Creating a Video of Vegetative Cover Sampling

As part of my graduate obligations for a course in methods of measuring and monitoring plant populations, I had to do some type of course project. Though our instructor offered several options of varying difficulty, it was clear that he really wanted someone to attempt to produce a video outlining how to do a method....

Desert Tortoise Training

From this post title, it might appear that I took part in training desert tortoises. In reality I participated in a workshop to learn how to survey, monitor and handle desert tortoises. The 2-day workshop is conducted annually in Ridgecrest, CA by the Desert Tortoise Council and covers a tremendous amount of material including: an...

Revisiting the North Etiwanda Preserve

When I studied population biology in junior college we conducted our field work in a large expanse of land along the alluvial fan that drained the San Gabriel Mountains to the Inland Empire valley below. Our specific field site was a 750+ acre area containing coastal sage scrub and coastal sage chaparral plant communities that...

Night Blooming Cerus, Peniocereus greggii

The Night Blooming Cerus, or Queen of the Night, (Peniocereus greggii) is a Sonoran Desert cactus that produce large blooms synchronously on certain summer nights. These photos are from the 2012 Night Bloom at Tohono Chul Park, Tucson, AZ

Mobile Apps for Naturalists

Since nearly everyone carries a smartphone these days, we can now carry a small library worth of field guides with us inside our phones so we never miss an opportunity to identify an interesting organism. With this in mind, here are a few mobile applications that are today's field ecologist or naturalist should definitely consider having...