Well, this week was crazy to say the least! We spent over 20 hours doing field work this week, and had our fair share of problems along the way.
On Monday, we just worked in the lab again. Sam and I pinned more bees and packed up the vehicles to go out to Boardman the next day.
Tuesday was our first of field work at Boardman. At each of the 18 sites, we were putting out pan traps, opening/filling pitfall traps, hand-netting, and doing floral surveys. However, about two months ago, there was a fire that burned over 40,000 acres of the Boardman Grasslands, including about a third of Lauren’s sites. It also made the roads extremely sandy. Because the roads are so terrible, we rented a UTV to get to some of the sites. We split into two groups: Sam, Sandy, and I in the truck, and Estany and Lauren in the UTV. Unfortunately, the UTV got a flat tire about an hour into doing fieldwork, and they weren’t able to finish the seven sites that they were supposed to do. So we had to drive out in the truck and pick up Lauren and Estany. The whole point of having the UTV, though, was that we were worried that the truck wouldn’t make it on some of the roads that the UTV was going on. Fortunately, we made it out there without too much trouble, but it was definitely not a drive I would care to do again. Once we picked up Estany and Lauren, we finished all of their sites, and the 11 that we were going to do in the first place. All in all, it was a very long day; Sandy, Sam, and I spent 13 hours doing field work on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Lauren, Sam, and I went to the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge. We did the same things we were doing at Boardman on Tuesday: putting out pan traps, opening/filling pitfall traps, hand-netting, and doing floral surveys. Luckily, everything went fairly smoothly, and we finished the six sites before noon.
On Thursday, we went to Boardman again to collect pan traps and do vegetation surveys. This time Estany didn’t come with us, so I was in the UTV with Lauren, and Sam and Sandy were in the truck. Lauren and I were sure that everything was going to go smoothly on Thursday… but of course we weren’t that lucky. About fifteen minutes from the station, one of the tires on the trailer carrying the UTV blew out.
Fortunately, we were close enough that Dan, one of the mechanics from the station, came to the rescue and helped us fix the trailer. Sandy and Sam left to get started on their sites at Boardman, and Lauren and I finally got back on the road about an hour later. Once we were at Boardman everything went smoothly. Riding in the UTV was quite the experience though. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much dirt in my eyes, but it was a lot of fun!
On Friday, Sam and I went back to the Umatilla to collect pan traps and Sam did vegetation surveys.
Overall, this week was a lot of fun, but it was definitely long and I am really happy that it’s the weekend! Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly next week while were doing field work.
