Out on the Ice...

We used zodiacs to get out among the mini-icebergs and were allowed to disembark on the ice floes... we also saw many many beluga whales...it was a fabulous outing. Prior to that I dug a 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot hole to uncover where some science samples had been buried. After the whale watching expedition we used the Ground Penetrating Radar once more...

Enjoy the pictures... there will be many more later.

The days are so long that they seem to have four chapters... before breakfast activities, breakfast, morning activities, lunch, afternoon activities, dinner, after dinner activities, lecture and bed. Ooops, that's ten chapters. When the sun doesn't set until after ten pm and it doesn't really ever get completely dark (although it was hard to see the horizon at two am) there is lots of time in which to do things. The weather changes really fast too, so it seems like every time we go outside it is a completely new day. We've seen it go from blue skies to rain, to cloudy, to clear all in one day so that each time we step outside is a new adventure complete unto itself, disconnected from any other unit of time. That's the one thing that's a little different here. You can't go outside when you want. Even the smokers can't just sneak outside for a little puff. A group of two or three are allowed to step out together, and sometimes I'll see a small cluster of people chatting and enjoying the sun right outside our back door. They won't have a gun with them because they are two steps from the door. (and yes, bears have come right up to the door, too, so even they are constantly watching) Every place else we go, we go as a group and we take a fire arm. We also record our destination on a white board and have a radio with us. If our van were to break down, people would know where to find us (roughly) and we'd be able to call for help.

Lately we've been working a lot for the tree scientist... he buried bags of spruce needles in the tundra, forest and forest/tundra transition zone a year ago. Now he's got us digging them up, cleaning them up and drying them out. In some places we're brushing aside snow to get at ground that is frozen solid. We're also "deploying" plant root simulators that will adsorb ions and give him an idea of nutrient transfer in these different ecosystems. Lots of opportunities to go to beautiful sites and see fabulous birds and wildlife. Here are some recent pictures, including some from the Eskimo museum.

A day at the Beach, Churchill Style.

We really don't worry much about fashion here. The answer to, "What should I wear?" is "Everything". Today I had on (in order, from inside to out) Cashmere Vest, Turtle Neck, Long Sleeved T Shirt, Sweatshirt, Gortex Army Rain Gear. On my feet, four pairs of socks, "gum boots" (knee high rubber boots), Jeans and Gortex Army Rain Pants. When we went out to our afternoon site we hiked, forded a stream, climbed over a snow drift, sogged through the bog, ducked through the trees and crossed the tundra. I wasn't the only one to take a "booter" (have the water go inside your boot) but since your feet go numb almost immediately, it isn't too bad. And I had a grand time watching the weather front approaching, digging up samples and doing the same trip in reverse in the rain.

When it rains really really hard.. like the sideways rain we had the other day, we stay indoors and measure spruce needles. Reallly! Steve Mamet is working on his PhD about the advancing (or maybe not) tree line. He's collected spruce needles from trees in different zones (maybe the word is biome) like forest, tundra, forest tundra mix and collected them from different points on the tree.. the subniveal level (the part that's covered by snow in the winter), the abrasion zone (the part that's blasted by wind-driven snow) and the canopy (the very top of the tree). He's also been careful to collect from three different orientations on the tree... north west, south and east. And he's done all that on 7 different sites. So, three zones, 7 sites, 3 wind directions, 3 points on each tree... do the math ... that's a LOT of little envelopes of spruce needles that need to be measured. And he's got at least two years worth of data. So measure with little rulers and tweezers, filling out spreadsheets for others to enter.

This actually turned out to be fun in a repetitive and tedious sort of way. I tunes and smart funny people made all the difference. Yesterday, after dinner, after drinks and after a talk about Peat Plateaus & Palsas, we sat down and did some more just because. That says something right there. (It probably says that we're all nuts)

You can see that we had a hard time even getting to the fen measurement site.

This was a trying day. The equipment CANNOT get wet, but we had to measure an area that was covered in boot-sucking bog, puddles and peat. The fen stretched out forever and while it was cold and windy there were NO mosquitoes so all was good, as far as I was concerned. The other volunteers are hard workers and we made a good team. We were so proud of ourselves when we finished the measurement and heard that our data was good!

Regardless of what Nick Stokes does on CSI, using Ground Penetrating Radar is not that easy. For one thing, our unit only costs $35,000 which means it doesn’t roll, doesn’t have a GPS and comes in three distinct pieces.

