Work

Working for the Wenatchee Forestry Sciences Lab has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.  To be paid to research the amazing biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest is a dream come true.  This field season, the Aquatics and Land Interaction crew I worked on, under Dr. Karl Polivka, spent most of the summer in the Entiat River Valley, and parts of it in the Mission Creek area east of Wenatchee, Washington.  Throughout the summer we periodically took censuses of juvenile salmonids like Coho, Steelhead and Chinook salmon, along with some Whitefish.  We captured, weighed, measured, and marked them.  The specific sites we worked at were artificially created habitats built by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.  The Bonneville Power Administration funds many projects in the area, and wants to know if they are working, our job was to find out if they were.

Among the creatures we caught which we were not specifically after, Sculpin were regulars

Steady and quick movements are the best way to weigh, mark and measure very delicate juvenile salmon

Identifying juvenile salmonids is difficult and a task that requires a discerning eye. Here, two baby steelheads are scooped in our dip n

After weighing and measuring, the fish must be marked with brightly colored elastomer. This is done to estimate population, movement and growth rate. The fish are caught, marked and recaptured in 24 hour periods.