People of the Big River 2025

     Today we went to Sisters Ranger District to assist them on the B.D.A. Beaver Dam Analog. Similar to what we did in swamp lake except in a smaller body of water. We arrived slightly early at the district so we used the restrooms and shopped around the little souvenir store. I liked one of the sweatshirts and water bottle over there but they were a little over my budget on those kind of things. I did get a cute Smokey the bear plush, I think that was a good $12.50 well spent. Once our guiders arrived they led us to the conference room where we introduced ourselves. The guides consisted of Liz Day, Alex Enna, and Christine Neyers, all having some sort of background that assists them with forestry. Christine has 19 years of experience in botany, Liz has a degree in wildlife biology, and Alex has a background in fire.       They gave us a presentation on what we would be doing today and where. The location was at the lower Black Butte Swamp that was cu...

     This morning we had to wake up at around 6 in order to leave at around 7: 30. It gets pretty hard getting out of the warmth of my sleeping bag when it's so cold up here but I'm able to force myself out eventually. Today we went to look for a rare plant called the Pumice Moonwort also known as Botrychium Pumicola. We were guided by Merlow Fisher who is a botanist and is currently monitoring the amount of moon warts in the area as they have become a rarity. They want to figure out if can help out the population or just leave them be. She also taught us about the type of material we were on; porous rock, ash from a volcanic eruption that happened thousands of years ago.  Pumice Moonwort (image from google)          We first scouted the area for signs of the plant without any visual reference, only a description. Eventually we were given a photo and the plant was first located by Raquel. The plant was a lot smaller than I thought, about half...

     I don't know if it's because it felt like we were able to sleep in a little more this morning, or because I managed to go to sleep at a decent time last night, but I actually feel like I slept well. It's cold but I think I figured out how to maintain warm throughout the night with my blanket. We actually got a whole warm breakfast this morning too which was nice. Fresh bacon, eggs, and potatoes and some coffee on a cold morning sounded great. Today was also laundry day so I had to change into the last remaining clothes I had to be able to send the others to wash which, unfortunately, all I had left was a t-shirt and some shorts. At least I still had my blanket to keep me warm.       In the meantime, while our clothes were sent to wash, we had some science work to do. First, we inoculated the Spokane water we forgot to do last time and then we got to work reviewing our previously incubated bio paddles for any bacteria growth. We made note of the ty...

     Today was another campsite relocating day. We had to wake up pretty early in order to pack up everything and head out by 8 am. The car ride was going to be an 8-9 hour road trip from Spokane, WA to Crane Prairie in Oregon. It surprisingly didn't feel like that long. I think it's also because I slept most of the way there and would only get up to stretch whenever we stopped for a bathroom break. I'm also surprised my head didn't hurt like last time. Lemon usually helps ease my nausea so I think the lemonade I got at the gas station really helped.  I did lose some feeling in legs though.      We finally arrived at around 5 pm, set up our tents and got to preparing dinner. I think tonight's dinner was one of my favorite foods: meat, lettuce, and cheese wrapped in a tortilla but Monette's cooking is always good. But I think I ate so much that it upset my stomach, the cold didn't help either. It kind of feels like every new location it gets even colder...

     Today was a full science day, meaning staying at the campsite for lectures and science work. We finally got the WI-FI set up to do online work but first we had to go through a lecture and review from Jessica and Corbin on the basic things we've been doing so far. Like for our PH strips: a normal PH level is a 7 in terms of testing the toxicity levels of the water samples we've collected. And so far our PH readings have been between 6-5, so only slightly acidic. Or like how our equipment the turbidity tube has a Secchi disc inside and the water is measured by how far you can see the disc at. Things like temperature: the more warmer the water the more bacteria will grow at a faster rate. Which is why we're incubating at 37 degrees Celsius for more than 24 hours, to grow our bacteria. The average temperature we have measured at the bodies of water have been around 15 Celsius so bacteria isn't able to grow as fast. 16 degrees Celsius is the best temperature for the fis...

