North to Alaska

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2007-11-08T11:32:00.001-05:00

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We Gotta Get Out of This Place

2006-08-22T07:28:00.000-04:00

For the literary out there, the foreshawdowing on Monday's crazy flight schedule from Deadhorse Airport came last week when our tour bus driver-security guard, Tom, told us far more flights were delayed in summer at Deadhorse because of fog than in winter because of ground blizzards. Here we were, waiting at the tiny airport, when the Alaska Airlines person came on the speaker to tell us our flight had simply flown past Deadhorse and was headed to Fairbanks -- without us. Not a problem, all 50-or-so people in the airport were scheduled for the next flight. Then, that one was delayed, so we were rescheduled again. Our third try was the charm. As it turns out, several of the men on our flight had been trying to leave Deadhorse since Friday. As I mentioned before, Deadhorse is a dry town, so as soon as the flight lifted its landing wheels, the booze started flowing. A guy in front of me got a two shots, a beer and a Coke. Good thing the flight, headed to Anchorage, wasn't a long one. As it turns out, it was very clear so we had a great view of Denali and Mt. McKinley.

The Sleeping Bag Squisher

2006-08-21T09:55:00.000-04:00

If you ever tried to fit something big into a small space, you can relate to the wrestling match I just went through with my sleeping bag. I hadn't really thought much about packing up to leave, until I started rolling my sleeping bag. It comes with this skinny-little, bag-like contraption that Mary Engel, from the Los Angeles Times, calls a squisher. It really does work. My full-size sleeping bag now fits nicely into my suitcase. But what a battle! We are leaving at 6:45 a.m. Alaska time, heading back to Deadhorse and flying to Anchhorage. Some of us part ways there. Pam Hinkle Clapp will meet her family in Anchorage and then head off on a week-long adventure. Mary, a former editor writer in Anchorage, will meet friends there for a few hours. Jim Metzner, with Pulse of the Planet, is spending the night. But Anton Caputo, with the San Antonio paper, Marc Airhart, a freelance reporter based in Austin and I will spend more than 7-hours in Anchorage on a layover. The three of us fly to Minneapolis and then part, the two men to Texas and me back to Philadelphia. I get home Tuesday. It is time to leave Toolik lake. Many of the scientists and research assistants have already left -- headed back to their universities as the fall semester starts. Yesterday, as we hiked through the China River Valley, we noticed signs of fall . There were migratory shorebirds -- a small group of Dunlin -- feeding on the tundra insects. They are starting their journey south for the winter. The tunda, when we arrived a velvet greeen, was showing traces of brilliant reds and yellows. The creeks and streams will filled with water. The mountain tops of the Brooks Range were covered with snow. We actually saw the sunset over Toolik Lake the night before last. It sunk down to a dusky-like sky. Sunset into darkness can't be far behind.

Snow and More Snow

2006-08-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

They say August is the rainy season in the Arctic but after three days of snow, we're beginning to think it's the snowy season. This morning, we awoke to more than a dusting. The Delaware Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures staff was passing out these nifty rulers at the Delaware State Fair last month so I brought one along. I never imagined that I would be measuring snowfall with it. So here's the official measurement: 3-inches.

Now This is Camping

2006-08-18T21:59:00.000-04:00

Most of us were prepared for rugged conditions when we first arrived at Toolik Lake. Afterall it's a remote site, off a dirt road. But when we arrived, we were asigned to a mobile "hotel" called the "Cotton Grass." We call it the Hilton because it is so nice. It has real walls, real windows, heat and bathrooms. Now there are some rules with the bathrooms. First off, all the wastewater has to be trucked 130 miles north to Prudhoe Bay for treatment. That means we have to minimize wastewater. So the rule is: "If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow." Our rooms have room-darkening shades to make it seem like it's dark outside even when it isn't. And there is heat but our unit doesn't seem to be working. The air temperature today was just above freezing and it's been snowing on and off. We're really starting to feel the cold. Of course it helps to have a full belly in these times. Today, at lunch, the kitchen staff, pulled out all the stops with chocolate-covered strawberries and homemade chocolate chip cookies. This is roughing it.

Atigun Pass

2006-08-18T00:51:00.000-04:00

The Arctic National Wildlife Area is just south of Toolik Lake and Thursday we ventured down to Atigun Pass for a four mile hike. The hike would be awesome most any time but it was extra special because it had been snowing all morning. We saw dall sheep in the mountains and our reward for bouncing over the rough tussock tundra and up a steep incline was a view of a spectacular waterfall. Lots of creatures don't have trouble crossing the tundra. A grizzly bear had been in the area before we got there. This scrape is a spot where a bear probably tried to dig out a small animal that was hiding beneath the ground.

