Well, After a year of gradual work, I've finally finished the final draft of my thesis proposal (despite the fact that I'm almost done with the actual research). Its only 5 pages, which seems ridiculously short for the time it took to prepare. But, after months of slowly learning about what I was going to research, figuring out the best ways to pin down the moving parts, several road blocks and many many revisions, I got my 3 signatures.
If any of you are interessted, curious or bored enough to read it, I posted it here:
Physiological Analysis of Hydraulic Constraints on Tree Height in Pinus strobus
I'll be finished with course-work in December, but will most likely be in Bemidji finishing the actual Thesis, my written exams and my defense until May '08. Next semester will be (Hopefully!) extremely flexible to travel, have fun and visit people.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
The overdue post on Costa Rica:
Earlier in the year, I was bumped from a flight to Panama, receiving a big travel voucher. Several weeks prior, Devereaux was bumped from a flight to Switzerland. Despite our mutual lack of funds to be spent upon arrival, we decided to blow the vouchers on a flight to Central America
After the first portion of white pine research in MN finished, I left for a small town, Rio Piro, on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Through extreme luck, certainly not qualifications, Devereaux and I both received positions as resident biologists to help oversee a sea turtle conservation program. Steve and I met up in San Jose and caught a flight about the size of a minivan to a landing strip in the run-down little city of Puerto Jimenez. Jimenez was endearing in its own way, but we were glad to escape to our site.
Our site was about an hour and a half drive via the “collectivo”. The Collectivo is an old pickup truck with steel bars welded over the bed of the truck and benches attached. We paid the equivalent of 3 dollars and got hopped in the back. The road was mud/clay and extended into the rainforest, pausing several times to switch in to 4X drive to ford a river. Other than a few farms, the stretch from Jimenez to Piro is completely uninhabited. It is gorgeous.
Our job, once we arrived in Rio Piro was, primarily, to patrol our section of completely undeveloped beach front for three hours at night, tagging and measuring giant sea turtles when they came up to nest. We had days virtually free to hang out on the beach, hike through the rainforest, go swimming, read…etc. It’s a rough life.
Living in that part of the world, still so undeveloped, was an incredible experience. Among the seemingly infinite rainforest landscape, we saw a lot of wildlife: a jaguaroundi killing a sloth, four species of monkeys, countless scarlet macaws (at one point 36 all in one place), crocodiles, several huge snakes (steve almost stepped on one…I saved his life…right steve?), puma eyes at night, not to mention sea turtles…among a lot of other wildlife.
There were countless other stories, but I’ll leave the details to Dev’s story telling abilities: Steve’s B-day in Jemenez (several sub-stories in there), a soccer game we stumbled across, finding a raft washed up on the beach and testing it out, hitching a ride with a drunk American family down the road to Jemenez (he measured distance in beer), climbing a waterfall, hiking at night (very freaky), fishing…etc
It has been an amazing summer!
our beach
our home
After the first portion of white pine research in MN finished, I left for a small town, Rio Piro, on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Through extreme luck, certainly not qualifications, Devereaux and I both received positions as resident biologists to help oversee a sea turtle conservation program. Steve and I met up in San Jose and caught a flight about the size of a minivan to a landing strip in the run-down little city of Puerto Jimenez. Jimenez was endearing in its own way, but we were glad to escape to our site.
Our site was about an hour and a half drive via the “collectivo”. The Collectivo is an old pickup truck with steel bars welded over the bed of the truck and benches attached. We paid the equivalent of 3 dollars and got hopped in the back. The road was mud/clay and extended into the rainforest, pausing several times to switch in to 4X drive to ford a river. Other than a few farms, the stretch from Jimenez to Piro is completely uninhabited. It is gorgeous.
Our job, once we arrived in Rio Piro was, primarily, to patrol our section of completely undeveloped beach front for three hours at night, tagging and measuring giant sea turtles when they came up to nest. We had days virtually free to hang out on the beach, hike through the rainforest, go swimming, read…etc. It’s a rough life.
Living in that part of the world, still so undeveloped, was an incredible experience. Among the seemingly infinite rainforest landscape, we saw a lot of wildlife: a jaguaroundi killing a sloth, four species of monkeys, countless scarlet macaws (at one point 36 all in one place), crocodiles, several huge snakes (steve almost stepped on one…I saved his life…right steve?), puma eyes at night, not to mention sea turtles…among a lot of other wildlife.
There were countless other stories, but I’ll leave the details to Dev’s story telling abilities: Steve’s B-day in Jemenez (several sub-stories in there), a soccer game we stumbled across, finding a raft washed up on the beach and testing it out, hitching a ride with a drunk American family down the road to Jemenez (he measured distance in beer), climbing a waterfall, hiking at night (very freaky), fishing…etc
It has been an amazing summer!
our beach
our home
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