Collections assistance

Erica Krimmel is a museum curator looking to keep her skills sharp while living in Truckee, so she volunteered to help us with our collections.

Erica is digitizing the Sagehen botany collection, available on-line soon.

She also repaired our bear mount's nose!

You can learn more about Sagehen volunteers and opportunities here.

Scientific Illustrator at Sagehen

Scientific Illustrator Stephanie Rozzo is spending a few weeks at Sagehen, creating graphics to help us better communicate concepts behind some of our projects.

Aldo Leopold Week

Sagehen is hosting "Aldo Leopold Week", with outdoor screenings of "Green Fire", the Aldo Leopold Foundation's new documentary on Leopold's life.

Watch a preview at Sagehen TV.

We are also showing a new Sagehen-produced documentary: "The Leopold Family Legacy at Sagehen Creek". This short film explains the connection between Sagehen Creek Field Station and Aldo Leopold.

Friday was the opening of the event and Sagehen's 60th birthday celebration. Steve and Ann Dunsky, the filmmakers, generously provided a Q&A after the film. On Saturday night, the Sierra Business Council sponsored the next screening.

There are two more screenings this week. The US Forest Service is hosting a screening on Tuesday, Aug. 23 for the general public. And the Truckee River Watershed Council hosts a screening on Wednesday night, Aug. 24. 

Wildflower season for the books

The late winter, wet spring and summer continue to yield the best wildflowers in a decade by any measure: quantity, size or variety.

Here are a few pics.

Window upgrades

New windows for the Library.

We were shocked by the dramatic decrease in propane use here after we installed automatic thermostat timers in the heated spaces a few years ago.

We're hoping for another shock now that we've replaced the 1950's-60's era windows in the Library and the Residence.

New windows without having to tear out the old trim: slick!

Vinyl double panes replace aluminum single panes.

National Geographic project.

Walter, David and a confused robin.

Photographer David Liittschwager and assistant Anand Varma visited Sagehen last week to photograph rodents and birds for an upcoming issue.

David often shoots the catalog of life within a bounded space, and recently produced a piece on the life in a tide pool at the Bodega Marine Reserve.

This project focuses on everything that lives in a Giant Sequoia. Although there are none of these big trees at Sagehen, we do host many of the same animals. With our small mammal trapping project and MAPS bird banding, it's possible to actually get close to the animals here.

The team was able to photograph all the rodents they required, which included a Northern flying squirrel, just the third wily Douglas Squirrel and the only Lodgepole chipmunk trapped here this year. Lucky!

The birds were more elusive. The long winter had an effect on their numbers. Hopefully, they simply bred at lower elevations this year, rather than suffering high mortality, but we'll have to wait until next year to know for sure.

The team will be out again for our last banding day to try again. Here are the birds on our list that they need:

American Robin
Western Tanager
Dark-eyed Junco
Mountain Chickadee
Stellar's Jay
White-headed Woodpecker
Common Raven
Northern Flicker

New roof for outdoor meeting area

Last week, Contractor Blake Larsen added an extension to the Burnside Cabin roof that covers the presentation area. The roof replaces the fussy tarp that was prone to being shredded by rain and snow accumulations.

The new roof looks and works great, and we'll be able to use the space as a garage for the Imp snowcat in the winter :)