Company Town

2006-08-17T22:02:00.000-04:00

In Delaware, we know a thing or two about company towns but few places I've ever been top Deadhorse and the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay. You can go to Deadhorse, visit the post office tucked inside the hardware store and stop by the two hotels, both of which serve a buffet dinner. But you can't see the oil field or see the Arctic Ocean, let alone swim in it, unless you go on a pre-arranged tour. They need your driver's license in advance and they check your i.d. when you arrive. It is a little weird. No one from BP was there to take us journalists to the area where a pipeline spur had corrosion damaged or where another spur fell off its supports. They did a media event a week earlier. Instead, we had Tom Sumey, a bus driver dressed in a uniform that resembled a security guard's, who took us through the Prudhoe Oil Field area and pointed out the highlights along the way. Tom was a no-nonsense guy but as the tour progressed, he warmed considerably especially after we were tricked into thinking a sand hill crane decoy, placed by his buddy a few years back, was the real deal. There we were, a group of journalists and some other tourists, completely tricked by the fake crane. Tom was loving it. So with that, he made sure the suckers saw Halliburton's installation -- at least on a drive by. -- and he even diverted from the designated route to see if we could find the grizzly bear that had been spotted earlier in the day. The Deadhorse Camp picture, above, is at the Halliburton complex. The irony is there are no trees in Deadhorse. The oil operations, at least in the driving tour, are little more than a series of big and little buildings. The little buildings are oil well houses. From the video we watched before the tour, we learned that the oil companies have self contained towns within towns, complete with "healthy" meals (That was their expression, not mind) excercise rooms and housing. There are lots of other people coming and going into Deadhorse and they are mostly there to support the oil industry. In the winter, when oil activity is at its peak, about 6,000 people are working at Prudhoe Bay. About 1,000 live in Deadhorse. The funny thing I learned, is that most people who are there are really excited to leave. We had dinner at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel and a group of men were there because they are working on improvements at the Deadhorse Airport. The hotel, by the way, isn't your typical Days Inn. It is built above the ground -- like everything else in Deadhorse to protect the permafrost -- and it looks like several mobile homes have been strung together and connected. It is surprisingly nice inside and the buffet food was good. But as the bumper sticker says: "DeadHorse: So Far and Still no Bar." The town is dry and men out number women by a huge percentage. One guy told me he signed up for five weeks, he was staying five weeks and he wouldn't stay another day even though they had already asked him to. A young man joined us at dinner. He was in Deadhorse for the money -- a few weeks on, a few weeks off. His home in Niagra Falls was paid for and he had a few more payments left on his vehicle. He delighted us with a story about a grizzly bear that wondered in behind the Arco he was living in. Arcos are portable housing trailers that you find all over the North Slope. The bear had been spotted earlier in the day and had pawed through the garbage. So our fellow went out a few hours later to pick up the trash. Next thing he knew, the bear came out from around a corner. "I don't know who ever said don't run from a bear," he said. "But I sure did run." His buddies joked with him. "They said it was a small bear but they're from Alaska."

