For the weeks and months leading up to our move from Carlsbad, I found myself getting asked the same question from people over and over, "What are you going to be doing in Three Rivers?". I found myself at a bit of a loss for words, as I knew that this move was primarily for Peter's job. My prospects were much hazier, since the town is very small and we would be over 30 minutes from the closest large city. I never doubted that this move was the right decision for us, so I just trusted that everything would work out in time.
Eventually, I was put in touch with the park Fire Ecologist regarding an emergency hire biological technician position he was looking to fill. Tony seemed totally on board with hiring me from the very beginning, even with my severe lack of a biology background and little field work experience. I started working for the fire effects crew in mid-July and finally feel like I have enough perspective on the job duties and the experience to share some of the interesting and exceptional opportunities I've had over the past few weeks.
Most of the western United States experiences little rain and frequent dry thunderstorms throughout the summer. Lightning started wildland fires have been occurring for thousands of years here, so it does make sense that the plants and trees would have to find a way to benefit from this radical impact on the landscape. The fire effects crew gathers data from grassland, shrub and forest ecosystems in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to further the research being done on this interrelationship.
It turns out that Sequoia trees, and in fact most all western evergreen species, are dependent upon fire to survive and thrive. Sequoia seedlings need bare soil to germinate and copious amounts of sunshine to grow, making a post-burn forest the ideal breeding ground for new trees. Mature Sequoias have bark up to two feet thick and are extremely fire resistant. Tree rings also show that in the year following a fire, the trees experience a dramatic increase in growth due to the influx of new minerals and fertilizers from burned plant material.
The crew visits established field research plots throughout the park to gather data on anything that is or ever was alive in the area of interest - and I do mean everything. Trees, shrubs, seedlings, vegetation, downed wood, litter (fallen leaves, etc.) and duff (decomposing fallen plant material) are all measured and recorded in a systematic fashion and then eventually entered into a database to provide researchers and park fire management officials with important information on the effects of fire in the ecosystem. The job of a field biology technician is physically challenging and detail oriented, but the people I work with absolutely love their job and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them and all my other field biology friends out there.
I was very fortunate last week to be working and camping in an area with an active lightning-started fire in progress. The Sheep Creek fire has been burning for almost two months and was only around 800 acres on Tuesday morning when we arrived in Kings Canyon, but by the time we left on Thursday afternoon, it had grown to over 1,800 acres! The fire burned all the way from the mountain top down to the road, making it easy to get a close up view of the fire as it consumed the dead and downed fules in the forest. Up to this point, the idea of fire ecology for me had been only theoretical and hypothetical. To see a 40 foot tall dead tree engulfed in f
lames less than 50 feet in front of me at night made it all very real, very quickly!Seeing the flames inch across a patch of litter and duff, or watching the progress of an old fallen log being consumed was like watching Mother Nature take a broom to the forest floor, clearing out the clutter and making way for new growth. She works in mysterious, sometimes very intense ways that we can only begin to understand. That we try and help her along sometimes or play the same game without knowing all the rules is equally admirable and foolhardy of us, but I suppose it's better than attributing the forces of nature to the gods and attempting to stop a fire by sacrificing a goat, or something :).
I must confess that while I've had a wonderful time with all these new experiences and have learned a tremendous amount about a very fascinating subject, this is not the job for me! My strengths are people and understanding the 'big picture', while my coworkers' idea of a good time is dissecting a plant down to its tiniest attributes in order to accurately identify the species. They could (and have) spent hours with an unknown grass species, reading through the vegetative key (ligule, glabrous, spikelet, puberulent, lanceolate...the amount of new vocabulary is astounding!), never actually figuring out what the exact species and still say they had a great time. I'm both mystified and humbled by people who love a job I could never imagine myself doing for more than a few weeks. Kindergarten teachers are one example of this, although most teachers of small children are glad that there are people like me in the world who actually like teaching middle and high school students. To each his or her own, right?
Next week is my last camping trip with the field crew and we'll be up in Grant Grove establishing some new research plots. When I return home, I'll switch to part time data entry and other office work to support the fire effects program, while beginning to explore my options in substitute teaching and tutoring. I'm also hatching a plan for a more creative money making venture, which I'll discuss more in my next post. Until then, I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the dog days of summer!
