I woke up yesterday morning at 5am sick with a cold. However, the symptoms were not so bad as to prevent me from going on my planned adventure. So I got up, cleaned my room for the apartment cleaning checks that would take place later that morning, ate breakfast, made lunch and was out the door by 6:30am. It was the start to a beautiful day. To those I haven't talked with in the past week, I have just agreed to sign my life away to BYU for the next three years and work on a masters project. This should be an especially interesting venture as I am not going to complete my undergraduate degree for another year, which means I'll be juggling both undergrad and graduate work for the next year. But I am so excited! I'm going to be continuing working on the research I've helped with for the past year, except now I get my own project!
The project (plus some background info):
Whenever fires go through and burn juniper forests, the volatiles from the tree leaves sink down into the soil and make a layer of the soil water repellent. Because the water can't sink into the soil, it just runs off and leaves the soil dry. This has proven to be somewhat problematic for seeds that need water to germinate, and makes fire restoration difficult. Past methods for overcoming this water repellency have included chaining (where you take a huge chain from the anchor of a ship, string it between two bulldozers, and drag it across the landscape, digging up the burnt remains of trees as you go), and just throwing seeds out of an airplane and hoping for the best. What I'm going to try to do is develop a seed coating that can break up this water repellency around the seed to allow water to accumulate in the soil so the seed can germinate.
Yesterday we went out hiking around to try to find an area to set up some field plots. It was a grand adventure and reminder of how out of shape studying all day in a chair can put me. We left the school at about 8am and got home around 9pm. A good day’s work overall, I think.
Here are some pictures of that adventure:
We started out in Scipio, UT, but the fire there wasn't very severe (you can still see a lot of leaves on the trees) and there weren't very many Juniper trees besides.
Next we headed to a fire about an hour out from Milford, UT. Here we found conditions much more to our liking:
Overall a very pretty area, I think. Here is a picture of a water drop on the water repellent layer of the soil next to some retreating snow:
Did I mention we got stuck in the snow/mud once? Truth be told I'm surprised it didn't happen more often. The dirt "road" we were on was covered in snow banks and soft soil. We were fishtailing the entire way in a desperate attempt not to get stuck. When it did finally become entrapped in the mud, the boys dug it out and I hiked and hauled in rocks so we could make a path to free our truck. Needless to say, the truck was not very clean when we got back. Once freed, we decided to abandon our truck, load up our packs, and hike around in search of the perfect study site.
We got to hike through snow that was a couple feet deep in spots. It was so pretty!
Here's a picture of the area we finally decided on. The trees all around it were chained, but it seems the BLM decided to leave this area untouched. We think because it was a potential archeological site (an idea supported when my boss found an arrowhead). And here we are disturbing it. Ah well- all in the name of science!
Here is a picture of what was involved in setting up the study.Yes, that is a hula hoop around the trunk of the tree. 
I discovered that pictures often look much better in black and white.
This is a picture of an area after it has been chained. It reminds me of something out of The Lord of the Rings after a battle of tree trolls.
The fire can burn right through the trunnk of the tree at times. On this one you can see how it's been hollowed out.
Trees with leaves are pretty, but how awesome is this!
Look at that! This tree is growing out of a pile of rocks! Plants are so cool!
We eventually got home safe and sound, though I was somewhat sunburned from my adventures. To think, this is the sort of amazingness I have to look forward to for the next three years. How blessed a life I lead!
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