     Today we went to Tshimakain Creek, Wellpinit guided by Jordyn Mhehmley and Josh Keiffer. Experienced people who took time out of their day to show us what they do as reservation fish technicians in their day-to-day lives. Their group has spent a lot of time getting to know and gain trust with the locals at the creek so that they would be able to run their analysis's on the creek's ecosystem. They taught us about the Redband trout that they are trying to increase the population of.       After about 3 shifts with the first equipment they took us to a different part of the Tshimakain Creek where we took a short lunch break before they would show us how they would get rid of the invasive species threatening the Redband population. This fishing process required some light zapping that didn't kill the fish, just turned them belly-up for enough time to catch them with our nets. We made our way into the creek with our waders on following the lead of Josh...

Today was a very relaxed day. It was finally time to pack up and move on to the next campsite. I made sure to pack everything last night but my bag seems to be, suspiciously, more spacious than when I first packed it. After packing away our tents and preparing lunch, I realized I forgot my laptop at the cafe but luckily it was still there when we went back for it.  When we made it back to Toppenish we stopped by Heritage University to pick some stuff up and take a bathroom break. I was finally able to call my Mom and catch her up on how I've been doing good so far. I even got Spotify premium for the long trip ahead, student discount, so I spent the whole trip trying to download songs. We stopped by a canyon view spot to eat and also passed by a little grocery mart where I got a souvenir hoodie, expensive but it's a nice hoodie at least.  Finally, we arrived at the Powwow grounds of Spokane at around 4pm, set up, ate, and then inoculated our bacteria  from our colle...

    The plan for everyone today was to wake up at 6 am and then head out before 8 am. Todays destination was 'Swamp Creek, a tributary of Cunningham Creek'. Our trip guided by Doug Olney, John Washines, Patrick Hayden, Gerard Foley, David Lindley, and Jeanette Burkhardt. Very welcoming and fun people who devote their time and energy to help care for the preservation of the reservation and wildlife. The main purpose of this destination was to help them rebuild failed historic beaver dams to re-influence the effect beavers had on the land before they started disappearing, and hopefully make them return and stay.  Once we arrived we switched into their trucks before entering rough roads. I rode with Gerard Foley who happens to be a very chill and cool guy. We made our way as far as the trucks would take us and then walked the rest of the way down with the tools needed. Those with waders were able to go into the water and help set the material into the dam, others helped co...

     Last night was a little rough in terms of sleeping, extremely freezing for me. As much as I say I prefer winter over summer I don't do the best in the cold but I'll survive. I'm also not a morning person which the cold didn't help with either, so I was late to breakfast and had to rush to pack. I hope I didn't forget anything, I'll make sure to be more ready next time and get up on time. I don't want a repeat. I didn't change out of my sweat-pants for when we set out hiking and had to collect the river water for our research. It wasn't that bad, I just wish I had the right pants. This also made me think about how I should go about planning when I should wear shorts or pants if I'm cold in the morning but hot throughout the rest of the day. I guess it doesn't matter too much.       The small hike was nice, I can't wait to do more like that. I think our first site was Bird Creek River, I'm still getting used to the tools we have to...

    So far this trip has not been as intimidating as I thought it would be. And after the long process of getting to Bird Creek, I realized I really should have downloaded a lot more songs. The drive was nice though, the scenery was very pretty. There's no service out at the campground which is fine but I promised my mom I would call her once I got the chance, so I hope she's not too worried she hasn't heard from me the first day.  I am worried I might have under-packed my warm clothes though considering we are by the river, I realize I should have packed warmer clothes like I would have packed a normal camping trip. I might have been overthinking and thought I had to pack everything into only one bag.       Sharing a tent and going on a trip with people I don't know is also not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, I'm having fun so far. There's a lot of work that needs to be done to help out and my feet hurt but I'm actually enjoying how active ...