Matthias grant time.

Attention: UC Graduate Students

Mildred E. Mathias
Graduate Student Research Grants

2009 – 10

UC Natural Reserve System

Research grants are available to graduate students enrolled at any University of California campus other than San Francisco who are using one or more of the 37 sites in the UC Natural Reserve System for their research projects. A total of $38,000 is available for grants, with a maximum award of $3,000 per applicant. Students from any academic discipline are eligible.

Applications and supporting materials are submitted electronically. Go to the URL specified below to begin the application process.

Deadline for submission of the application is

October 19, 2009, 8:00 AM

Letters of recommendation and reserve permissions are due

October 28, 2009, 8:00 AM

Further information and to request application materials.

or contact Mike Dorward, UC Natural Reserve System

(510) 987-0159 or mike.dorward@ucop.edu

Reunion

This week's visitors to Sagehen include a reunion of researchers who did work here in the late 70's and early 80's.

We're really excited to have these folks & their families back at Sagehen, planning new research projects.

The photos include Pete Stine of PSW [in the lederhosen], & Marty Raphael [second from left]. Marty will be working with the Bock's this fall to resurvey their old forest plots.

Great science tools.

Here are some great recent science tools from the web:

• Understanding Science is a new Berkeley website that aims to "accurately communicate what science is and how it really works". The site comes from Ken Miller & the same group that created the excellent Understanding Evolution project. I've embedded Miller's Creation Science rebuttal video below.


• The World Science Festival, 2008 has posted dozens of fascinating videos on-line, featuring discussion panels with some of the world's greatest living scientists including Sylvia Earle, Marvin Minsky & Daniel Dennett, as well as musicians, philosophers & Nobel Laureates.
  
  
• A Berkeley group developed an on-line insect identification key, Berkeley BioKeys. It's unfinished, since there's no more money to work on it at present, but the butterflies & a few other insects are reasonably complete.

Archived samples available.

The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) maintains a refrigerated archive of precipitation samples from the National Trends Network (NTN) and the Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network (AIRMoN). These samples are available upon request to outside researchers.

NTN archive samples are filtered, stored in 60-mL polyethylene bottles at 4 deg. C, and retained for five years. AIRMoN archive samples are unfiltered, stored in 250-mL polyethylene bottles at 4 deg. C, and retained for two years.

Samples are available for the following periods:

· NTN samples collected 1/1/2001 - 7/31/2004

· AIRMoN samples collected 1/1/2004 - 7/31/2007

If you would like to request archive samples, or have questions, please contact Chris Lehmann (clehmann@illinois.edu 217-265-8512). Requesters pay a nominal cost for preparing and shipping the samples. The cost estimate will be provided before samples are shipped. The full NADP archive sample policy is posted at: http://nadp.isws.illinois.edu/documentation/archsample.pdf

The CAL will discard 2001 NTN samples this fall. These samples will be sent to anyone willing to cover shipping costs.

If you require samples from specific NADP sites and/or dates, please submit your request by September 1, 2009. We cannot ensure sample availability for requests received after this date.

With best regards,


Christopher Lehmann,
National Atmospheric Deposition Program
Illinois State Water Survey, Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2204 Griffith Dr. Champaign, IL 61801
Tel. 217-265-8512
Email clehmann@illinois.edu

Rate increase

Sagehen, along with the rest of UC, is really feeling the financial pinch of our irresponsible legislators.

Field stations have always operated very efficiently on a shoe-string without the level of financial support other campus units serving thousands of users receive.

It's very painful for us to figure out how to make cuts. Especially since rising operating costs have sucked up a larger & larger percentage of our static budget each year we've been here.

To help close the budget gap, Sagehen & the other Berkeley Field Stations are increasing user fees beginning July 1, 2009 for Fiscal Year 09-10. You can see our new rates here.

And, like all other Berkeley employees, Jeff & I will see a personal pay cut in the form of a furlough of 3 days a month starting in October.

Groundwater monitoring wells.

This week we wrapped up a project to drill groundwater monitoring wells at 5 sites along Sagehen Creek.

DRI & USGS researchers are interested in using the wells to follow up on Laura Rademacher's work using the shallow groundwater well transects around the station & in Kiln Meadow.

The new wells will allow for isotope sampling in various levels of groundwater. Isotopes can be used to discover the source of the groundwater & how long it takes to travel through the system.

The new wells were intended to go to bedrock & beyond, but we never hit bottom. Instead, we found up to 50 feet of lake deposits: sand, gravel, clay, etc.

Support field science.

Katie Moriarty, the Pine Marten researcher who discovered the California wolverine, needs some gear for next winter's field season. Anyone have backcountry ski stuff lying around waiting for a good reason to get rid of it?

Hi all,

Some of the supplies I had planned on having for the next 3 years just feel through. Of course, most of these supplies were not included in my budget for field work/PhD. Crew members and I will be assessing fine scale marten movement in relation to habitat (particularly fuel treatments). We're going to be doing a lot of snowtracking over the next few winters.

Due to a tight budget, I thought I'd check to see if any of you had gear that you didn't want anymore (and were willing to sell for a good cause). If you have any of the things below, just sitting around and ready for serious abuse - let me know. I'll work Craigslist soon, but wanted to check in before I spent more computer time.

- thermometers
- avalanche probes (5)
- huge packs (3) 6000-7000cu"
- ski packs (4), 35-45L slender things that can handle weather/lots of random marten gear and long cross country treks.
- ski poles
- back country shovels
- compasses with declination (4)
- folding treesaws (3)
- some tarps

You know, the usual snow list plus some extras.

Hope all is well. No martens appearing in Lake Tahoe.

katie

New bird species in basin.

Hey,

We now have a new bird species for the sagehen basin, photos below. He arrived here Monday and has been active in the evenings near the multi road intersection coming into sagehen just off of 89. We are looking for someone to adopt him! He is very aggressive; but, seems used to humans.

--Jeff

New addition to the Sagehen teaching collection.

The Forest Service is moving to new digs, & there's no room for the mounted bear. So they kindly donated it to Sagehen's teaching collection.

We couldn't resist having a little fun with it while Mark & Barb Stromberg visited from Hastings Reserve.

New cleaning strategy.

Thanks to volunteer Susi Lippuner [PDF] & Biokleen, Sagehen is now exclusively using low-impact cleaning products, aiding in our ongoing effort to reduce our impact on the Sagehen Basin.

Biokleen generously donated dish soap, laundry soap & household cleaner for station visitors to use. Employing plant extracts as the active ingredients, the products are natural, non-toxic & biodegradable with no harsh perfumes. Since Sagehen's water supply is borrowed from a nearby spring then returned to the ground through septic fields, we are concerned that what we put into the drains does not negatively impact the basin ecology.

Visitor response has been enthusiastic, with younger users particularly excited. Whether due to the quality of the products, clearer consciences about the chemistry, or some combination of the two, the station is staying cleaner than it has in the past.