My First Bog!

Taking a new perspective on the lovely bogs of Northern Alberta, I am a Villanova undergrad helping out with the project this summer.  Eric and I were wide eyed and eager for our trip up North, ready to get our hands and our boots a little dirty.  After cleaning, organizing, and analyzing in the lab we were very excited to see the real thing. 

After a couple easy flights we landed in Edmonton and headed up to Athabasca.  Excited by the saltwater pool at the hotel, we had a fun night before the real work began.  Then, the next day we headed to Athabasca University, prepping for all our sites: constructing the sippers, cutting boardwalk pieces, and getting all the materials we needed.  Then, after a long day at the garage, we got a good night of sleep and headed up to Fort Mac.  On the way, a site near Conklin was scouted, but to no avail.  We did get to see our first bear of the trip (kind of accidentally) as we were turning around to plan what to do next.  It ended up being a day off due to the new site not being what we were looking for (sigh).  So, the true fieldwork had to wait one more day.  We got up to Fort Mac, a little confused at how such a bustling town can be this far North, but actually really liked the town's unique charm.

Boots and Bogs

So, Friday comes and we head to MacKay to tackle the first site.  With Kel's and Kim's crash course in everything bog related, we were ready for veg collection.  We quickly learned the difference in root color of Fuscum and Capillifolium, had to scrape off Ledum from our gloves (the new growth is pretty sticky in early June), and tried not to get too stuck in one of the wetter bogs we went to over the week.  While it took some practice and quite a few questions, Eric and I quickly became pros at spotting all 10 species we were gathering.  With the help of SIU, Caitlyn, Yev, Kristen, Kim. and Kel, we cruised through veg and water collections at MacKay and then went to JPH4 where we got that finished pretty quickly as well.  I had never been in a bog before so I got quite a few pictures after I figured out my best path so that I wouldn't get stuck.

Eric at MacKay

The Mighty Kel

The next day was our first new site day.  We arrived at the site which we named Kearl and loaded up as much as we could to take out closer to the site.  As Kim mentioned, we had already seen a bear on the way and it was pretty clear that this is one of the more "off the beaten path" sites.  It was a hot and steamy day so we got to work right away to hopefully finish a bit early.  We hammered a lot of nails, pounded in posts, and set up everything pretty quickly on the site.  Then, with the help of SIU we struggled through getting veg for the sites (a couple of the samples were hard to find at some of the plots) and started packing up to get back to Fort Mac.  That's when Jeremy called us about the bear.  With this being the first wild bear I had seen while I am not in a car, you would think I would be cautious and careful, but no, I pulled out my phone to get a good video of the bear instead.  After a bit I realized, wow that was dumb, and pulled out my bear spray instead.  But, the bear sauntered on by and left us alone.

JPH4

The last three sites, McMurray Bog, Anzac, and Horse Creek, all went without too many problems and the rest of the week was pretty smooth sailing.  McMurray Bog was pretty dry on the walk out there and no one went for an unintended swim, the rain wasn't too strong at Anzac, and the Horse Creek setup went quickly now that we were pros at setting up a site. 
I was honestly a bit sad to leave Fort Mac, but was excited by the thought of our nice hotel beds waiting for us back in Athabasca.  We then made quick work of wrapping things up and headed back to Philly and the lab.  Overall, I know both Eric and I learned a lot being out in the field as well as had a good time with it.  Other than a few less horseflies, no complaints from me.  I can't wait to get back up there next month!!

The Bear!!

A new fan of peatland bogs,

Spencer

Our Endless and Proper Work

Posted by Kim

There is a deep grey to the gloam this morning and it is likely to rain today here for a bit.  Snow for tomorrow.  Snow yesterday. Snow likely today somewhere.  It has been cold.  But today is Thanksgiving, and we will celebrate it warmly even if first we venture out with toe-warmers at the ready.  Crow Lake is on the docket for today and it is full of treachery. 

