In awe over the sea life here. I saw my first octopus 🐙 and sea cucumber today. Blood and leather sea stars too. Amazing.

A couple urban creeks in Tacoma drain into the Sound through pipes that you can only see at low tide. Here are two of the larger pipes during low tide this fall.

My new garden here in the PNW is growing! Lots of lettuce and arugula right now. Beets, carrots, cauliflower, and snow peas are also starting to take off. Enjoying the ☀️.

🚨 New publication 🚨 We present a method to remotely map headwater stream channel incision using repeat lidar. Provides detailed spatial info about channel stability across all streams in the watershed. Focuses on the Maryland Piedmont. Check it out, doi.org/10.1016/j.ge....

Little Rock’s turbid water mixing with Walnut Creek upstream of State Street in Raleigh. The Little Rock watershed includes part of downtown Raleigh and has much of its headwaters buried underneath the city streets.

One more week to apply for this post-doc!

Can you find the snapping turtle and if so, do you think it is alive? I thought they bury themselves in the mud to hibernate.

The channel continues to erode into the former lakebed. Can you spot the old tree stump in the second photo? A good reference for the former forest floor, it’s cut down another 3 feet or so.

Will pinwheels protect the peas this year?

The only way to harvest Brussel sprouts!!

Spring is just around the corner!

Trappin trash on Little Rock Creek at the Walnut Creek Wetland Park. Check out the new trail that is on the other side of Walnut Creek, just walk down State Street to get to the trailhead.

Thinking about restarting #StreamStories. Are there any creeks around Raleigh/Cary/Durham that folks are interested in knowing more about? And what do you want to know more about? I’ve always wondered about the origins of some of the names for creeks around here.

Got an inch of rain and the stream is up, up, up. The channel is over 5 feet deep but you couldn’t tell from the looks of it today. Totally full. The box culverts at the road crossing are totally underwater on the downstream side.

It just looks nicer, am I right? Lots of ways to integrate green spaces into all that pavement and filter stormwater too.

Enjoyed a much needed weekend in the NC mountains. And the leaves were still putting on a show. 🍂 🍂 Beautiful weather for hiking and camping.

@bkshriver.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc to work with us on developing models to predict benthic cyanoHABs in rivers. Come work with us and others on developing cool models with diverse datasets! Details here: blaszczaklab.weebly.com/current-open... Please share! Deadline Nov. 15th

Checking out the litter trap at the Walnut Creek Wetland Center. Catching some falling leaves right now 🍁 🍂. The trees are starting to show off here.

Getting a bit festive. 👻 👻 just some tomato cages, trash bags, frisbees, and lights.

Had a great visit at Temple University. Gave a seminar and had a great day checking out field sites with Dr. Toran. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Beavers making their home among the people. 🦫 Noticed a lodge in Lake Johnson today.

There is something magical about being next to the oldest known long leaf pine, dates back to 1548. Enjoyed exploring around Weymouth woods this morning.

What a soggy soggy day ☔️ today. Got about 3 inches of rain here from Ophelia according to the garden toad.

🚨Job Alert: Permanent USGS Hydrologist Position (GS9-GS11) based out of Raleigh, NC. Apply between Sept 21-27, 2023. Looking for someone with strong coding skills to apply statistical techniques to analyze hydrologic data (low/high flows) 💧 📉 usajobs.gov/job/749773700

What a beauty. What do you think was the goal for this channel design? The stream runs parallel to an elementary school. 💧 🧪 #StreamStories

Lots of matted down vegetation along the stream today, you can see the high water mark. The water got pretty high this afternoon after over an inch of rain.

Broccoli and Brussels are starting to get big.

Got to try out the garden rain gage this morning.

Look what I found eating my parsley!! Swallowtail cats. How many can you spot? 🐛

Finally got a little bits rain here, but garden needs more 🌧️!!!

It took almost two years, but finally the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET) paper is published! We piloted the tool in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds, generating channel and floodplain dimensions for 270,000 stream reaches. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.13163

Getting ready to plant the brassicas, going to try brussels sprouts this fall. 🌱 Got some starts from Logans and the saw the spider 🕷️ exhibit at the NC museum of natural sciences. Lots of fun interactive displays and live spiders.

Almost two years after I submitted a paper it was finally accepted. I thought it would just live in the black hole of review forever. 🎈

Realized yesterday that I can get Magic School Bus books from the library. Please let there be one with tractors or diggers. 🚜 🚧

We need some rain ☔️ the stream is dry. Lots of animal tracks in the sand, looking for water too.

New pub: We estimated the societal benefits of floodplains surrounding wadable non-tidal streams and small rivers in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds. Looked at sediment, nutrient, and flood regulation ecosystem services. doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

Just saw my first monarch butterfly of the year on the lantana!

Little Rock Creek is connected to the parts of downtown Raleigh that drain to the south. Most of the headwaters are buried in pipes. But you can get a glimpse of the creek’s headwaters at Chavis Park, looking about 20 ft down from one of the pedestrian bridges. #UrbanStreamStories

Still getting a few tomatoes and cucumbers and LOTS of peppers.

The bog garden took off this summer. So glad I decided to make that a feature in the garden rather than a few potted plants. Lots of pitchers!

Grow little seeds, grow. Trying a second round of tomatoes this year, we will see how that goes. Started broccoli, cauliflower, and onions.

Excited for fall garden planting this weekend! 🥕 🥬🧅

USGS Mendenhall Fellowship opportunities are posted, 7 opportunities for 💧 water resource focused projects. Check it out, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/mendenhall-research-fellowship-program/research-opportunities.

Nothing like starting your day with a record of galactic funk. The toddler has decided this is his favorite record and insists on playing it at 7am. 🎶

Today, climate is changing faster than any time in human history. As a result, our trillions of dollars of infrastructure - homes, roads, cities, ports and more - were built for a climate that no longer exists, so are unprepared for the climate risks we face today.

The first flush down my local creek after about 0.3 inches of rain this evening. The water rose pretty quickly over the course of about 5 minutes. The lighter chocolate color from runoff upstream mixing with darker brown water from the nearby roadway.

Caught a bunch of rain this afternoon. Rain barrels in action. ☔️

Paper accepted! Stay tuned for some updates about valuing the services that floodplains provide to people by trapping sediment and regulating floodwaters.

Giving this thing a try. I will try to get back into posting about urban streams. Will start with this pic of lots of sediment running off the gravel lot at Lake Johnson.