I can’t complain when this was my office for the day! We are conducting plant surveys for San Francisco Bay’s #WRMP (Wetland Regional Monitoring Program).

We saw whales off Point Reyes National Seashore this weekend!

We are starting a new project on the Oregon coast to better understand the drivers of tidal swamp distribution - elevation, salinity and groundwater. These data will help inform #restoration of these carbon-rich but now rare #estuary ecosystems dominated by trees and shrubs.

It is a beautiful day on the central Oregon coast and we had a great low tide this morning! Featured creatures: sea palms, a red alga, and giant green anemones.

Today I was able to return to field work in Poole Slough, a lovely branch of the Yaquina Estuary in Oregon, after about a decade away. We set up channel and groundwater monitoring stations in tidal marsh and tidal swamp.

Fun to find a ton of moon jellies floating into the Coos Estuary last evening on a rising tide.

I had a lovely field day this week in Suisun Marsh in the San Francisco #Estuary where a lot of marsh plants are still very much in bloom! - Helenium, Grindelia, Triglochin, and Trifolium pictured here

Sea Grant, a program of NOAA which funds coastal research, education, and community outreach - is unfortunately a target for the current administration's draconian reductions in science funding. Sign a letter of support for Sea Grant here: sga.seagrant.org/letters-of-s...

Eden Landing in South San Francisco Bay used to have a tidal station in the 1970s. I had been wondering where the tidal benchmarks might be. Found one 😂 #wrmp

That excitement when you find something new in the otherwise pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica) dominated marshes of San Francisco Bay!

I tripped at my field site yesterday and shattered my quadrat so I now have a new one ready for plant surveys. The simple field gear is often my favorite!

Tidal marsh vegetation surveys for the new Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) in the San Francisco Estuary are well underway! These surveys at 17+ sites across the estuary will occupy much of my working time over the next few months. @sfestuaryinstitute.bsky.social

Sacramento, California. showyourstripes.info/c/northameri...

This week we collected the first standard transect vegetation data in SF Bay’s new Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP)! Over the next few months we will survey 17+ sites from South Bay to Suisun Bay.

I had a few days of field work in San Francisco Bay tidal marshes this week, and while my focus wasn’t plants, I came across several rare and unusual beauties: soft birds beak, Delta tule pea, and Zeltnera. #estuary #wrmp

New spring growth on coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, at left and Dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, at right from the #ucdavis arboretum.

Some flowers and ferns from a short #bioblitz at Fernandez Ranch, Martinez, Calif yesterday: Colllinsia, Lupinus, ?Dryopteris, Pentagramma.

Oregon Public Broadcasting briefly covered our recent #bluecarbon research on the Pacific coast www.opb.org/article/2025...

Spring wildflowers at Pt Reyes Natl Seashore: Ceanothus, Iris, Trillium, and Lupinus.

Red, brown, and green seaweeds #PhycologyFriday

Spending time with charismatic megaflora. Joshua Trees (Yucca brevifolia) in Death Valley Natl Park.

Some #kelp salt paper prints for #phycologyfriday

Various photography stuffs over the weekend. #film #cyanotype #alternative.processes

Fortunate to have a near-perfect field day in San Francisco Bay. Set up some tidal marsh vegetation plots and started some groundwater level time series. #estuary #wrmp

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

I’ve been doing some alternative process photography recently to help maintain sanity. Here are 3 prints of an underwater iPhone image of giant kelp while snorkeling off Catalina Island in 2023. Cyanotype at left, salt print on platinum rag paper in middle, salt print on watercolor paper at right.

Salt print of giant #kelp from Southern California for #PhycologyFriday. Salt printing is a 19th century printing technique with salt and silver nitrate.

🚨 #NOAA is essential for weather forecasting, climate research, and public safety. AGU stands with the scientific community in urging Congress to protect and strengthen NOAA, not dismantle it. Our economy, environment, and safety depend on it.

Good to momentarily focus on the small beauties around us even as nonsense spreads like wildfire in the US. Most of the fruit trees are now in bloom in our yard :)

One of the functions of benthic algae in tidal marshes is stabilizing sediment and promoting plant recruitment. This example from San Francisco Bay seems to show that - little pickleweed seedlings emerging in a patch of Vaucheria (a yellow-green alga).

Field adventures today in Suisun Marsh, San Francisco Estuary. The groundwater stations got small fences because wild pigs run free here. #wrmp #estuary

Use this form to tell us how the new US administration is affecting your research, or suggest future coverage https://go.nature.com/42SyoUu

Along San Francisco streets (ii)

Along San Francisco streets (i)

I took a salt printing workshop today and it was so fun! I think that these first prints were a success.

Beautiful day for field work in San Francisco Bay. Today’s tasks: start groundwater time series, collect elevation data, and establish new vegetation plots for sampling in the summer. #wrmp #osufwsc

We had a break in the rain yesterday in Northern California so I had a chance to do more field work, for our regional monitoring program in SF and Suisun bays. These photos are from Hill Slough marsh in the brackish Suisun Bay.

Soranthera ulvoidea, an epiphytic brown alga, from Santa Rosa Island, Southern California for #PhycologyFriday.

I set up a temporary #darkroom at home this weekend and developed some in-camera paper negatives!

More San Francisco Bay field work today to setup for future monitoring - this time a salt pond newly restored to salt marsh. This extensive mudflat should eventually fill with marsh plants!

Tiring, but beautiful, field day near Richmond, in SF Bay setting up two tidal #marsh monitoring sites. It was neat to work with an archaeologist from East Bay Regional Park District in the morning who told me lots of stories of his archaeological field work in CA and Mexico.

If you’ve had a rough day, at least this probably isn’t your boat. #maroonedinamarsh #sfbay

The beautiful, timeless, restless Pacific. Rodeo Beach and Pt Reyes Natl Seashore, Northern California.

On this day, we honor a man of great service to the US, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who ultimately gave his life for freedom, dignity, and equality. His dream remains unfulfilled but it is a powerful guiding light for our nation.

I’m really happy with how this fern #cyanotype on glass turned out!

High confidence coupled with high fallibility seems like a pretty terrible combination. Ironically, one that’s rather human.

I got myself insanely stuck in a gooey tidal channel at a new-to-me #marsh restoration site that is still very much mudflat! Worst such experience since grad school. Thankfully got myself out by literally crawling, and went to a more familiar site to end the day with a lovely sunset. 😅

Beautiful day of salt marsh field work in San Francisco Bay at Point Pinole. Positive thoughts for those suffering through the fires farther south in this great state.

I did some #cyanotype during lunch and made my first success cyanotype on glass! I used agar to create a layer between the glass and cyanotype emulsion over the weekend and then printed today. The ginkgo leaf was done on paper.

Photowalk through #sanfrancisco yesterday. What a beautiful winter day in a beautiful city!