We polled last night and it has won the Site-Least-Liked award.  Crow Lake burned around 2000 and so the trees that died then are akimbo, losing their vertical.  The peat has lost integrity producing pools in which many boots are lost: soakers, we call them and sometimes they come in quick succession pulling both boots off unsuspecting undergraduates.  You stop.  You pull your boot(s) out of the dark sodden hole.  You pour the water out, hope for the best, and move on.  The walk into the site from the road is also quite terrible and we’ve lost two folks up to their armpits.   We now are very aware of where that hole lives. 

In contrast, we have two beautifully green and vibrant sites near Wabasca, Alberta – a short drive from Athabasca where our base of operations remains for now.  I have grown to love them both.  The oldest of our sites, Wabasca old, is full of surprises and, as far as bogs go, is pretty diverse.  The trees are dense, which made plot layout a challenge, and this trickles down to me wandering around almost every time I’m there to make sure I’m at the right spot.  Mosses run roughshod over fallen trees and climb up living trees making the spruce throw out new roots in order to survive.  It is a silent battle out there that hardly anyone sees or understands, but we speak some of the language and we try to listen and learn. 

Field work is a comfort to me (even though I may grumble about the cold or the bugs or the snow or the rain) and I have missed it this summer.  It is good to be back in the field and among the mosses so plenty. I’m reminded of a ditty written by Mary Oliver.  This is but a bit of it:

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,

looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants

only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.  

Happy Thanksgiving to especially our Canadian friends.

 Posted by Kim

Black Spruce cones form in clumps high up on branches near the tops of trees.  They are considered serotinous. That is to say, these specialized trees depend on fire to help release their seeds to the world.  The trees bear slowly-opening cones for 25 - 75 - 100 years until a fire sweeps through to rapidly open the cones to disperse their seeds to the charred peat.   They have evolved to survive in a world in which fire is expected – and up here, that return interval is estimated at just over 120 years.   You would be hard pressed to find spruce trees older here in the bogs of Alberta, and we can tell you where a few are, but they are rare rare rare.  We also think that the fire return interval is likely shrinking.  Fires are predicted to increase in intensity and to happen more often. This is all part of the climate story of the world.  

The Fort Mac fire has recently been categorized as being held, and it has surely released a multitude of black spruce seeds – many in our study sites.  It has also burned a bit of our equipment and more importantly, some beautiful landscape is now black and crunchy. The town itself seems to be recovering as well.  They don’t let you into the residential areas that were nearly completely demolished, but the town seems to be chugging along with most things back open.

 

I just spent a few days there with Caitlyn and Wendy and we rolled along the truck-filled roads with our aim on science. We breathed in bad smelling air and watched stacks billow brown tinged ‘steam’.  The big business of oil sands was back up and running.

At Anzac, the first site we visited, the constant buzz of bugs was punctuated by helicopters carrying water bucket after water bucket to nearby hotspots.  Bright green Cloud Berry leaves and Labrador Tea plants were starkly tender on the charred peat; and a month post fire,  where I stood, life was returning.

Along with Anzac, McMurray Bog was also partially burned with the Black Spruce taking the brunt of the damage at both sites. Another site, Mildred, was a total burn.  Two other sites were left unscathed and wait for the next fire to open their cones.  The science moves on. 

These bogs are resilient and I am glad to see that life springs anew sometimes even because of great tragedy.  We will return again in a few weeks and I'm sure we will find new and green freshness springing from darkness.

Mildred Burned

Posted by Kim

Well, we are pretty solid on our Mildred site burning pretty much as I type this.  It is located very close to the Syncrude/Suncor main stacks and ponds as you can see in the satellite image below.  We had hoped to wander up in that direction tomorrow, but it is looking less and less likely that we will be able to visit any of our sites up there for quite a time.  We will keep you updated.

To the right you can see the overall fire activity this morning.  Today we plan to hit our Red Earth Creek and Utikuma sites which happen to be the furthest sites west and away from this area.  There appears to be a small fire under control north of Red Earth Creek, however, it seems like those sites are all in the clear. 

In other news, it is good to be here in Athabasca again, and the weather is projected to be a lovely 80 F and sunny today.  It is a good day to do field work, but probably not a great day to fight fires.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed.