The Arctic Ocean Polar Bear Club

2006-08-17T02:28:00.000-04:00

It was cold and snowy when we left Toolik Lake for the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay on Wednesday. One thing we have all learned is that even if you need to go just a few miles down the road, allow plenty of time. The 130 mile, one-way trip took us three-and-a-half hours over muddy, bumpy and sometimes slippery roads. Pam Hinkle Clapp, the director of communications at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab, was our driver -- having taken and passed the required driving test here at Toolik Lake. She did a great job under rugged conditions. Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse aren't the sort of place most people want to be if they don't have to be there. I'll write more on Prudhoe and Deadhorse later. But for now, all you need to know is that there is an Arctic Ocean Polar Bear Club and four of us journalists: me, Marc Airhart, Anton Caputo and Jim Metzner are now members. Pam had to save her strength to drive and May Engel was the official photographer. Pam was also the official blanket holder so I could change out of a cold, wet bathing suit into dry clothes. It really does take a village to be an Arctic Polar Bear.
It also takes full body emersion to qualify and you can't really run out into deep water like you can in our Atlantic Ocean. The Arctic, off Deadhorse, is just too shallow. So that means, if you're like me, you go into waist deep water, wait for a wave and then stick your upper body in. The water actually wasn't that bad at 38-degrees. Getting out was the hard part. The air temperature was 41-degrees with a wind chill of 36. The Arctic has a pebbly beach and along the shoreline, there was lots of driftwood. There aren't trees in Deadhorse. In fact, it is this flat expanse of land that resembles a Delaware salt marsh at a place like Prime Hook. The timber fragments drifted down from Canada, according to our tour director, Tom Sumey. Tom also told us not to worry too much about real polar bears because the ice pack, where they live and hunt, is 30 to 150 miles off shore. However, he said, sometimes polar bears do show up in Deadhorse. I'd be lying if I said the water wasn't cold, because it was, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it could and would be. The coldness really doesn't hit you until later. We were sitting around the dining room at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel waiting to eat dinner and suddenly, I realized I was really, really cold. A cup of hot coffee warmed me up again. I also have to admit that I hate being cold and in fact, when my Mother found out I was going to Alaska, she laughed and pointed out to me that I'm the one who wears a sweater in the summer. So to swim in the Arctic Ocean, I just didn't think too much about it. It was cold and we were still seveal hundred miles from the real top of the world. The North Pole is 1,200 miles away.

Berries and Bugs

2006-08-16T13:15:00.000-04:00

Most of our hikes so far have included trips across this heath-like land and tussock tundra. If you look down, you find tiny red cranberries, peach-colored cloud berries and blueberries. I haven't tried the cranberries but the blueberries are delicious, a little on the tart side but very good. As for the cloud berries, they must be an acquired taste. The fruit is shaped like a blackberry. They are at their peak when they are pale-colored. Once they turn orange they start to ferment. They have a sort of milky, tart sweetness. There are also all sorts of fungi, which are beautiful to look at. As for the bugs, I learned something new yesterday. The black flies and gnats were pretty thick when we went to see the fish research at the Kuparuk River. Lots of people were wearing bug nets. But, hey, I'm from Delaware and I know bugs so I didn't think it was all that bad. I haven't even opened my bottle of bug spray, yet. Of course that means you inhale and swallow a few bugs ever now and then. The field ecologist mentioned that black flies are nectar eaters so it you take time to savor them, they will be sweet. I know the bugs can get a lot worse, John Hobbie, our leader, told us a story yesterday about a moose that had twin calves. The mosquitoes were so bad that summer that the insect bites ended up killing the babies. He said once, the bugs were so bad, a moose just wandered into Toolik Lake and stayed in the water to avoid being bitten. By the way, it's still snowing but it isn't sticking and it looks like the sun is trying to break through the clouds. We are off to Prudhoe Bay in a few minutes -- next on the agenda: a swim in the Arctic Ocean.

Snow!

2006-08-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

Yes, the title is accurate. It's snowing. It's about 7 a.m. and I haven't been outside yet to see how cold it is. But the mud puddles aren't frozen so it must still be above freezing. One of the hardest things about coming here was deciding what to pack. Footwear was the most problematic. Our packing list recommended four pairs of shoes: Tevas -- the sandals that lots of people wear in the summer -- hiking boots, calf-high rubber boots and running shoes. I ended up packing three kinds of boots. The most indispensable so far were the ones that weren't on the list: the old fashioned, L.L. Bean Maine hunting boot. It has been muddy everywhere we go -- and I'm not talking a little mud. The other must-have has been this great coat I brought. It's Gore-Tex on the outside and it has a removable polar fleece, long sleeve lining. It also has a hood that can tuck down into the collar. The thing I really wasn't expecting was how quickly the temperature can change. I guess I didn't expect it because it's daylight most of the time. But when we get going in the morning -- usually around 7:30 a.m., it's been pretty chilly -- like an above freezing, Delaware winter morning. I usually wear my coat and several layers because we are outside most of the time. Then, it gets pretty warm so we're all getting rid of coats and fleece. Then the breeze fills in from the Arctic Ocean and you're cold again. There's a plant here called fireweed. It is one of the first to rebound when a fire passes through a spruce forest. But the flowers bloom from the bottom up. My fellow journalist, Mary Engle,an editorial writer with the L.A. Times, used to live in Anchorage. She said the local legend is that when the fire weed flowers are at the top of the stem, it's six weeks to the first snow fall. In Fairbanks, the flowers still had a lot more blooming to do but on the trip to Toolik, we noticed the fireweed was just about done.

