Final Capstone Trip to Santa Cruz Island

This weekend marked the last of my trips to Santa Cruz Island for my capstone project. It was my final weekend of data collection, and lots of data was collected. It was great weekend to go out to SCI as there was a fire crew on the island conducting controlled burns of previous eucalyptus debris piles. The National Park Service Division of Fire and Aviation Management sent two teams, one from Joshua Tree National Park and the other from Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park to conduct the burns. It was such a unique opportunity to see them burning on the island, and I have to give a huge thanks to the fire teams for staying clear of my study sites and not disrupting them! I would also like to thank my assistant, Daniella Caccavalla, who accompanied me this weekend and assisted with data collection; Clark Cowan from NPS who assisted with plant identification and logistics; and finally the fire crews once again. It was the best way to end my time on Santa Cruz Island for this project!