Familiarity, beauty and Homeland Security

The library. It has bells that chime during the day. It's very lovely when they do.
On my short walk over to Ag. Hall in the "aftermath" of the ice storm and snow.

My Canadian blood felt good pumping through my veins as I walked around Stillwater this afternoon with the cool wind on my face and snow under my hoser muck boots. This is weather that I am at ease and familiar with.

We had a fair amount of ice and then it started to snow but nothing too huge for a north country girl! It is quite relieving to be back in snow and ice. I don't know how folks down here deal with such huge fluctuations in weather. I guess this is what the earth feels during changing climates?!
Took this right before some nice stranger whacked me with a snowball - they were lucky that I didn't unleash the northern hospitality I contemplated letting out ...!!!

Southern snow

School shut down on thursday but that gave me a lot of time to read and do homework and catch up on Range work back home. It also gave me time to miss home and the familiarities associated with it. I'm getting close to being the longest time away from Canada and although I am surrounded by kindness and generosity, the howling north haunts my dreams at night and rules my thinking during the day.

Things I've discussed and learned about this week include:
*Papers like 'Pleistocene rewilding', 'Biodiversity of Canadian Forests' and 'Biodiversity, Beauty and the Beast' with a takehome message that "what may be beautiful to a person in the street may not be sustainable of the very ecological and social values that they desire for their children's children"(Kimmins, 1999) which makes me question what beauty is and how we connect with it at an ecological level.
*GIS/database: Using ACESS as a database for managing data
*Stats: Completely Randomized Designs and Trend Analysis
*Forestry: the 4 distinct phases of forest regrowth following disturbance (establishment, thinning, transition, steady state)
*Range Ecology: Climate + soils + topography are the primary determinants of vegetation; that root carbohydrate reserves may or may not be as important as previously thought; ecological means driven by ecology or from a perspective of ecology (Sam, a couple days ago) and disturbance us 'any relatively discrete event in time that removes organisms and opens up space which can be colonized by individuals if the same or different species' (Begon et al, 1990).
Where I ate breakfast/lunch/dinner today! The worst thing about school shutting down is that I lost all the places I eat at except for the 7-11 downstairs and the one place that serves hot food but only pizza, chicken wings, salad and french fries ... the most ironic thing is that I thought that food was going to be the last thing I'd have to think about down here!!!! It's a good lesson also in being thankful for the good quality of food that we have and for the access to it. I will tune down my hatred of the kitchen for a while ... maybe that will last till June!!!

I had a slight scare of deportation this week when Melissa came into my Forestry class and told me that Homeland Security wanted to speak with me!!!! Yikes! We got it all sorted but that sure elevated my heart rate for a while! Deportation would not be a good thing for my educational endeavours!!!!

I think this is very interesting and we should all read through it: http://www.forestethics.ca/downloads/NewClimate_report_FE.pdf

Winter Storm Warning for Stillwater, OK

Sounds like we're going to get some weather ... hard to believe since it was about +15C yesterday. Almost crazier than mountain weather.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Oklahoma City, OK
3:03 am CST, Thu., Jan. 28, 2010

* MAIN IMPACTS: FREEZING RAIN WILL BEGIN TO ACCUMULATE ON POWER LINES AND ELEVATED SURFACES DURING THE DAY THURSDAY. THE MOST LIKELY AREA FOR SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATION IS SOUTH OF STILLWATER... EL RENO... ALTUS... AND QUANAH WHERE 1/4 TO 1/2 INCH OF ICE ACCUMULATION IS LIKELY. HIGHER ICE ACCUMULATIONS TO NEAR 3/4 INCH WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS PARTS OF SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL OKLAHOMA. SLEET AND SNOW WILL ALSO OCCUR OVER THE AREA ESPECIALLY TOWARDS EVENING. FARTHER NORTH... GREATER SLEET AND SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE LIKELY FROM WEST CENTRAL TO NORTH CENTRAL OKLAHOMA WHERE 6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED.

