the riparian community was no longer intact and worth investigating for a long-term monitoring project. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">The closest to seeing a lynx I've even been</span></td></tr>
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This past season is the 2nd driest on record for Mesa Verde, and the area is in the 11th year of a persistent drought, so it is really having a toll on the hydrology. We had intended to explore another spring far up the canyon wall, but did not have enough time. Instead, we visited a large sandstone arch below Springhouse Ruin. A great finish to my last hours working.<br />
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For weekend fun, we drove down Last Dollar Road, a scruffy mountain pass that connects the Telluride basin to the Dallas Divide. The quaking aspens were just gorgeous, and the weather had a crisp, cool edge after the first snow fall. I hiked through a little snow up one of the nearby peaks called Whipple Mountain, and somewhere up there I lost my Fire Crew hat. We finished hiking around and then went for an extended soaking session in the hot springs of Ouray and ate a delicious meal at the Ore House Hotel. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Snow on Sneffels</span></td></tr>
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We camped again at Angel and the morning was frigid. We drove up to Camp Bird Mine, which is being reopened to process tailings and perhaps mine a bit more ore from the mountains. The road was in great shape, but we decided not to push our old truck too much and turned around shortly past the mine. I explored a small creek coming off the mountain, which led to a series of waterfalls and another set of "Baby Bathtubs". After that, we went for a hike up the steep switchbacks of Weehawken Trail.<br />
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We're going to miss the scenery and adventure of the Four Corners. I wonder if we will return or if the future holds something different for us?<br />
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For now, it's on the road again!<br />
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<br />Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-84754429966538711982012-09-30T12:43:00.000-04:002012-10-02T13:40:30.556-04:00Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Columbine Creek</span></td></tr>
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Come greet your <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/09/21/161583836/chimney-rock-becomes-newest-national-monument?sc=17&f=1001" target="_blank">newest National Monument: Chimney Rock!</a> I read a great book about a new wildlife biologist who fought all kinds of obstacles to save the Peregrine Falcons nesting there: <a href="http://www.birderslibrary.com/reviews/books/misc/wings_for_my_flight.htm" target="_blank">Wings for My Flight</a>. It's a very scenic spot, so no wonder the Ancient Puebloans build a Great House there. The book House of Rain has an excellent chapter about the <a href="http://www.chimneyrockco.org/standstill_intronew.htm" target="_blank">Lunar Standstill event</a> than can be seen from the twin spires of rock that frame the ruin.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Nature's Hardest Hue to Hold</span></td></tr>
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As always, I can't believe another season is drawing to a close. We've been very busy at Mesa Verde trying to complete our projects. The <a href="http://durangoherald.com/article/20120922/NEWS01/120929820/0/api/Salazar-praises-Mesa-Verde" target="_blank">new Visitor Center</a> is about to open; it is built on the site of an old corn field worked in the mid 20th century. Since all the native plants were lost in the plowing of the field, we're working to restore it to some semblance of a natural mix of plants. It will probably take another five years of consistent effort of planting and controlling invasive plants before it's done.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.widerange.org/gallery/columbine-lake-colorado/" target="_blank">Columbine Lake</a><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> (click link for professional photos)</span></td></tr>
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Since our weekends are numbered, we've been sure to get out and enjoy fall every chance we get! Having been born in Texas, I have a strong bias towards Spring as my favorite season: redbuds, dogwoods, and magnolias all in full blossom, and whole fields turning blue, red, and yellow with wildflowers as the songbirds migrate up from Central and South America -- I feel like the New Year doesn't really begin until the first flowers. A Rocky Mountain spring is very different: the weather pattern is chaotic with snows, dust storms and heat waves all in the same week. The plants (and field technicians) can't trust it. Oak trees do not leaf out until late May, and even then they can get zapped by frost like many did this year and have to go through a second leafing almost a month later. Spring tries to start up in the valleys, and moves up the slopes in fits and starts, with July being the best wildflower season since snows have finally melted and monsoon rains hit the lower canyons.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Engineer Mountain</span></td></tr>
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Autumn is a different story in the Four Corners: the plants and birds all take their cue from the shortened day length and the season is much more organized. The trees and shrubs all agree Fall is here and the aspens steal the show here with there bright gold leaves. It is visually stunning to see the quaking leaves suddenly let loose by a strong breeze and rain down along a mountain side. The air is crisper, so the moon shines bright as geese and humming birds all shuffle for the season. Colorado's best season for me is Fall.<br />
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<tr style="color: blue;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scenic overlook of the Ampitheater</td></tr>
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Finally, I made the effort to see <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5202452.pdf" target="_blank">Columbine Lake</a>. It's a steep switch-backing trail that heads over Silver Shield basin and up to Columbine Lake (not to be confused with the other 1000 Columbine Lakes). I saw a Blue Grouse in the park last week, and another as we hiked the <a href="http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/378594" target="_blank">Pass Creek trail from Coalbank Pass</a> this past weekend. It was very windy as we stood below the summit block of Engineer Mountain, so we took shelter behind a lone, stalwart fir and watched a bluebird dance in the gusts.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">View from campsite</span></td></tr>
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We camped overnight at Angel Campground, nestled in the cliffs that frame Canyon Creek above Ouray. This is the same campground I stayed with my brother and friend 4 years earlier before I began working at Mesa Verde. The following morning, we hiked along the <a href="http://info.boxcanyonouray.com/bid/57736/Take-a-Hike-in-Ouray-Colorado-Portland-Trail-to-Scenic-Overlook" target="_blank">Portland Trail around the Amphitheater</a>, and then went for a long soak in the hot springs. Driving toward the Matterhorn on the way back home, we had to stop and stare at the aspens framing Mount Wilson.<br />