Nature All Around Us

2006-08-16T02:19:00.000-04:00

The first time we saw a caribou on our trip north, we got so excited, we all started taking pictures. Of course the animal was so far away, it looked like a rock in the distance. But over the last few days, we've discovered that caribou -- at least this year -- are common around our camp. There is so much that is beautiful to see from the play of the clouds and the shadows they make on the landscape to the micro world of plants that make up the tundra. The tundra, by the way, is not only amazing to see, it's amazing to walk on. I imagine that today, as I walked about a mile over the tundra, I must have looked a lot like a toddler taking his first steps on the beach. It was an odd sensation and one we've all been discussing. Just how, we wondered, is the best way to describe it. We concluded it's a lot like stepping into one of those moon bounce attractions but instead of air-filled ridges, they would be squishy foam. The tundra is very squishy, very hard to walk on and one of the most beautiful micro worlds you can imagine.

The Pipeline

2006-08-16T01:53:00.000-04:00

When oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1969, the key was figuring how to move it . Oil is the reason for lots of things that are here on the North Slope, including Toolik Lake Research Station. The research station is on the site of a work camp that was built when the Dalton Highway was built from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. The pipeline, completed in 1977, changed the once-remote Arctic area. Up here, much of the pipeline is above ground because of the permanently frozen ground just below the surface called permafrost. If the permafrost melts, structures built beneath the surface will settle. That can cause damage.
Now, two of my fellow journalists here are from Texas -- another big oil producing state. Anton Caputo asked me to take this picture of him to share with his readers back at the San Antonio paper. Anton is doing a blog, too and you can link to his site by clicking on the link from his full name.

Fishing for Science

2006-08-16T00:49:00.000-04:00

Some reporters have all the luck. Take my colleague, Jim Metzner. Jim, producer of the radio science program Pulse of the Planet, brought a spinning rod and purchased a temporary Alaska fishing license for his trip to Toolik Lake. On Tuesday, he went fishing for science. Researchers at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab have been monitoring fish populations in Kuparak River for years as part of a long term Arctic research program. The fish in this river live for about 14 years and scientists want to find out which conditions are most favorable for their growth and survival. What they've found is a little surprising. Adults do better in years with high river flow but the young fish thrive in low rainfall years. They believe part of it probably has to do with access to food. With lots of rain the river is wider and there is more habitat, so the adults have an easier time finding food that drifts off the rocks. The little ones, on the other hand, are bottom feeders and do better in a more compact, low flow setting. It may like a feast or famine life but with a long-lived species like the Arctic grayling (Thymallus articus) this mixed bag of survival tactics may ensure the success of the species. Bottom line: some years the young do well and other years, the adults thrive. But how do researchers find all this out? They do what lots of us would like to do on a sunny, warm Arctic day: they take a barbless hook and go fly fishing in the name of science. So there was Jim, the journalist angler, standing waste deep in an Arctic River, casting into tumble holes. He missed the lectures on flux towers and modeling and our walk across the tundra. When we saw him, he'd caught one grayling but by the time he came back to camp for dinner, he claimed to have caught more than a dozen. Do you think it was just a fish story? We're just not sure. Once the science fishing team catches the grayling, they are kept in a holding area for 24-hours. The idea is to weigh the fish and not their last meal. Then, scientists record weight and growth information and check the tag data. If a fish isn't tagged, they do that too It's the time of year when the fish are beginning to return upstream. They can't survive winter in Kuparuk Lake because it freezes.

The Goal of Arctic Research? What if . . .

2006-08-15T01:54:00.000-04:00

At Toolik Lake, the Long Term Ecological Research site on Alaska's North Slope, scientists have a clear goal: "To predict what is going to happen to the ecosystem in the future," said Scientific Liason John Hobbie. In the tundra around the lake, scientists are running a series of land-based experiments designed to help them predict what could happen if additional nitrogen and carbon -- trapped in the Arctic soils here-- are made available to tundra plants. There is of course, a difference between weather -- and its day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year variabilities -- and climate. Here, they know that temperatures are rising about 7/10s of a degree each decade. The average for the rest of the United States is a degree in one century. Most scientists agree that global warming is happening. And here, at Toolik Lake, they want to find out what to expect.