OSU-Stillwater closing today at 1 p.m.

Oklahoma State University is closing its Stillwater campus Thursday at 1 p.m. due to ice and snow that are expected later today.

The campus will remain closed on Friday.

For students who choose to leave town, or others who must travel, please take all safety precautions and check road conditions. Here is a national weather service site with safety information http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-winter.

Hot discussions and hot classes

This sticker promotes the use of Rx fire - it's just like in the Boreal ...
I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would say this but two of the top 5 things that I miss the most are my kitchen and my truck! They are followed closely by the north country and my family, my bed and my own bathroom that does not require me to wear sandals in it!! A close runner up in 6th place would be being somewhere that has no noises like fans constantly blowing or people. 7th would be my desk at work and at home. 8th would be the Fort and the Northern Rockies cafe! 9th would be the north country and 10th would be the north country! The two biggest challenges and opportunities for my personal growth down here are having to rely on outsources for my food and givin' er with my two feet and a heartbeat.

It is a good lesson in being careful what one asks for! As most of you know, my distaste and hatred for being in a kitchen is very strong as I'd much rather be outside. I thought this would be the best part to my "vacation" down here being that I wouldn't have to be anywhere close to a kitchen for 4months+. That has actually been the most challenging thing for me! The majority of the food places close down on the weekend and I haven't taken enough time yet to figure it all out. For my first weekend here and this past weekend, it was a little bit dicey on the food scene! Thank goodness for Sam and Jane for keeping me fed!!!

My truck. Well, I can't believe how many university students down here all have their own vehicles and how new they are? It's an odd contradiction to where I thought our economic times had lead us. I have never been anywhere without my truck or a vehicle - ever! So being here in this land that is foreign to me is teaching me a good lesson that my two feet can take me anywhere I need to go and just that sometimes my heartbeat may need to be quite strong to get me there! I was walking home the other night from getting dinner off campus. It was very dark and very foggy and there was nobody else around. It was not the most comfortable situation I've been in but what else am I going to do? Everyone says it's very safe here and that Stillwater is in the top 100 safest places in America. A vehicle pulled up behind me slowly and I could see their headlights. Then an unpleasant person leaned out the window and yelled something at me. It could have been the Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek jumping out at me for my reaction was just about that strong. Totally not cool!!!

There are many people in the world who don't have vehicles and there are many of my friends back home who grew up relying on horses and dog sleds to get them places. What a sign of our modern times that I find it one of my challenges here to be so dependent on that vehicle to move me places. The lesson I am learning is to be humbled by those who found their own ways around and continue to do in the year 2010!

OUT ON THE RESEARCH RANGE ... where the patch burn units are.
Heterogeneity with broomweed?
Locust
Red earth
Black angus and dead cedar - what could be better? Maybe some simmental and red angus .... and more dead cedar eh?!
Fenceline comparison - prescribed fire on the left, no fire on the right with cedar encroachment. Similar to Southern BC and the Trench
Differnt kind of barbed wire
Apparently ice is not normal for Oklahoma but here, Isis is on ice!

KANSAS - is it really as flat as a pancake? Apparently there was a study done and it is!
Kansas
Nicely planted cedar in Kansas ... they are doing a good job at spreading evil.
Beloit, Kansas. Approximately 4.5 hours north and east of Stillwater where we spent the afternoon.
Dwayne Rice introducing Sam to the audience.
Heterogeneity and patch burning presentation with Producers, Fire crew, Agency and University folks at North Central Kansas Technical College.
Fire crew
Seeding in brome fields. Note the seeding of yellow sweet clover. Spreading the word about Range in BC and the Ministry of RANGE and forests.

REWILDING - the process whereby it is suggested to reintroduce megafauna from the pleistocene. This is an interesting controversial concept that is worth reflecting on and discussing.
A controversial paper and hot discussion!
Dr. Harry Greene of Cornell University. "Pleistocene rewilding: An optimistic agenda for twenty-first century conservation". The American Naturalist. November 2006.
Part of Dr. Greene's presentation - this particular slide speaks to what their paper in Nature said.

