Back to the Gila 2 May 2004 Well, I made it up the mountain just fine, despite Mother Nature's attempts to the contrary. I left San Diego the end of March and drove straight through Arizona (which was almost entirely a beautiful thunder and lightning and rain storm). We crashed at the Econo Lodge in Silver City, NM for a few days while we worked at the Forest Service office getting everything ready for this summer. The drive up the mountain was fairly uneventful, but there was plenty of snow. Setting up my tent in the snow was not the most exciting thing I've ever done, but I didn't want to wait on the chance that the snow got worse and risk having to sleep in the car my first night up here. The snow stopped of course, but my new temporary home is nice. I've decided to migrate further away from the main camp this year; it just gets too loud sometimes. Plus, with my bike I can commute to work fairly quickly. For those of you who don't know what I do and are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, here's a quick rundown of my job for the past four years. (The rest of you can just skip to the next paragraph). I work for Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, a non-profit research organization. My boss, Dr. Ann Bowles, is a well-known and highly respected bioacoustician. She is the Principal Investigator for this project which is studying the effects of military jet aircrafts on the nesting and reproductive habits of the Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico. So every summer, Ann, my co-worker Chris, and I head out to New Mexico for four months. The project is run by Geo-Marine, Inc. who provides the majority of the staff, equipment, etc out here. We live in an awesome camp in the Gila National Forest on the western border of New Mexico. The nearest town is Reserve (commonly referred to as Reverse by us since many things in that town are, well, backwards) and is about 35 miles away from camp, but takes about an hour to drive the forest road. Albuquerque is about 4 hours away and is the source for the major shopping requiring anything other than a small grocery store or a Laundromat. It's absolutely beautiful out here. As for camp, well, it's pretty well stocked. Chuck Sundt is our logistical coordinator; he provides the mess tent, stoves, BBQs, fridge truck, work tents, generator, water, and showers (hooray for the showers!). So we're camping, but we're not camping. The crew lives in their own tents of various sizes scattered around the outskirts of the main camp. I've still got my 5-person tent which is pretty much a palace out here. There are several crews out here, all working on different aspects of the study; noise, vegetation, survey, behavior. I work mainly with the behavior team but I also manage all the biological data that comes in (and that's a lot!). The short version (too late, huh?) is this: the survey crew goes out late at night and early in the morning to locate the owls; the noise crew goes out and sets up and then monitors sound level meters (SLMs) which are placed throughout the studyarea collecting 2-second samples of all the noise in the forest; the veg crew goes out to many many locations in the studyarea to collection vegetation data which help to determine where the owls could be located; the behavior crew goes out during the daytime (although we still start really early) and big a backpack full of equipment (video cameras, scopes, half a dozen tripods, etc.) to observe the owls' behavior with and without jets present. This whole thing goes on from April until the end of July at which point I go back to San Diego (hooray!!) to go over the data and help to write the annual report. This is the fifth year of the study and most likely (no promises) the last. Whew. So camp is pretty much the same this year, but I've been relieved of some of my usual duties. In the past I've been both the Behavior Crew Supervisor and the Biological Data Manager (a title they invented for me this year). Because this is most likely the last year (again, no promises) I've been asked to focus more on the data coming in and the job of Behavior Supervisor has been given over to Lex (a previous behavior crew person and honestly better at the job than I was). While I have to admit I was kinda bummed that I had to give up the Supervisor position, it does take quite a load off my mind, and I still get to be totally involved with the behavior crew. Of course being the Biological Data Manager is no small task either :) so I'm still plenty busy. Let's see, usually I'm better about writing more frequently, but it's been so busy this year already. We had the usual two weeks of training; ATVs, bird id, plane id, safe driving, wilderness first aid, owl survey, etc. We actually started behavior training the 3rd week of camp instead of the first week of May because the Air Force is cooperating amazingly well this year. Usually we have a rather difficult time figuring out when the jets will be flying, where they'll going to fly, etc. This year they seem to be really excited and enthused to give us all the info we want in addition to all the flights we want (and probably much more). Because they started flying on the 26th of April, we had to do behavior training two weeks earlier than normal and have been in the field ever since. Thus my excuse for not writing sooner. Interesting tidbits about camp so far….it snowed tons the first few weeks, really, really, really cold (hello!? I grew up in San Diego!). One good dump managed to cave half my tent in. No broken poles thankfully, but it did manage to rip about a 3 foot long gash in the side of my tent that is now patched up quite colorfully. Then came the winds. My tarp didn't last long, but my tent is doing alright. Last week though there were winds in the high 30mph range, with gusts up to 50mph. Trying to sleep in my tent was like trying to sleep inside an enormous lung that kept taking gigantic frantic breaths pushing the tent walls in and out. It's calmed down and warmed up though, so I guess I can't complain. Last week we had a visit from some of the local wolves. There is a reintroduction and tracking study going on in the forest and surrounding areas so we knew they were out here. But a pair came right into camp and paid a visit to either end; growling outside one person's tent who has a dog and also outside someone else's trailer (which happens to be rather close to my tent). So the wolf project people came up yesterday and set up a RAG box (Radio Activated Guard). The transmitter in this box is set to activate the alarm when the radio collared female that passed through the area comes within 100 meters of the box. When she is detected, the box comes to life in the form of a strobe light and a recording of wolf-deterring noises (gunshots, glass shattering, people yelling, jackhammers, etc.) The box is about 50 meters from my tent. Lucky me. But, it's all in the name of safety…mostly for the wolves as well as the dogs in camp (there currently are two). The wolf is expected to den soon and we don't want her denning near us since this site is used as a hunting camp the rest of the year. We don't expect her to come back, but just in case. I'm not looking forward to her coming back through camp though; I heard the recording as we were setting it up…definitely not something I want to be waking up to in the middle of the night. On the owl side of things, we already have twelve nests!! Things are looking pretty good this year. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the beginning of May! I'll try to write more often so they won't be so long! Love and sunshine, Stefanie ;) top of page letters from camp