This week, we hiked to the site where my field partner and I will spend our next three 10-day trips. This basin is very different from the last, and about 400 feet lower, with more trees and fewer frogs. Having been hit by the amphibian chytrid fungus, the mountain yellow-legged frog populations here are persisting at a very low level. Frogs are even being flown up to higher fishless lakes in the basin to try to bolster their numbers, and this basin harbors one of those lakes.
Read moreSierra Nevada Backcountry Trip #1: Frogs, micro botany, and the resurrection of diversity
"OH MY GOSH, YOU GUYS--LOOK AT THE FROGS!!!"
This was the sound of a coworker's reaction to seeing mountain yellow-legged frogs for the first time. These aren't just any frogs. They live only in these high elevation lakes and have suffered catastrophic losses from non-native fish predation and infectious disease. At a series of lakes that perfectly mirror the craggy, snow-flanked peaks above, we do our restoration work for these frogs.
Read moreA summer in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, Week 1: Get trained up!
This week kicked off my first full summer of field work in quite a long time, and I'm thrilled to be part of Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks' aquatic restoration team. I will be posting updates here on the adventures that lie ahead.
Read more