My kind of afternoon - not just talking about fire but playing with it too out at the Research Range with John Weir's class. My pale Canadian skin got sunburned and windburned! It's only January and it's hot!!!
Advanced Prescribed Fire class with John Weir

Really outstanding fire equipment.

Turning 30 in America

It has already been an interesting week and it's only tuesday! Today I turned 30. It seems significant in some regards and not so much in others. Just a number yet it means a bit more when I put it in context of the last 12 months. Really, I've been turing 30 for a while and now I have burst through to the other side - it's exciting!
January 18th in shorts and a shirt with no sleeves and it's +17C - the hottest weather I've ever been in on this date!!! Current weather in Nellie is -29C!

It's true that I am here to become a wise scientist with breadth and depth, yet to do so I have been reminded that I need to keep living out loud as well. I am foraging my way through the "Principles of Range Management", harvesting my way through forestry papers, analyzing my way through SAS (statistics), and beginning to map my way through GIS programming; yet the north country will not loosen her hold. I am constantly relating back to our great white north and processing how what I'm reading, learning and experiencing can be, is or should not be played out in our neck of the mountains.

As most of you know, it was Martin Luther King Jr. day yesterday. A man who had a dream and spoke one of the most powerful speeches of humankind. A man for whom I am thankful for as he has reminded me on his 81st birthday that it is not enough to pass through my days without being thankful for the freedoms I live, that we all live, and that truly every day is a gift and we must make the most of it whether that be in science, in our communities or in any of the other endless possibilities we can imagine. Today, I am especially thankful for my freedom of speech and thought.

Last night we marched with him in mind and a community came together to sing and share music which both produces and is a result of passion and faith. In a re-enactment of his famous speech, I heard the words of hope, that one day freedom would reign and that all would be treated equally. Of a leader who, although torn and battered by many, would remain going peacefully into the night. I also see that as a scientist, even though a passion can lead a person one way, the science may not always result in a positive conclusion or a happy ending that feels comfortable. Perhaps scientific freedom means having the ability and courage to explore something but not necessarily coming out with the results one expected. What if those results are seen in a negative light or as scientists, we are seen as having a negative attitude based off the data that is produced? What if we are surrounded by a culture unwilling to be open and allow such freedom of thought to resonate? But then, what is the difference between having a positive attitude vs. having a negative attitude?

"... woke up this morning with my mind - stayed on freedom
woke up this morning with my mind
-- stayed on freedom
woke up this morning with my mind
-- stayed on freedom
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah
...

Nobody will stop me cause my minds
-- stayed on freedom
Nobody will stop me cause my minds
-- stayed on freedom
Nobody will stop me cause my minds
-- stayed on freedom
Hallelu, hallelu, halleluha..."

And so there lies Early Detection and Rapid Response, invasive plant management and pooled resources delivery - all that we do in the north east and in BC around weeds. I am challenged with the questions about if we think we can prevent, treat and eradicate weeds in the NE and I am enlightened by learning that in fact the silent threat has perhaps been sitting under my nose since I moved to the North and it wasn't until I went further north to the Yukon that I learned the significance of sweet clover and smooth brome's invasion in Canada's North.

If we are truly to be the first line of defense for the North West Territories, the Yukon and Alaska, we have a responsibility to take care of what is growing on our highways in a creative manner that involves a solution to the issue. It has been discussed as being one of the big attractions for wildlife and perhaps a greater effort needs to be placed on either a new seed mix or a revegetation with an undesirable species that is native and invasive only along the highway right of ways. Definitely not news to those in the north and the suggestions have been discussed for at least 5 years now, but perhaps we need to reflect critically on those agronomics which have become such huge, catastrophic devestators in other parts of North America. Learning by what other's have gone through is a portion of what will keep our Final Frontier native and weed free.

Prescribed burning in the Boreal with wildlife biologists Rob Woods and Conrad Thiessen (Ministry of Environment).

