Astoria, OR
Elevation: 7m

And so it begins...I got the call today that I had been selected for a field technician position in Healy, AK that I had applied to in late January. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the job was by far my reacher this season and, like Kure, represented some far flung land way out of my realities. I will be working with a crew out of Northern Arizona University studying carbon flux as a result of climate change and melting permafrost. It's a big picture study attempting to answer questions about the encroaching fate of our Arctic ecosystems and what it might mean for such vast carbon sinks to suddenly become carbon sources. It's a big opportunity for me because I'll finally be working in the subarctic landscape that I've been enamored by for so long now, I'll have a chance to work with data loggers and flux instrumentation associated with big picture climate change and it'll be a huge step towards knowing what I want to do for grad school. In a just one short month I'll have my boots on the ground in Fairbanks meeting the team with Rhyhorn by my side and -20F winds burning the skin off my face. Blessed, grateful, stoked and overwhelmed.

Mahalo 2017 and heres to all the growth to come,

Chris

Here's a link to learn more:
https://www2.nau.edu/schuurlab-p/CiPEHR.html