On Sunday we learned that our GPR unit’s two collection device have to be continually separated by one meter and that the unit’s brain which had to be kept five full meters away and was tethered to the first two devices by an optical data cable. Since our economy model doesn’t have wheels, Dr. Pete Krenshaw employs Earthwatchers (a cheaper, but perhaps less reliable source of power)... the lead person will be responsible for moving the first unit forward exactly 25 cm each time, the second person will make sure that the second unit is exactly a meter behind the first and exactly parallel to it. The third person, the brain, responds to the unit drivers’ command, “Measure”, and makes the hand held computer do that. They’re also responsible for telling the movers where they’re supposed to be and recording any anomalies into the data record. A 4th person, the cord manager, makes sure the optical cable doesn’t get kinked, wet or stepped on. While we were working in the fens, a swampy waterlogged flat land that consisted of large puddles lacily connected by hummocks of beige plants and underplayed by a boot sucking bog, we discovered the need for a fifth person... someone who would keep the tape measure turned and visible and help the lead person correctly position the first radar antenna.
On Sunday afternoon we trundled out to the Tundra Site. Using Markers from years’ past Dr. Pete mapped out exactly where he wanted us to take measurements. He supervised the beginning efforts and then set about repairing the damage a polar bear had done to his meteorological station. Carly, a colourfully-tattooed, straight-talking charmer stood guard with her loaded shotgun and a walkie –talkie and the rest of us formed into our voluntary work gangs. “Twenty-Five” the brain would yell, and the two antenna people get into position, parallel themselves, keep themselves a meter apart and yell, “Measure”. “50” yells the brain, and the antenna people repeat the process, tell her to measure and move forward another 25 cm, and so we happily progressed, across 50 to 100 meters of arctic landscape.
We worked hard and thought we were doing a good job but on Monday Pete showed us the data and there were a few blips. Then he took us out into really challenging territiory....

Sunday night was Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year... The sun, which had risen at 4:03 didn’t set until right around eleven o’clock. We were all at the bonfire waiting to watch it happen.

WOW - even getting here was a total adventure... on Thursday in the airport in Winnipeg I was asking about taking the bus to the train station when a woman I recognized from the Chicago airport chimed in... I had already pegged her as someone who’d be going to Churchill as she was the only other person wearing heavy hiking boots amidst a summer flurry of sun dresses and flip flops. Together we got on the 15 and sped through a succession of ethnic neighbourhoods... Ukrainian, Korean, Chinese, Spanish-speaking... and the clusters of people boarding and exiting the bus were just as varied too. Our driver made sure we changed at the right place downtown and we found ourselves at 123 Main Street, Union Station, only $2.40 Canadian poorer. A taxi would have cost at least $12 and not been half as much fun.

The train station sits near the confluence of two rivers, the Red and the Assiniboine, and the park behind it is appropriately called “The Forks”. Coolest thing about it was a HUGE skate park heavily populated by middle school and high school boys doing fabulous skateboard and bmx bike tricks. I took lots of pictures.

At the train station the passengers had divided themselves in two groups... in one corner was a small cluster of middle aged people on vacation and on the other was a huge tribe of Mennonites, long skirts fluttering, head scarves flapping, blue eyes winking. The boys were wearing baseball caps... I don’t know if they need to keep their head covered, too, or if they were just cool. I could only understand the most random phrases of their archaic German although I was eavesdropping like crazy.

I could write a whole novel about the train ride as it was like an Agatha Christie set-up... even excluding the 40 Mennonites who left the train after only an hour. At one point there were only nine passengers... a Parisian couple, a professorial couple from Concordia in Nebraska, an 80 year old train enthusiast with his son and daughter-in-law, the bird researcher I met at the airport and myself. Wonderful conversations!

On Saturday morning I awoke to the train being parked in Gillam. Heavy rains had washed out the track farther north so VIA Rail Canada chartered a private jet to take us the last leg. We had the day to hike around the town and we were taxied out to the airport in the late afternoon. The flight only took 35 minutes, turbo props spinning noisily all the while and we could witness the trees fading away and the flat land become increasingly pox marked with lakes and those becoming increasingly iced over.

Churchill Northern Studies Center is a small cluster of buildings huddled under an ENORMOUS sweep of sky. There are watch out for polar bear signs everywhere and it still wasn’t dark when I went to bed at 11:15 PM. Our lead scientist had given us our first briefing, we signed up for KP and I sneaked up into the observation dome for one more look at a long flat landscape tinged pink, glistening white and shiny black and brown before climbing into my top bunk.

This morning at six it was as bright as if it were high noon. The kitchen opens in ten minutes and we can fortify ourselves for our first day of research. Tonight is summer solstice. That means a bon fire and a huge celebration!

OK, don’t tell anyone but I’m a little scared and a little nervous about this whole thing. First of all, I am participating in a scientific research expedition… what if they actually expect me to know what I’m doing? It would be just like me to completely mess something up.. like be a total 7th grader and put the decimal point in the wrong place or add when I’m supposed to multiply…

I leave tomorrow and I still haven’t figured out how I am going to get from the airport to the train station… there doesn’t seem to be a direct bus, but there’s got to be something, right? And then there’s the fact that I’m flying on an Airbus… in deference to my Boeing brother I almost ALWAYS fly his brand, but there was no other way this time… I felt guilty enough booking that flight as it was, and then there was that little upset off the coast of Brazil… not to worry, the next leg (from Chicago to Winnipeg) will be on a little bitty commuter airline..