Fire. I am on fire, immersed in fire, thinking about pyric herbivory as soon as I open my eyes and sometimes even in my sleep. We are pyric herbivory in real time in the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area. What if we took fire out of the system? What do I expect the M-KMA to be like in a changing climate? So many tens on tens of questions that I have started discussing with fellow classmates and professors. I was a believer before but it appears that the more critical and analytical I am becomming, the stronger I feel about fire in the Boreal. What I have seen over the past 4 years and observed is now going to be challenged with scientific methods and objectives. It will be a hot time!
Alicia Goddard, Ecosystems Biologist from the Peace Ministry of Environment doing vegetation work 3 months post fire in the Boreal with impressive growth. Impressive growth - how can that be wrong?
Nice veg!
Sam in 3 month old prescribed burn in the Boreal.

What I learned in my first week of grad school

My first week of graduate school, or rather, I feel I ought to say our first week at grad school because I know that I'm not here on my own, is through. I couldn't do what I'm doing if it weren't for y'all back home - family, friends, colleagues and support crew. So figured I'd share what I learned in my first week of grad school with y'all so we can all be better enlightened!

1. Koch et al. 2004. The limits to tree height. Nature 428:851-854. My first "official" paper that I read in grad school. I've read other papers but not since I've been here in person at OSU. That paper rocked me upside down! You check it out and let me know what you think of it on first read. Now I am able to discuss it at about 50% intelligence capacity but it definitely woke me up as to what leve I am expected to be reading!!! Thankfully I was told that they won't all be as challenging ...!!!

2. Steve Winter taught me that models can be either conceptual or mathematical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_modelling and that they are good tools to share concepts and/or data with others. I also learned that it is not necessary for my hands to sweat so much when looking at models because they are there to help explain things and not make them more confusing (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=jFp&q=conceptual+model&revid=2050166025&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8CZOS_ujC4zSMoP5xYAN&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQsAQwAw).

3. "All areas of the world that are not barren deserts, farmed or covered by bare soil, rock, ice or concrete are rangelands" (Holechek, 2004). I also learned that "the harmonious use of native rangeland for more than one purpose, such as livestock, recreation, wildlife, and water production, is defined as multiple use" (Society for Range Management 1989). "By 2025, 40% of the world's population will likely experience water shortages" (United Nations Development Programme 2000) and that 17% of the world's population is undernourished in one form or another. Rangelands make up 70% of the world's land area and that "rangeland wildlife also has potential as a source of meat for human consumption in many African countries" (Small 1988). Lastly that "it is therefore essential that both the forester and the range manager understand the interrelationships between grazing and timber management" (Holechek, 2004).

4. A shout out to all you foresters cause you'll like this one: Dr. Rod Will taught us about the cohesion-tension theory, water potential, cavitation/embolism and redwoods. I have a new appreciation for these giants. They are really amazing!

5. I've learned that I really don't like this fancy drink called a fuze and I would rather not purchase that again. I also found out that the majority of places to eat on campus close on the weekend and that there are no payphones that I am able to hunt down!

6. GIS and Statistics amaze me! They are very complex yet very intriguing.

7. I believe that RANGE management is different than GRAZING management but I am questionning that on both sides.

8. Perhaps I have gotten overly used to a lack of interaction with people! I have learned that I don't like it when people walk closely behind me and that when I see people getting off a bus or a lot of students walking towards me, I want to run away!!! I think I've taken a chapter out of "Descent into Madness" and started to live it! I'm thankful that I have become accustomed to the bittersweet isolation of life in Northern British Columbia. It has taught me a lot about being on my own.

9. I have transitioned into a weird space where I can not stop my brain at night time. I close my eyes and see SAS analysis, models, range management texts and concepts whizzing all about. I have learned that this is one of the most weird experiences I've ever had!!