Most of the plants here are in miniature. For instance, the blueberries and cranberries look like the master on bonsai has been at work clipping roots and branches. The leaves are tiny. And the blueberries -- the seeds of the plant's future -- seem to get all the energy in the 90 days the plants have to get their business of growing and seeding done. There are tiny mosses and birch trees that are more than a decade old but no higher than an adult's knee caps. This world is like an Alpine Desert. Most of the precipitation comes from melting snow and available nitrogen and phosphorous in the soil -- the fertilzers that fuel plant growth -- are in slim supply. Enter scientists like Donie Bret-Hart. She and others are working to better understand how changes in the Arctic climate could impact the plants that grow on the tundra. To find answers to the "what if" question, they do things like add fertilizer, snow, shade and heat to tundra areas. What they have found out so far is that extra nitrogen and phosphorous make some plants thrive, somethings at the expense of the biodiversity in the fragile ecosystem.

"This is just a great laboratory to think about what is going on," she said. If the soil warms, microbes in the soil may convert more nitrogen to a form that the arctic plants can use. So in one experiment, scientists built a greenhouse and fertilized the plants that were growing naturally there. Over the course of more than a decade, birch trees grew rapidly, ultimately filling the entire greenhouse and far out pacing their unfertilized neighbors. Other plants suffered and didn't thrive.

Later in the day we took a hike across the tundra and up Jade Mountain Peak. The mountain ridge is home to nesting hawks in the early summer and we saw three young birds flying in the area. The views were spectacular. To the north, there was the expanse that leads to the Arctic Ocean, to the south, Brooks Range and just below us and to the north, the Toolik Lake camp.

Caribou, a Falcon and Golden Eagles

2006-08-14T11:16:00.001-04:00

There was some great wildlife spotting on our way north. I had expected many more birds like the chirping morning chorus that you get in Delaware in the morning. But it hasn't been like that at all. On the way north on Sunday we stopped at the Yukon River for a photo opportunity. As we were snapping pictures, we heard a shrill cry and then we saw a falcon streaking down the river. While they have gyrfalcons here, this one was probably a peregrine. The bridge over the Yukon, like most things in this part of the world, are engineering marvels. The Dalton Highway is an amazing thing, winding over moutains, through valleys and over creeks and streams. It all started after oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1969. The haul road was built in five months and the pipeline was constructed in three years from 1974 to 1977. That's pretty amazing when you see it -- and we just saw a part of the 800-mile long pipeline on our trip from Fairbanks to Toolik Lake , now a science field station managed by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, started as a camp for highway construction. This morning, we can see the tops of the Brooks Range outside our bedroom window and last night there were carabou walking across the hills. We also had two golden eagle sightings yesterday on the trip up there. A few interesting things about the pipeline are that parts of it are below ground and parts are elevated to avoid damaging permafrost. In some places, thick, blue styrofoam insulation panels were placed beneath the pipeline to keep the permafrost cold -- in much the same way you put sodas or beer in a cooler to keep them cold. If permafrost melts, things tend to settle and that can cause problems. In Alaska they call those insulation panels Alyeska Blue after the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

The Journey North

2006-08-14T01:44:00.000-04:00

We set out at 6:30 a.m. for our trip north to Toolik Lake. Twelve hours later, we arrived. They warned us that the road would be bumpy. I grew up on a farm and was used to farm roads so I thought how bad can this be? The answer: far worse than even this one-time farm girl imagined. The Bureau of Land Management does this cool guide to the Dalton Highway and it warns: "there are lengthy stretches of gravel surface with sharp rocks, potholes, washboard and depending on the weather, clouds of dust or slick mud. Watch out for dangerous curves and loose gravel . . ." All of that was true. My daughter rides horses and I kept thinking of her sitting trot -- shoulders back and heals down -- to avoid a bumpy ride. Any discomfort though, was overshadowed by a spectacular view that included mountain passes, streams and rivers and dall sheep and carabou. We crossed the Arctic Circle and continued north. At Mile Post 235 we encounted The Farthest North Spruce. The tree was about 273 years old and was killed by a vandal in 2004. It still stands though, complete with a sign.

Big Plants, Little Plants

2006-08-12T23:41:00.000-04:00

Because of the long hours of daylight during the summer, cabbages grow as big as truck tires and dalhias as big as dinner plants. I figured no one would believe me. So here's the proof.
There are also places, like boggy forests, where tiny plants thrive and there is great diversity. On our field trip today, we found this small patch of micro plants.