And here’s my biggest source of anxiety: there are voracious, vindictive, carnivorous insects out there, and they are all gunning for me. I hate mosquitoes and Churchill is supposed to be so rife with them that we are urged to leave no square inch of flesh exposed to the atmosphere.

It is only the female mosquitoes who suck blood, and they only do that to make more mosquitoes. Allegedly, the females rest for two or three days after a “full blood meal” and devote themselves to digestion and egg development… scientists say this like it’s just a bitty thing, but my experience makes me think that a “full blood meal” means a whole lot of ME. I have packed THREE mosquito net hats, long sleeve shirts, long pants, gloves and boots and about six gallons of Deet and fourteen tubes of anti-itch cream. I don’t know why I bothered… I am sure that I will be eaten alive.

a brief Maine adventure

On Friday I drove straight up to Maine with my daughters (600 miles and 700 potty breaks)

On Saturday we drove out to the farm where daughter number one will be completing an apprenticeship in organic farming... it is really all by itself in the middle of rolling hills... at a little town of 200 people you drive up a tiny paved road and then turn off of that .. three and a half miles of dirt / gravel road up and down very steep hills past acres of trees and tiny homesteads... at the very top is the farmhouse, built in 1840... electricity comes from solar panels, water comes from the well and there is a very comfy outhouse out back....

They have pigs and cows and dogs and we came across a snake who was eating a toad... the toad was not happy about this and was kicking and squirming but the snake was very insistent that it was time for dinner and kept his mouth clamped down hard on the hapless toad's head...

In the soft light of early evening a young bull moose ambled across the road! He had been padding around in a shallow pond and just felt like moseying on, he was moving slowly in a very princely fashion... stopped to gaze at us and pose for pictures (not on my camera, unfortunately as the battery was run down).... even our Maine friend who has been back in the state for 10 years now has only seen three and we got to see one on our first day!

And on Sunday daughter two and I drove back... time to pack for Canada ... today I'll buy my "loonies"... Canadian money.

Chesapeake Bay Middle Teacher on the Tundra

Clinging to the edge of Hudson Bay in the Canadian province of Manitoba is the Polar Bear Capital of the World, Churchill. It’s a little town. Fewer than 1000 people live there, but many come to visit… either to view the huge shaggy carnivores or to consort with white Beluga whales who migrate there in warmer months. This summer one of CBMS’ very own will join the crowd.

Seventh grade’s Miss Mohr will be monitoring climate change at the Arctic’s Edge as part of an Earthwatch Expedition (www.earthwatch.org). Inspired first by her daughters’ intense and academic interest in the environment, and then by her students’ musings on the subject, she applied for an Earthwatch Educators’ Fellowship. Shortly before deadline she sat down with the application, filled it out, mailed it off and forgot about it.

She never expected to actually be awarded the opportunity to spend two weeks at a remote site helping scientists do real, hard-core research measuring the effects of climate change. Earthwatch, by its own admission, “supports critical research programs in more than 30 countries, helping to gain the vital science-based information needed to make sensible, informed local management and policy decisions.” Volunteers are expected to give scientists the support they need to carry on their work in the face of limited funding.

The Earthwatch application asked what she would contribute to the success of the mission and Miss Mohr quite honestly replied “mismatched socks”. Most of the kids know her only as the teacher whose socks never match. Much to her surprise, Earthwatch apparently has a need for quirky teachers with odd socks, and replied with paperwork explaining that she would be part of a project designed to help show how much the fast climate change is affecting the Arctic – and what that means for the entire planet. The fellowship covers the cost of the Earthwatch experience and contributes towards her travel and equipment expenses.

She will fly roughly 1250 miles to Winnipeg after school gets out in June and from there head north to Churchill by train… 36 hours across land once compressed by miles of glacier ice. On site she’ll be wearing mosquito hats, a whistle (polar bear alert!) and waders as she measures the permafrost’s organic peat levels with tools like ground penetrating radar and microclimate data loggers. Miss Mohr confesses that she has no idea what these things are, either, but will be blogging and photographing all the while so her students can learn along with her.

As part of the fellowship agreement she will be posting her findings and experiences on line and in journals and hopes very much to be buoyed by email encouragement from her students. Upon her return she will use her new-found knowledge to draw up social studies and math lesson plans. Although she is also a highly qualified German teacher, she hasn’t (yet) figured out how she can work up a lesson plan for that subject. Stay tuned!

The reason Why

This blog is to help all of you follow me on my summer adventures... I expect you'll laugh (at me) a lot and I hope you'll learn a little, too.