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A cold front was bearing down on the mountains and the first snowfall to hit the Weminuche would begin falling in two days.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Das Matterhorn</span></td></tr>
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-70582547474762550322012-09-22T12:31:00.000-04:002012-09-22T12:31:15.309-04:00Arrival of Autumn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Summer was gone and the heat died down<br />And Autumn reached for her golden crown<br />I looked behind as I heard a sigh<br />But this was the time of no reply.</div>
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<span style="color: orange;">The trees on the hill had nothing to say</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">They would keep their dreams till another day</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">So I stood and thought and wondered why</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">For this was the time of no reply.</span><br style="color: orange;" /><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">Time goes by from year to year</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">And no one asks why I am standing here</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">But I have my answer as I look to the sky</span><br style="color: orange;" /><span style="color: orange;">This is the time of no reply. -- Nick Drake</span><br />
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The Equinox is here and the aspens at the higher elevations have already spun their bright gold. Morning's here are already chilly, so I need to dress for 3 seasons each day. On the first cool day, we went for a short hike down the lower Dolores River Canyon. It is like a miniature Grand Canyon experience (excuse the oxymoron); towering red sandstone cliffs capped in white with white and a tiny river flowing down. We saw an osprey, and at the overlook was a family of white-throated swifts zooming around the cliffs like fighter jets. The swifts would SWOOOSH right over your shoulder, occasionally starting you to watch them instead of the sweeping vistas. On the way home, we stopped by <a href="http://www.mesaverdecountry.com/tourism/archaeology/lowry.html" target="_blank">Lowry Pueblo</a> with the intent to hide a geocache there. Every place we thought might make a good hiding place had artifacts on the ground, so decided against it.<br />
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The next weekend, I went for a hike up Owen's Basin in the La Plata mountains. The aspen there were still green, but there were a few groves that had already turned a luminous autumnal orange. When I arrived at the basin, I saw <span class="st">the Mountain of the North, </span><span class="st"><a href="http://nv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dib%C3%A9_Nitsaa" target="_blank">Dibé Nitsaa</a>,</span><span class="st"> in bright sunshine. Each time I've been near this mountain, it has sent me discouraging vibes: rockfalls, snow, storms, tired feets... this time it beckoned. Even the route up seemed obvious on a mountain that has few obvious routes. By the time I reached the summit, it was shrouded in thin clouds that swiftly flowed around the summit, making me feel like the summit was moving in a sea of clouds. Sometimes gaps in the clouds provided views of Mount Moss, Centennial, Durango, and Mancos. Then a pair of sharp-shinned hawks circled the summit, with one flying straight towards me with a loud SWOOSH as he flew just overhead. Right after that, the cloud deck lifted quickly, where I could see Sleeping Ute, El Diente, Engineer, and the Needles far in the distance. A few huge clouds the size of an ocean liner would come sweeping down at the summit, giving the sense it would crash into me with force -- but instead would just wrap around like a light mist and pelt the ground with a few white gems of sleet.</span><br />
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<span class="st">I made my way down along a faint trail and misunderestimated the amount of time required to get back. Darkness fell, and I neglected to bring a light to save weight in my pack. I reached the river fording at dark and was scared outta my shoes by a cow-bear! (a black angus that spooked out from the willows and for a split-second I thought was a bear). I got back to my truck and noticed some mud and my side mirrors bent -- darn meddling kids! In the morning light, I realized the mud had huge paw marks on them: there was indeed a bear o'er there!</span><br />
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<span class="st"><em></em></span>Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928280990409569688.post-17387537518999340582012-09-15T13:21:00.000-04:002012-09-15T14:21:06.307-04:00Goodbye to Pumpkin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is Pumpkin, aka Squeakers. She was born in October 1993 and died September 13, 2012. We already miss her a lot, since as her nickname suggests, she was very vocal about what was going on. The house is much more quiet without her <i>always </i>getting in the last word.<br />
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All our old cats went through varying degrees of renal failure. Just a few weeks ago we noticed her behavior change; she always begged to go outside to eat grass like a little lamb, watch bugs, and sniff the air. Instead of eating grass, she just wanted to lick rocks and eat dirt. We decided she was trying to compensate for something going on in her body, so we took her to the vet for blood tests which showed her kidney disease had become much worse and they could not keep up anymore. We tried phosphate binders and medicine to help her appetite, but it didn't help enough to overcome the kidney problems. We helped her along as much as we could, but she just became too tired to move on her own and lost more weight. After consulting the vet, we let her die without more suffering.<br />
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Pumpkin was a tiny cat, but had a huge heart. She was incredibly fierce and not afraid to back down from anything; the kind of cat that would chase bears out from the back yard. If we put cat-nip out, I was concerned for the safety of our other pets! Despite being half the size of our other cats, she defended her food bowl and scarfed food down so quickly she often pushed other cats aside to eat theirs too. There was even one occasion where she snatched a huge piece of pizza out from the hand of a guest! Mostly, she enjoyed lying in the sun, playing with her little sockie, and eating grass.<br />
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We buried her next to <a href="http://mangrovetom.blogspot.com/2011/07/goodbye-george.html" target="_blank">George</a>. It's a sunny, peaceful spot in a mountain meadow that catches the morning sun... and has lots of grass for our little lambie.<br />
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Mangrove Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18430032806019876040noreply@blogger.com0