Over the last weekend, some colleagues (Michaela Miller and Dorothy Horn) and I tabled at the ” 2015 Lakey Peterson Keiki Bowl”. The event held surf contests, surf lessons from Lakey and the high-five beach cleanup. Our booth represented CSU Channel Islands and the ESRM department. We presented on the awareness of micro-plastics and marine debris. It was a rewarding experience to enlighten and inform the younger kids and parents about our oceans.
The local Ventura Surfrider has invited us to share our research project as it falls in line with the “Rise Above Plastics” campaign. Tuesday, February 2nd at Patagonia Headquarters in Ventura Dr. Clare Steele, Michaela Miller and I will be presenting our research projects of Pervasive Plastics in our sandy beach environment.
On Wednesday Erika, Cause Chris and I had a very good meeting with our contacts in the LiMPETS program whose names are Jessie Altstatt and Julie Bursek. It was a really good and productive meeting. Since they have been working on a number of changes on the program. The changes as far as I can tell have been made to make teaching and learning to do the program a little easier for everyone. They have shorten the species list that we are looking in the tidepools. This was made because about half of the species are not often seen in our area so they were taken out. In regards to making it easier to teach, Jessie and Julie are trying to make multiple tiers in which are more appropriate standards for people of varying qualifications. They are working on this to not only make teaching this either easier or slightly harder for some people but to also have better quality data. There have been multiple groups that want to use the data that is being collected but for many reasons they don’t want to give this data out knowing that people could possibly use it to make big decisions.
Quality control is a big deal since data can be used for many purposes and people often want good quality data for these decisions. For a lot of students that go out on this trip will be the first time that they go out and see the ocean. With this knowledge these students will not be particularly interested on working on science but will want to play in the water or in the sand. This data would most likely not be high in quality so it isn’t right to present it as good data. Julie and Jessie are trying to make different activities that are better for students that just want to play. There will be multiple tiers as I said so there would be more activites for more advance students. This is the main way that Julie and Jessie are trying to increase the quality of the data.
During our time in the meeting we talked about all of this and what they have also been looking at for the changes and if we would be interested in helping them get data sorted and to get more data that will help with the changes. We also went over where we will be looking at the tidepools once we take the kids out and where we will be looking at the sand crabs/ mole crabs. There was very little change being done to the mole crab part of LiMPETS that review went smoothly.
Once we were all done talking we went down to the beach area where we will be taking the kids in February, it should be a very interesting time once it all comes together. I am very excited about it. Hopefully it will all go relatively smoothly.
I had the incredible experience of visiting our local WSR-88D site this week. I learned so much about the nuts and bolts of how the radar works and was able to actually go inside the radome. I also made some very helpful contacts with NOAA.
There has been so much going on this past week and a half. I met with Chris, one of my capstone mentors and he told me and my partner what we will be doing for unit 3 of the program. Unit three is about student research of sandy beach and rocky intertidal zones of a beach. Students will be learning about the LIMPETS protocol for taking sandy beach and rocky intertidal surveys, why we do long term monitoring, and will take part in that practice at Carpenteria State beach. I have been working on my own set of surveys for my capstone in order to get data. I will be focusing on environmental attitudes. I hope students will be connected with nature after participating in Crossing the Channel. I went to Carpenteria State beach yesterday and here are some pictures of where the surveys will be taken. 
This trip to Santa Rosa Island over the past week was a very productive trip. I’ve not only figured out a stronger heading to follow with my project but I’ve also finished a large piece of my project when it comes to data collection. Zack and I have finished the census for the Bishop Pines. All trees have been counted not only on Black mountain but also on the peak of radar hill and a small group in Windmill Canyon. Total count without Dulce’s work comes out to about 2207 trees. All that is left for me to do is to core an approximate of 30 random trees and find the correlations of age and DBH, and the correlation of growth times to weather using weather reports that date back to the early 1900s.
According to the 2009 5-Year Review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Unarmored Threespine Stickleback there are several known locations of UTS populations in and around the Santa Clarita Valley. A little over a week ago I went out to my five focus sites: 2 in the Santa Clara River, where the Valencia Waste-water Treatment Plant expels its treated water (under McBean Bridge and Bouquet Bridge), San Francisquito Canyon, Bouquet Creek, and Soledad Canyon. Each of these sites were said to support UTS popuations as of 2009. When I went to these sites I not only looked for fish but took pictures and made observations before the El Niño storms hit. For this post my main focus will be on the treated water release site under McBean Bridge. A few months ago I posted pictures from the first time I want to this site. Through those observations I found the following: there were no fish whatsoever, the water was foamy and polluted, and the water ended downstream just shy of the Iron Horse Trail off of Magic Mountain Parkway. Here are some observations from my latest visit:
The resolution of WSR-88D isn’t ideal for viewing birds. I am thinking about using lidar in a closed space such as a small canyon or valley. I want to literally turn the lidar on its head and scan the area above it. I am curious if this would be able to give accurate bird counts. I am also curious to see if there is a way to actually take the timing of the scans and use them to create an image of the actual bird. Meanderings of the mind.
Christine
Last week, I was packed and ready to leave for Santa Rosa Island (SRI). In the rain, a group of us waited on the dock to leave. We were unable to depart from the dock, due to weather conditions. As a part of the trip, each of us would take turns cooking dinner each night. I cooked stew for 21 people… Since, we were unable to leave, I had stew for days. This time tomorrow, I am leaving to SRI to collect data on my capstone. Hopefully, the odds will ever be in my favor to leave tomorrow.
Due to the first trip to Santa Rosa being canceled due to the storm that hit California the trip leaving on the 12th has been doubled booked. The research station will be full up but I look forward to the assistance from my research partner Zack and Dulce. 
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