Flowers and Field

Posted by Kim

I drove by Meanook on my way to the airport this weekend.  I’m not sure why.  I suppose I knew it would only take a few minutes and I wanted to see an old friend and drive down dusty roads.  Through the chained gate I could see all the old buildings, quiet and abandoned.  I could almost hear the laughter and the power tools and see people playing street hockey in the pickup-truck-laden parking lot.  The grass was mowed, and flowers bloomed behind locks and barriers and cameras designed to keep such riff-raff as me out. I was simultaneously happy and sad- but mostly sad.  Time keeps ticking on, and so do we - evolving with the challenges and difficulties that change with the days and years.  

I was heading home from a week of field work.

Our living space this year is better than we could have ever hoped, given our motel experience last year.  We have open space and a beautiful kitchen and it is fairly close to the lab.  I talked a little bit about the house earlier on the blog and I only have good things to say still.  Our crew is also fantastic.  They are a great group of people and there are many stories, but it is about the time of year when folks start thinking about the end, and the big push needed to finish up the work.  Thoughts of home or vacation or anything but field work start creeping in and it is far enough into the work for everyone to really start to get a handle on each other’s personalities (such a variety of I's and E's!) and what makes each other tick and maybe even what buttons to push here and there.  I learned many things, even this week. Kelly, for example, LOVES to pick wild berries. John likes to talk about conspiracy theories with Graham. Agrima is totally into watching Wall-E, but no one else is. Rob carries swim trunks in his field pack. Sharon and I are least likely to be psychopaths.   We all have our quirks, but I think we all like Saskatoon pie.   I was pleasantly aware of how well folks were getting along and how dedicated and good natured everyone is.

I'm proud of our group, and I’ve missed these people.  I’ve missed the bogs and the bugs and the drives, even, in a strange sort of way.  I’ve definitely missed the work.  There is nothing like spending the day tromping around in a bog.  You sort of take it for granted when you are there full time doing it day in and day out, but these visits are good for me to keep my perspective alive.  It was a good week of work for me and I am glad I could go.  

There is much left to do, but I know the crew will have fun doing it and that all is well there in the middle of Alberta.  The flowers are blooming and the grass is cut and the Saskatoons are ubiquitous, ripe, and being picked.  

Good luck, everybody!!

A view of Athabasca

Field Work Time!

A doe and her twins visit and eye us slyly from the yard:  we are their new neighbors at the bottom of the hill that angles sharply up to Athabasca University.  Instead of 18-wheelers and rowdy road workers waking us up in the mornings (last year’s motel fun), I found myself this morning moaning about an industrious woodpecker that roused me a tiny bit too early.  Our digs have improved by orders of magnitude.  Athabasca University has again made our arrival so welcoming; and this summer, we hang our hats in a building they own and maintain.  It is nestled among trees and open space and we are making it our own until our season ends this fall.  The kitchen has a commercial gas stove with 6 burners, two fridges, two sinks, two dishwashers, 1 gas oven, and 2 convection ovens.   Need I say more?  We are living in luxury.  A big shout-out to the folks that have been working so hard to make our arrival such a wonderful experience.

Our crew is arriving in two waves this year.  I am here with 5 other folks and we have been fixing things, settling in, and prepping for the summer.  The second wave arrives on Saturday (two days!) and includes not only a seasoned grad student (hey, Julia!), but also our new crew of field techs who will be experiencing bogs for the first time!  Logistically, it is a tricky thing to balance airport runs, maintenance work, site construction, and isolated research tasks, so this year we decided to mix it up with airport runs.  We look forward to the whole crew’s arrival so we can start the summer fun.  Meanwhile, today, a small group of us are heading up to Fort McMurray to set vegetation growth markers, swap out precipitation collectors for the summer and put together a new site.  We hate to leave our cushy digs in Athabasca, but we look forward to squishing through the bogs.  Our first site up is a bog we call Anzac.  It is one of my favorites. 

