How often do an industrial thermal camera and spectroradiometer end up in the hold of a Greyhound bus? The summer has come, and I am back in the Rockies for another summer field season focused on how alpine plant communities respond to climate change. Traveling with heavy research equipment is never easy, but after a…

Never underestimate a squirrel. Growing up near the Atlantic coast of North America, I was familiar with the native eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) as a familiar feature of forest and urban environments. It seemed to coexist in both habitats well enough, and I never heard any stories of it causing ecological damage beyond the…

Spring is yet to come in parts of Europe. I spent most of April in Norway working with collaborators in Trondheim, and was impressed by how much snow still remains in the mountains. Lakes are still frozen, trees shrouded, and the high peaks buried under white cover. It is a very different landscape than the…