Winter Work

Rain, rain, rain!  I haven't been so excited to see rain in a long time.  Over the last 3 weeks, we've only had 2 days of green lawn between the ice and snow.  I know everyone in the lowlands was excited for snow, but I'm happy to see the rain.  Sorry guys.

This Saturday I will be headed over to the Olympic National Forest, near the Olympic Hot Springs to the site of the Elwha dam removal.  It's part of our project for our comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment class, but is a historic project for the state of Washington, and a victory for the Elwha Salmon runs.  Billy Frank, chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission provides a great commentary on the dam removals in last Spring's NWIFC News.  This website contains pictures of some recent, very large catches by the US Fish and Wildlife service on the Elwha.  Increased breeding habitat should increase runs within 5-8 years, and with fish that size, it should provide some great fishing (and eating).

I'm not a big fan of winter field work, but it comes with the territory, and this will be a great project for my resume.  I'm not worried about being cold at all this year.  The Hermit finished my winter field wardrobe with a fully insulated Carhart work jacket and another wool hat under the Christmas tree.  I'll be dry and warm with the jacket, hat, Atlas gloves, Columbia pants, wool socks and Columbia boots. Last year I was the nice guy and parted a lot of my gear to unprepared people, then ended up being cold later.  This year, they are on their own.  I don't think you have any business being in the ecology field if you don't know what kind of clothes to wear anyway. 

However, I don't know what kind of field gear repels sparkly vampires.  I'm tired of that joke guys.  And no, I'm not going to Forks, and no, I will not pick you up some of the vampire wine that goes with the gay vampire books.