Today the “affiliated five” group (Scott, Michelle, Mike, Heather & Kami) went on a nearly 300km journey by boat with Captain Zimov. We headed south on the Kolyma, and then up the little Anui tributary and back down the big Anui before heading home again to the Science Station. It was a bumpy ride up river in the morning as the wind was blowing and producing a good chop. Those of us without cushions to sit on got sore butts. The ride back 12 hours later was smooth as glass and the sun cast a nice light as it skimmed along the horizon. We could see the station from nearly 40 km away but it took a good hour to finally reach it after 10pm and dig into that great moose meat stew. We got some water samples for the group along some of the tributaries, although our primary purpose was to sample burned areas, as part of our NASA-sponsored effort to estimate carbon stocks in a range of sites (about 10 here in the Cherskiy area) experiencing different intensities of fire disturbance, and to document the various ways that the forest recovers from fire (what we call “regrowth trajectories”). It was a great journey across a big wild place – but we covered just a tiny piece of it and we’re ready for more.

visiting a burn site with Captain Zimov