Starbucks

So finally I am beginning this blog. It's been nearly two weeks since I arrived in Reno, NV to begin my internship in Lassen Volcanic National Park. So many things already have happened it's hard to relate all of them in the fifteen minutes before the Penguins take on the Wings in game 7. Suffice it to say the drive out was everything from monotonous to scintillating, and so far I have learned an immense amount about Lassen Park, forest ecology, trees, fires, camping and hiking. We just finished spending a week with Dr. Alan Taylor, the professor who advises our fearless leader Andrew Pierce. Working all over the park, we will be both creating a new data layer for an ongoing fire map and completing repeat photography (more on that later). This basically entails a massive amount of hiking around the park, navigating via GPS to the plot locations whereupon we measure many variables. This data will be used to create a new map layer of canopy fuels which, when added to the surface fuels layer as well as elevation data, will be used to simulate spreading of wildfires. This data will then be used by the National Park System (NPS) when planning prescribed burns, a necessary thing when supressing natural fire in a forest which has adapted to forest fires.

The past week and a half we've been camping at the Butte Lake campground, enjoying the relatively few other campers (Lassen VNP is the least visited national park in the NPS). Some of the amazing volcanic features of the park are just a short hike from camp, such as the Cinder Cone, Fantastic Lava Beds, and the Painted Dunes. Photos will follow this post, the park is simply incredible. The only park in the NPS containing all four types of volcanoes, cinder cone, composite, plug dome, and shield, volcanic legacy is evident everywhere. Most of the park is covered in old growth, fire adapted forest, which is simply incredible to experience. Well, Game 7 starts in just a few minutes so I must pause for now, but photos will be uploaded hopefully before we head back to camp tonight.