Earth Explorations

In my previous post about the Adventure Scientists citizen science opportunity monitoring butterflies in the wilderness I stated that I did not have any photos of butterflies from previous trips to the Badlands. When I wrote that I was consulting my iNaturalist observations rather than my photos because my photos from last year came up with this photo. I did add it to iNaturalist which identified it as possibly being a Variegated Fritallary on a rabbitbrush plant. Upon further review I would agree. I will be blogging about this opportunity on Open Explorer  with occasional hops over to the Adventure Scientists blog.

I have been watching the work of Adventure Scientists  for a while. This group equips people who are going on back country adventures with the knowledge and resources to do citizen science. They came on my radar through their microplastic work. Not surprisingly, founder Greg Treinish is a Nat Geo explorer. Adventure Scientists current campaign is pollinator s. They are interested mostly in the Rocky Mountain area but I signed up (and was accepted!) to collect butterfly and butterfly habitat observations using iNaturalist in the Badlands Wilderness area. I have to complete an online training which I will do in the next week. In reviewing my observations from the field study area, I don't see any butterflies. The only arthropods I've observed are garden spiders and tumblebugs.  I am excited to try my hand at this and contribute to body of knowledge about butterflies. Swallowtail caterpillar. Not taken in the Badlands but I will be on the lookout.

I'm still blogging on Open Explorer for the moment. I popped back over here to share this picture of Japanese manhole covers. I wrote about the covers I saw in Omaha below.

I am still blogging about exploration but taking a short break from Earth Explorations while I document an expedition with educators called Exploring Badlands National Park through Science and Storytelling.  I'm using the Open Explorer platform which is a National Geographic open platform where anyone can write about their exploration and expeditions. Once the debrief phase of the expedition wraps up in a few weeks, I'll be back here.

These are the latest additions to the bag that functions as my purse but which is actually an 18L daypack.  They are a to-go ware set of bamboo utensils with a steel straw that I tucked in there and a collapsible Sea to Summit container with leak proof lid. These live in their own zippered compartment along with an occasional stainless steel mug. I am stepping up my efforts to remove single use plastic from my life. National Geographic has launched a Planet or Plastic initiative aimed at protecting the ocean by reducing the amount of plastic that gets washed into the sea. Since most of the plastic comes from developing countries with insufficient trash and recycling infrastructure I know that my part to reduce single use plastic will have practically a negligible impact on the amount of plastic in the ocean. And yet. In modeling carrying reusable utensils and collapsible food container as well as beverage container and shopping bags, I am making a difference in my river...

John Muir, the founder of the Sierra club, explorer of Alaskan wilderness, champion of Yosemite park, was a journaler. The University of the Pacific maintains many of John Muir's papers and has made them accessible by putting the digital images online. They have invited the public to participate as citizen curators and assist with transcribing the journals to make them more accessible. From the university website : Word-for-word transcriptions open up many more possibilities for researchers and the general public to find, read, and understand Muir's thoughts as he experienced them. It also facilitates online searching to locate information by specific topics. Volunteers can transcribe an entire journal or even just a single page. Even transcribing one or two pages increases the discoverability for historians, Muir enthusiasts, students, or anyone searching the internet. I spent the better part of a Friday evening recently trying to decipher...

I traveled to Seattle for a few days between my last post and this one. This was my first visit and according to the locals I was there during a stretch of especially nice weather, sunny with temps in the 60's and 70's. Indeed, I expected more rain and Starbucks. My work required staying on a ship which did not sail anywhere. The ship was docked in the port of Seattle next to massive fishing trawlers that were so huge that I did not take a picture because I knew I could not do justice to their size. My colleague on this trip, John Mitchell, wondered at the biomass these trawlers take out of the sea. One of the trawlers in port was the SS Ocean Phoenix . At 680 feet long, it is as long as city block. I don't know how tall it is but 10 stories at the highest point above the pier feels about right to me. It can hold 4,200 tons of what its owner Pacific Premier calls product or the all the different forms of Pollock it fishes and processes. I suppose this helps answer the q...