Queso, tired from the hike and the camping trip at Sky Meadows state park.

Queso, exhausted from the hike, goes into rag-doll mode.

Sky Meadows State Park - Rosy is pointing out where she would like to live.

Taking in the scenery

There were cows all over the trails. Here, Rosy tries to mess with one. It promptly ran away

Rosy and Mike pose for a picture in Sky Meadows State Park

Hiking at Sky Meadows State Park, just north of Warrenton, Virginia. Here are Rosy and Mike making pancakes from some buttermilk batter I brought up.

Queso and Me, along a stream on my Joyce Kilmer field trip. (Photo couresty of Miles).

Queso tried to reach me in the middle of a stream while Salamandering (ie catching salamanders). This area of the appalachians has one of the highest diversities of salamanders in the world.

Miles leads the way on an 11 mile hike that treks through the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness. The hike climbed 3000 vertical feet and got us up to the top of the ridge at about 5100 feet. It was very strenuous, but was a lot of fun. 4 years ago I couldn't finish...this year, it wasn't even a problem! Queso was a bit tired though.

A fallen Oak on the trail. Miles wanted to be sure exactly what it was

Here is a picture of Queso and me in front of the largest Tulip Poplar in the cove. It is about 23 feet around. While not quite as big as this:
http://lutz.smugmug.com/gallery/653079#28030269-L-LB
a giant I saw while in Peru, it is still enormous for the United States. The first time I saw this, 4 years ago, I had no idea that trees could get so big.

Miles leads the class around the loop and teaches as he goes.

Two other giant Tulip Poplars - with Queso for scale.

Queso checks out the Poplar Ridge Trail.

Here's an example of one of the giants at Joyce Kilmer - This one had a circumference of about 16 feet - it's another Tulip Poplar. American Chestnuts used to be the dominant tree in this forest, but was eradicated in the 20's and 30's from an introduced blight. This tulip poplar is representative of what European Explorers would have discovered when entering the southeastern United States. Interestingly, Joyce Kilmer is the very last virgin stand like this preserved in the US. These are the largest trees in a 1 mile radius in the entire Eastern United States. Pre-European times, the entire region would have had trees this large.

Here is Miles, talking about gap dynamics.

This past weekend, I took a trip to Joyce Kilmer National Forest with my old advisor from Wake Forest, Miles Silman, and his Community Ecology class from Wake. I went on this trip as an undergraduate in 2003. It was a good chance to catch up with Miles, and see Joyce Kilmer before the Hemlocks are totally wiped out (and they are pretty close, I give them another few years). Here is Miles instructing the class and looking up at a gigantic tulip poplar.

My poster for the NASA Land-Cover Land-Use Change Conference. April 2007 

Classified image of ChangbaiShan natural preserve - Jilin, China. More of my Master's research work. 

Lettuce plot - picture taken 4/11. Almost 2 weeks of growth - the seedlings are visible but are still very small. 

The three lettuce patches - as of 4/11 

mesclun mix, pushing up through the soil. 

Close-up of the Bibb lettuce seedlings 

Bibb lettuce - planted 4/1, at almost 2 weeks old 

Another image, this one using a classified LANDSAT drape over the SRTM D.E.M. The different colors represent different species types. 

3-d image made from an SRTM D.E.M and several IKONOS resolution merges of ChangbaiShan Natural Reserve, Jilin, China.
Work for my MS thesis