Updates from the two field crews with the fRI Caribou Program, in their own words.
The Start of Field Season, by Aimee Barre:
It’s the end of the first shift and it’s been an enjoyable balance of good weather, beautiful sites and copious amounts of insect battle wounds. Kakwa camp has been a lovely introduction to fieldwork with fRI; from the barn swallows building nests, to making smores at night. The bugs were bad..but we also saw bears, from the trucks, phew! We were lucky to have the pleasure of stumbling upon fairy slippers and young orchids during our fieldwork. Most importantly, thanks to our crew leaders, Amanda and Kaitlyn, for helping Jennifer and I perfect the sampling protocols. I hope our next shift at Two Lakes is just as smooth!
Locals, Banjos & Bears Oh My! by Genevieve, Marlene, Adam, Sean, Becky, Brianne & Christine (Chinchaga crew)
Dear Moms, Dads & Supervisors –
Camp Running Lake is awesome. The rain held off for most of the shift, thus upgrading road conditions from “not roads” to “adventurous”. Both Adam and Sean got so excited to quad down some “not roads” that they forgot datasheets and GPSs. Luckily for them they had sensible crew leaders that had packed them along. Boys and their toys…
The Linear Features crew quickly discovered that “accessible sites” in the Chinchaga range is a loose term which includes roads that are small lakes and/or large mud pits. But by mid shift they had rallied to become data collecting machines.
Camp life during Shift 1 had many highlights. Doug arrived on Tuesday with gifts of fresh fish and musical interludes. With our spirits high, and our bellies full, a few folk opted to put their seldom used pleasure craft operator certificates to use and explored the lake powered by some cleverly engineered duct tape paddles by Adam. Our penultimate day started with a visitor wishing us a safe journey home – a large black bear sniffed about camp before being spooked off by the truck horns.
Shift one is over and the data are beginning to come in for the 2015 season. We leave you now with an instant classic camp sauce recipe. See you soon, Caribou team 1, 2 6 & 7.
**Gluten free, dairy free, fun free, Brianne friendly, Spring Roll Sauce**
Sunflower butter – dollop, Coconut milk – good amount, Hot sauce – 2 measures, Honey – a long squeeze, Chili flakes – 2 dashes, Salt – a pinch, Black pepper – a smaller pinch, Lime – a hefty squeeze
Mix all ingredients well and enjoy!
