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Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Puget Sound

These next few days we are based in Olympia, Washington, a nice relief from traveling constantly. This morning started out with an introduction to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission courtesy of Professor Wilshusen’s sister.  When we arrived at the Fisheries we were introduced to Billy Frank Jr., a leader in the movement for Native American rights. As he greeted us with enthusiastic hugs he thanked us for our concern and curiosity of fishing issues within the Northwest. Billy’s talk was not only informative but highly engaging because of his enthusiasm for the issue. This issue I talk of is based […]

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Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

On the Road Again

Day 7 was another day full of driving, broken up with a few stops along the way. The day started bright and early as we checked out of our hotel, piled into the cars and drove to Humboldt State Park to see the Redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants.  We were able to walk around the forest for an hour admiring the colossal trees, which was nice because it was a break within a quiet forest. Continuing along the drive we hit the Coastal Highway and made a stop so that we could all put our feet in the […]

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Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Truckee River Water Issues

This morning started off with a long drive from Walnut Creek, CA to Tahoe City, CA. Driving into Tahoe was beautiful with the snow-capped mountains lying before us. We ate lunch at Lake Tahoe, and while we were freezing, we enjoyed the sites we saw before us. We were able to break up our driving and start to talk about the water issues in the closed Pyramid Lake/ Truckee River Basin that we had come to see, and Lake Tahoe was part of it. The water issues pertaining to Lake Tahoe are complicated because it lies between Nevada and California, […]

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Monday, November 22nd, 2010

California Water Issues

Day three on the West Coast was spent in 2 places, Rush Ranch and Napa. We all loved the “late” departure from the hotel, 8 a.m., a luxury for BotS-ers. After piling into the 3 Suburbans we headed off to Rush Ranch so we could see Suisun Marsh. At the Ranch we met with Dr. Josh Collins from the San Francisco Estuary Institute. He talked us through the in and outs of a Tidal Marsh, including how it is formed, what lives there and how it is dynamically changing. It was a great experience because he was able to build […]

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Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Hello California!

For the next two weeks, BotS will be traveling around the West Coast learning about watersheds and comparing them to the Susquehanna watershed. We started our trip in San Francisco where our hotel was located, literally, on the San Andreas Fault. It was relaxing to wake up and both see and hear the Pacific Ocean out our windows. On this rainy day we have scheduled a driving tour of the Sacramento River Delta, led by Bucknell Alum Adam Paris ’99. Adam has done some environmental restoration work in the San Francisco Bay Area and is well versed on the stops […]

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Monday, November 1st, 2010

The lower Susquehanna River Valley

This past week was focused around the lower Susquehanna Valley and included a trip to the Lancaster area where we were introduced to a variety of topics ranging from county planning to power sources, new and old. Not so bright but very early Monday morning we were met at our dorm by the BotS Mobile to head off to Lancaster. We headed straight to the center of the city and met with the Lancaster County Planning Commission. We learned that because Pennsylvania is a commonwealth the duty of land planning is given to the local levels of government. This makes […]

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Monday, October 25th, 2010

Capturing nature

During this week’s nature photography project, one thing stuck with me: “Slow down.” Cub Khan, a nature photographer, came to Lewisburg this week to instruct us how to use our cameras to photograph nature. While instructing us on the use of tripods, Cub mentioned that they unintentionally force you to slow down and examine what you do. Below is a photo tour of where we went this past week: Bucknell, Bucknell Natural Area, Tall Timbers Old Growth Forest, Northumberland and Montandon Marsh. The Susquehanna River Symposium also taught me to slow down and examine the river’s watershed with smaller ideas […]

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Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Susquehanna river towns

Last week, we focused on the river towns of the Susquehanna River. We focused on the small towns that surround the Lewisburg area and went on a tour led by Bucknell Professor Ben Marsh of Environmental Studies and Geography. The tour was very interesting and I learned a lot about Pennsylvania’s traditional social structure. Our first stop, the Pennsdale Meeting House, was built just like the other small homes in the area and as Professor Marsh explained, it was because when the building was built in the 1700s, everyone had the same social core, a conservative ideal with a strong […]

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Monday, October 11th, 2010

Perspectives on place

This week’s focus was on the headwaters of the Susquehanna. Over two and a half days the BotS Mobile made its way from Lewisburg to Wapwallopen, Pa., then on to Cortland, N.Y., Onondaga, N.Y., and finally Cooperstown, N.Y. On the drive to New York, we took a break in Wapwallopen and hiked into a small forest where there is a very pretty scenic overlook that shows a vast look at the Susquehanna River valley, complete with the Berwick nuclear plant across the river. You can see where the nuclear plant’s water intake is and it makes me wonder how the […]

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Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Boom and bust

It’s amazing how things move in cycles. Coal, lumber, oil and now natural gas have created many boom and bust cycles for Pennsylvania. Marcellus Shale, the next boom and bust cycle, is a very controversial topic in Pennsylvania and New York because of the negative impacts it has on the land and those who live on the land. Thursday we went to Dimock, Pa., a town that has been severely impacted by the drilling of natural gas wells. The process of hydrofracking the shale bedrock to release the natural gas involves sending hundreds of gallons of water under high pressure […]

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