This is an image of part of our walk to the site, but we have yet to arrive there-- right now I am in the truck and I am happy to report that we just passed a bear – our first bear of the season!  Construction continues on the road to Fort McMurray and bear sightings along this strip are fewer than they used to be as there is a lot more dust and big construction vehicles to deal with. We will have a very busy day tomorrow as we head into the Fort Mac area where the construction is ridiculous and the air is even more dirty, but we look forward to the work and visiting our old bog friends. 

Welcome to Alberta 2015!!!

An Athabasca Welcome

The 2014 summer field campaign has begun in earnest.   We bring with us spring, which also is just arriving in this northerly part of Alberta -- the leaves are just beginning to show their greens and the rains are cold.  In some ways it is like we never left, but in so many other ways, it is all new territory.  Meanook remains vacant and is no longer really Meanook.  There isn’t much left, and we still mourn…  the Athabasca Lodge Motel is a far cry from the field station.  We miss it very much, but Athabasca University has adopted us and we have been welcomed with so much enthusiasm.  We are wildly grateful for the space that we now struggle to organize and for the abundance of help and welcoming we’ve received.  A huge thanks goes out especially to Elaine Goth-Birkigt without whom we would be completely floundering.  I cannot express how much we appreciate the efforts that continue to be made on our behalf by Elaine and how welcome we feel here at the University by everyone. 

Our new students are doing a wonderful job, and we are all excited to start the field work.  We made it to all of our sites before the rains set in, and as it eases up tomorrow, we will tackle some heavy water transport of our own.  So far so good.  Bring on the fun and the bugs!     

Boards and Plots

It was the third full-out field day today.  Bruised and sore, we are kicking some serious plot-building butt.  I am so proud of this team we have.  They are without complaint even when I know they are exhausted and are pushing themselves places they usually would never go.  In this group, we have three undergraduates with us for their first year of bog fieldwork;  Mikah, Anita, and Brian have been incredible and it will be a great year with them on the team.   

We have hauled 510 10’ pieces of lumber from here to Red Earth Creek.   We haven’t quite finished with 170 of those that need new homes tomorrow after finding their angle of repose tucked into the trees about 200 meters down the cutline.  That is almost a mile of 10-foot pieces laid end to end.  This lumber is now distributed across a few sites, and we’ve another 170 to go at a new site early next week.  Slogging through the soupy mosses, while an excellent workout, is not the easiest thing in the world.  I give our team giant props for being such good sports.  Everyone has bruises on their shoulders and sore muscles everywhere, but a few more days of this and we can get onto the fun less painful stuff. 

 

Postings may be scarce here while we exhaust ourselves, but all is well in the grand scheme of things.  Fires are burning here and there, but nothing to cause us worry.   Hopefully will keep you all updated as we move through this first phase of the summer.  

Happy bog-walking!

Kim

Welcome

Welcome to the 55th Parallel.  Our ecological research in Canada takes us above and just below the 55th parallel in Alberta, and in the summer, we utilize our 17 hours of sunlight to the fullest. In the winter, when thankfully we aren't busy up there, the sun is above the horizon for not quite 7 hours.  It is a great place to work if you can fend off the black flies and bears -- and there are plenty of both.  The wetlands in which we work are teeming with life of all kinds, and these systems are beautiful.


This blog's inspiration comes from wanting to share some of what we know and some of what we experience while doing research both here at VU and in Canada.  We are exposed to some great people, fascinating terrain, and quality research.  Throughout the next few months, in particular, as we delve into the busy summer field season, we'll share what is happening with us and our group and we welcome feedback and insights.

Our research takes us primarily to Alberta Canada where we focus on disturbances both anthropogenic and natural.  We work in peatlands, which in this part of the world, are dominated by treed bogs and both treed and open fens.  Within these wetland systems, we work to tease apart nutrient cycling under the umbrella of fire, pollution, and climate change scenarios.  We do this because peatlands store vast amounts of carbon and other nutrients, and it is this carbon that could potentially be released back into the atmosphere, given changing conditions, thus further contributing in some way to global climate change.

We hope to share with the world (and friends and family) why these systems are so incredibly important, our love for the ecosystem, and the science that drives it all.  We will have posts from graduate students, undergraduates, professors, technicians, and hopefully some interesting guest writers.

And so, welcome.