10. I've asked myself what I think I'm doing here just about every day and I've felt that question right to my core. Even though there's a lot of self-doubt going on, I know I'm in the right place. I am surrounded by very intelligent people and appear to have been presented with a solid support network here of very kind and generous Americans who are making me feel very welcome although I have missed the north country since the day I left ...

Getting to Oklahoma State University from the Great White North

Temperatures fluctuated between -43C and -30C before I left. The day before I left it was -38C outside my window.
Fort Nelson seems so far away as I sit here in my dorm room at Oklahoma State University. Even as I type these words, I feel like I'm in a dream. Leaving the Muskwa behind ... 2nd set of mountain ranges - the coastal range
Good old BC Ferries!
It is a long way to come and it involved 2 flights with Central Mountain Air, a ferry ride on a day that started at 3:50am, a taxi ride to the airport, 2.5 hours of time getting through the airport, a flight to Denver, Colorado where my luggage stayed for 4 days, a flight to Oklahoma City and alas, a trip with Sam back to Stillwater.
A family send-off at 4am!
The adventure at the airport began!
I got caught in the flight issues that happened over the christmas season so carry on was not allowed and that made my life rather challenging. Needless to say that my bags had been taken apart and my briefcase got smashed up as it had to be checked through with the luggage. No further comment.

I think I signed more papers last week and filled out more forms than I have ever done even working for the Provincial Government for the past 3.5 years! Visas, health forms, declaration forms, international student forms, the list goes on and my signature got worse! My transition to living in the USA was made very smoothly thanks to the very wonderful hospitality of Sam and his awesome wife Jane. They literally clothed me for a while when my bags were missing, fed me and gave me shelter from this rather chilly temperature. I learned in the international student orientation that this cold spell was the coldest in the history of Oklahoma! It was warm in comparison to Fort Nelson!

I moved into my dorm room 6 nights ago. That was interesting. I am on a floor with all the girls in their 1st and 2nd year - some of them I'm sure it's their first time away from home. The memories of life at boarding school and living in Quebec have been floating back to me! My humble abode consists of a twin bed and a desk with a window and some storage space. It is everything that I need and had asked for. The bathroom is communal and I believe there are 48 of us on this floor! It has been a good reminder in how much I appreciate having just got my own home. I will appreciate it even more when I am home and the only water passing over me is from my own shower water source!

I am proud to be Canadian and I have actually thought of myself as a North American and not a foreigner, but going through my international student orientation, I realized that I am different. Even though the border is just a line on the map, it does signify a lot of different things. There are slight differences in language, large differences in religion and culture but more so what I realized as I was walking away from the customs officer and looking at my passport with my visa in it, that this is the first time in my life that I will be gone from my home land for 4 months. It all started to hit me then. I guess I had been so busy working twice as hard to make sure everything would run smoothly at home that I didn't completely over analyze the situation inside and out as per normal for me. Regardless, for the past 10 days I have been asking myself what it is that I'm doing here. I thank all my years of rowing and of the education I've had to date because without it, this transition would be a lot more challenging.

I know this is the right thing to do and definitely with the right people - I just feel like I'm out on a limb and have quite significantly extended myself outside my comfort zone. That's the way to go though, once a week be more scared than I've ever been scared in my life and I've been living like that for the past 2 years. It's proven to be an interesting ride thus far!

In case you want to check out Oklahoma State and where I'm at, I am in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department (http://nrem2.okstate.edu/) and am specifically in Rangeland Ecology and Management. The mascot for the school is Pistol Pete and the Cowboys and Cowgirls or Cowpokes are the official team titles. How fitting for me!!!!

Beginning the journey of fire and ice

At the Boone Pickens football stadium with Sam in April 2009 on my recruitment trip to Oklahoma State University Questions, questions all around. Answers, answers, yet to be found! If you're checking out this website, you know me well enough about what some would call my inquisitive nature! My thirst for expanding the scientific world around the intimate relationship I have with the North Country has crossed my path with Dr. Sam Fuhlendorf (http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/Fuhlendorf.html). A bison society meeting, an email and 2 good Ministry of Environment friends along with some stars being in line and a phone call have come together resulting with me pursuing my Masters degree at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Stephen Pyne, Me, Sam Fuhlendorf - Friends of Fire, April 2009.

