As much as there is love about spring, I hate to hear the seasonal return of chainsaws in our neighborhood and see the loss of big, healthy trees. Both of these trees were healthy and not a hazard. One of these homeowner simply considered his large, beautiful tulip tree a liability.

We had a grad school info session yesterday, featuring a colleague's path/story here. Key points: 1. Grad school is not like undergrad 2. If you're well qualified, you should get paid to go to grad school 3. Most important step of the grad school process is finding a good mentor

Images from NASA's Artemis II mission (from NASA www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-m...). “There’s no adjectives. I’m going to need to invent new ones. There’s absolutely no words to describe what we are looking at out this window.” - Reid Wiseman, mission commander, a grad of our local public school district

Eastern N. America folks, it's just about go time for the start of the ~3 week peak migration (unless you're on the Gulf Coast, in which case it is go time NOW). Expect waves of incredible birds for the next month and a half Turn those overnight lights off to protect them! [stolen from local news]

Some Easter weekend shenanigans: 1) first college visit for oldest daughter, 2) stream cleanup in our neighborhood, and 3) our family Easter gathering. And got to catch up with an old friend to watch some div. I men's lax.

Undergrad research Thursday: Last week we surveyed for salamanders, finding the same pattern as in previous surveys. We also got to check out the prescribed burn at one of our research sites two days after the fact. Thanks to Brett for the pics!

“This move will lead to an increasing divergence between sound science and land management"

I appreciate this take on this evening's Artemis II launch...

Our monthly #sunrise & #sunset to wrap up March. On our short sunset hike at the reservoir, I saw more bloodroots (Sanguinaria canadensis) than ever, just starting to open.

Quick visit outside to talk about our Environmental Science research with a few high school students this afternoon, noticed a few of these spring beauties, Claytonia virginica. These are my indicator that it's officially #spring.

Another good Mid-Atlantic ESA meeting. Seven of our students attended (Thanks to SEEDS!), heard about lots of cool science, met some new friends, and got to catch up with old friends. #MA-ESA

Undergrad research Thursday: Checking on trail cameras for the #Arboreal project, then a little extra climbing practice. At first glance, doesn't seem like a lot of recent captures, need to take a closer look. Next week: salamanders

Nuggets like this make it bearable to check out the day's news. This from the NYTimes Daily briefing newsletter. For the full story (gift article): www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/s...

#TenMinMerlin update: A new record (for our backyard this season) 21 species detected including our first warbler of the season (yellow-rumped). Cumulative total since starting 3 weeks ago: 37 species detected. Totally taking Merlin's word for it.

Spring break, part V: NCAA Div I Women's Ice Hockey Frozen Four, national championship tournament at Penn State. Got to see some great hockey including several Olympians. A lot of fun to watch Penn State play on their home ice with a big home crowd (despite losing to eventual nat'l champ Wisconsin).

Spring break, part IV: Gave a talk at local Irvine Nature Center on our salamander project in which we're trying to solve the mystery of why this "ubiquitous" forest species isn't actually ubiquitous in our forest. Perhaps spent too much time preparing for this but it seemed to go well.

The neighborhood birds must have gotten the memo that the calendar says it's #spring this morning. #TenMinMerlin with a record (for our backyard this season) of 19 species detected including 3 new species, one of which was a bald eagle. Cumulative count now 33 species detected this month.

Spring break, part III: #TenMinMerlin update after 2 weeks: 30 species detected over 8 sessions, at least 1 new species detected each session. Cardinals & Robins detected all 8. From our medium-density residential neighborhood in suburban Baltimore County, MD I'm totally taking Merlin's word for it.

Spring Break, part II: Met with new collaborators for a summer research project. We'll put our tree climbing skills to use to examine canopy leaf responses to experimental coastal flooding.

Spring Break, part I: Last hockey games of the year for our youngest daughter. It's been a fun and challenging season as she aged up into new teams. Now one month until tryouts for next season

Mustang Tree Climbing Club today, got off the ground, into, and around the tree using either a split tail or hitch climber moving rope system.

Heard first spring peepers of the season this afternoon

'A study of the tree rings in Stradivarius violins, published in the journal Dendrochronologia, revealed the most likely origin of the violins: wood from high elevation trees in northern Italy.' Free gift article from The NYTimes www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/s...

I love this idea of #TenMinMerlin, did it a bit last spring. It's always fun to see how nature changes in spring including the speed and extent of that change. Maybe this year I'll include graphs!

'Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce, representing 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in STEM or health fields' formerly employed by the fed gov't. www.science.org/content/arti...

I need to see some data about our so-called housing crisis. I'm not going to take a developer's, economist's, or politician's word for it. How's this fix the very real affordability problem?

Monthly #sunset and #sunrise outings. Here's last night's sunset at the local reservoir

Undergraduate research Tuesday: Again checking trail cameras and collecting SD cards for the #Arboreal project. Might need to replace a couple of finicky cameras that can't seem to remember the date/time or one that forgets to take pictures.

Mustang tree climbing club (name TBD) 2nd meeting this morning. Practiced line setting and MRS with Blake's hitch. #Arborist skills

This week in Intro Biology: Organismal biology, plant structures. We sketch as much of our notes as possible. *NotAnArtist *NotToScale

Undergraduate research Thursday: Again checking trail camera for the #Arboreal project. Fingers crossed the cameras consistently behave. We'll be back next week to collect cards.

As I say here, there is no scientific justification to revoke the engagement finding. In fact, over the last 15+ yrs, the evidence of how climate change affects our health has only grown. Higher risk of allergies, dementia, fertility, heart disease, and death: that’s what’s on the line. @nature.org

Undergrad #Arboreal Research Tuesday: We started using Wildlife Insights to process camera trap images. As a colleague said, This is a game changer! Allowed us to process several thousands of images in an afternoon. Now we just need our cameras to behave...

'The EPA is expected to revoke the endangerment finding that has underpinned the federal gov’s ability to fight global warming. It determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health & welfare, required federal regulation of these gases.' Free gift article The NYT www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

Can Mountain Lions Survive as Humans Close In? California Is Trying to Find a Way. Free gift article from The NYT www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

This a word cloud from the titles of ~1100 terminated NSF grants. It is hard not to see these grant terminations as an attack on the training of the future United States scientific workforce.

Undergraduate research Thursday: Today we began checking camera trap captures for the #Arboreal project. We have over 60k images from 8 cameras deployed late October. As we've seen before, trail cameras are notoriously finicky and few operated the entire time but we did find some flying squirrels.

We're hearing a decent amount of the environmental impact of AI data centers (electricity demand & water use) but I'm curious about the same impact of shifting our entertainment to streaming services (as we signed up for another service to get our Winter Olympics fix).

Let's cross check this with where people get their news. Of course we're going to have political bias in our opinions but not all news or "news" sources are created equal. We cannot make informed decisions when we readily accept alternate realities as fact.

Undergraduate research Tuesday: Checking #Arboreal cameras & swapping SD cards. We also had our inaugural meeting of the new Tree Climbing Club (name forthcoming) to work on our knots & hitches. And I had a meeting with new research collaborators, sounds like we'll be hiring an intern too! Good day!

January sunset. Plus a bonus bald eagle (not pictured, wouldn't fly close enough)

We finally got our first day of classes in for the semester. I don't have much on my Thursdays but had a good meeting with #Arboreal research collaborators and then my research students. We've got some fun ideas for the semester!

A trail camera time lapse video of our recent snow storm, noon Saturday to noon Tuesday in <30 sec. On campus, overlooking Gwynns Falls. youtu.be/fgDb3fqJeHE

"A forest is a complex, dynamic ecosystem in which a rich array of living things, from old-growth trees to microscopic fungi, interact and depend on one another for survival. So is the inside of a tree, it turns out." Free gift article from The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/s...

Today's soundtrack started with protest songs of the 60s and 70s, then settled on Rage Against the Machine. How long? Not long Cause what you reap is what you sow

'A new faculty survey paints a bleak picture of the impact that generative AI tools are having on students & higher ed.; 90% of instructors believe that generative AI will diminish students’ critical-thinking skills & 78% said that there has been more cheating' www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Graduating seniors, check out Scientists in Parks.... Applications due by Feb 15th but don't procrastinate, positions close once they get 60 applications. conservation-legacy.breezy.hr

Spiralling global temperatures (1850-2025) The last 3 years really jump out, rather like 2015-6 did when we first produced this graphic back then. Now, 2015-6 looks rather cool... More on the spiral: doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...

As the climate data for 2025 continues to be released, it's time to update various data visualisations. First - the global climate stripes for 1850-2025. A third darkest red stripe is added. The last 11 years have been the warmest 11 years on record. A sequence that is unlikely to be broken soon.