Slip Sliding Science

2006-08-12T23:10:00.000-04:00

Earlier today we went to see some research sites in an area called Bonanza Creek, The area was interesting because ten years ago, there were lakes in the valley. Today, those lakes are vegetated wetlands. John Yarie, a professor of silvaculture at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks said the lakes may have lost water after a permanfrost "dam" beneath the surface melted and let the water run out. No one is really sure why it happened. The sites we visited were down a dirt road and it was raining Saturday. The combination of rain and mud made for an interesting ride. Our driver, John O'Donnell, a research technician at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, did a great job driving on the slippery slope. But at one point, as we slid off the road for the fourth or fifth time, even O'Donnell lost his cool. "Now we're screwed," he muttered. But as it turned out, some pushing and weight in the back of the Ford Excursion got us moving again.

It's what's for Breakfast

2006-08-12T23:04:00.000-04:00

We ate breakfast this morning at a local restaurant called Sourdough Sams. Like Bridgeville has apples and scrapple, Fairbanks has reindeer sausage. So of course, I had to try it. I also has the sourdough pancakes. If I had to pick a favorite of the two, believe it or not, it would be the sausage. The pancakes were chewy and yeasty tasting. Good. But probably an acquired taste. The sausage on the other hand was really good -- spicy with a taste of sage.

Wildlife

2006-08-11T17:12:00.000-04:00

I just caught my first view of wildlife here at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. There's a store that sells Minnesota specialties -- like t-shirts and snow globes. Outside the shop, they have this life-size fake moose. Here at the gate for the flight to Fairbanks, there's an interesting group of people. There's a couple who are taking a 14-day land sea cruise, three men who are on a hunting trip and lots of folks who are going fishing.

Adventures in Travel

2006-08-11T15:34:00.000-04:00

Philadelphia International Airport was a little crazy this morning, thanks to the new security rules. It wasn't so bad checking my bags but the trip through security took about a half-hour and there were very long lines. No lip gloss, no liquids and consequently, no Delaware beer for my fellow journalists. The security folks were very nice and despite the lines, my fellow travellers were really well behaved. So here I sit at Gate C6 in Minneapolis waiting for my flight to Fairbanks.

The Journey Begins

2006-08-10T23:25:00.000-04:00

I will be one of five journalists who will travel to Toolik Lake with John E. Hobbie. Hobbie is the director of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystem Center and principal investigator at the Arctic Long Term Ecological Research site.
I leave Delaware Friday morning and should arrive in Alaska late Friday Night. I start my scientific journey in Fairbanks where I will met up with the other journalists: Marc Airhart formerly with the radio program Earth and Sky, Anton Caputo, an environmental reporter with the San Antonio Express-News, Mary Engel, an editorial writer with the Los Angeles Times and Jim Metzner, producer of the radio program Pulse of the Planet. Anton and Jim will also be blogging from Alaska.
The five of us are already well acquainted. In June, we spent 10 days together at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass., learning about the nitrogen cycle and its impact on soil, plants and waterways on Martha’s Vineyard, an island about an hour’s ferry ride from Woods Hole. We learned how scientists collect and assess data and how they compile their results for presentation. Most of us agreed that while it was interesting work, we were better suited to the every day a different story word we work in as journalists. In other words, all that pipetting of water samples into test tubes got a little tiresome.

Travel Travails

2006-08-10T23:11:00.000-04:00

Earlier today my Mother called at my Dad's request. He knows me too well. He figured I'd be clueless about the latest airline rules ... no liquids in carry on bags. There he was, fishing down in North Carolina's Outer Banks, and he's more up on what's going on than his news reporter daughter. What can I say? Of course a few other people beat him to the punch. Our Sussex Bureau office manager, Barb, printed out the story from our Delawareonline website and laid it on my desk and our advertising rep, Nina, gave me a heads up too. Funny thing is, I was worried about washing my hair with two minute, every other day showers up at Toolik Lake. Who would have though shampoo and conditioner were so dangerous?

Dela Where?

2006-08-10T12:42:00.000-04:00

When you travel outside of Delaware, folks often have a hard time placing the first state. So I typically say, "maybe you've heard of Rehoboth Beach or the Cape May Lewes Ferry or DuPont." Sometimes that rings a bell and people are satisfied. But with my fellow journalists, Delaware's identity is more defined by what we brew than what we do. Everyone, it seems, has heard of Dogfish Head -- the beer brewed in Milton. I thought I might take little horseshoe crab pins or little chicken stick-ons to pass out on my journey to the North Slope of Alaska but what they really want is beer -- and make it Milton-brewed.