In just one of many ironic twists of fate, Conrad Thiessen (Wildlife Biologist - Ministry of Environment) invited me to collar 5 Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae) cows in February of 2009. With the usual suspects as part of the team (Rob Woods - Wildlife Biologist and Ranger Al Hansen - Parks Area Supervisor both also with MOE) we headed up north to the Liard River and enjoyed playing outside at -30C with Dr. Helen Schwantje, the Provincial Wildlife Veterenarian, and the Nordquist Wood Bison herd. Conrad politely suggested that I may want to study this herd for my Masters ... 1 month later, Sam was in Fort Nelson as our main speaker at the "What's HOT and what's NOT: Fire and Weeds in NEBC" conference. The deal was made at Boston Pizza and Sam and I shook on it. Dr. Marten Geertsema, Regional Geomorphologist for the Ministry of Forests and Range, joined my grad committee the following night and it was decided that one integral part of our research together on pyric herbivory in north east BC will include the Nordquist Wood Bison herd.

Conrad's new invention on the GPS collars so that oncoming traffic will have a better view of the bison along the Alaska Highway. Rob had just tranquillized the cow behind me and Ranger Al was guarding our backs against the bulls that were hanging around. This is also the new way that my office will be able to keep track of me when I'm in the bush. It should save some frustrations!
A good crew was assembled to help work with the bison including Pamela Moon and Floyd from the Kaska in Lower Post who are monitoring the bison in a joint study with Ministry of Environment and the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.

The Liard River, the Alaska Highway and mosaics across the landscape of Fire084
As irony would have it's way again, we had planned to burn an area west of the Liard River hotsprings but decided to wait to ground truth it for burn boundaries until summer 2009 as we were unfamiliar with that country. At the end of the prescribed burn season, just like Gator (Allan Silver, Protection Officer for the Fort Nelson Protection Zone) called it, we saw a lot of fire in the north east boreal forest. The week after we were done prescribed burning, mother nature implemented her own burn prescription on the Smith River Fire 84, known from here on as Liard Fire 84.
Marten on the fireguard on the east end of Fire84 - checking slope stability. I attempted to follow straight up with him but took to the forest to climb instead.
With Marten in Liard Fire84 and bison sign - pyric herbivory already in action and the smoke hasn't even settled.
If that ain't pyric herbivory, I don't know what is eh?
Fire in the Northern Boreal forest of Canada. Marten and I after a few days of field work on the Liard.

With the support of the Wildfire Management Branch, I was integrated into the working knowledge of this fire. Fire Behaviour Analysts, Incident Commanders, Protection Officers and the great guys from the Prince George Fire Centre (Brent Bye and Stan Harvey) spent time with me talking about Fire 84. Fire crews sent in pictures of the fire and bison activity. The Wildfire Management Branch provided support in viewing the fire and bison activity and 3 crews lent their brains and muscles to build our range exclosures. This 23,000ha plus fire has now turned into an integral part of our research area.



She was still smoking in August when Sam came back up north.
Brent Bye, Allan "Gator" Silver, Alex Patterson and Chris Stanley - the best guys to work fire with.

Too often, fire has a negative connotation. On our rangelands in North East British Columbia, there appears to be a number of controversial opinions around the use of fire. As foresters, agrologists, guide outfitters and First Nations, we know that fire is integral to the boreal forest. So why should we ever consider taking it out of a fire dependent system? Is fire really the enemy that some make it out to be or in reality, is fire really the only way to manage the rangelands and forests of Canada's great north country? How and why could we place a blame on fire for the significant difference in structure between the inside and outside of this range reference area?

It's only just the beginning of this story about my journey of fire and ice.
Marten, me and Sam - a great team
Chris Schippmann, Liard River Adventures, a good friend and an outstanding research assistant.