Looking close-up just got clearer, thanks to this meaningful gift. The ability to view and appreciate the world at different scales and through different lenses is something I will always be thankful for. Why am I only now discovering this awesome loupe? What's your favorite?

It's January 1st, and I'm revisiting videos from my summer research. Despite the swarming mosquitoes and the discomfort of those field days, my memory seems to be filtering out the annoyances, leaving me with a surprising sense of peace and a longing to be back in those woods. #fieldwork #nostalgia

Plant ID in winter helps enforce careful observations at multiple scales. For review, students tackled a "botanical mystery" involving 4 bags of twigs (diff. habitats, including some ecotones). They ID'd twigs & developed plausible explanations of source habitats, enforcing nat. history of species.

My wetlands class monitors a coastal peatland transitioning to marsh. Annually, we see hybrid cattail encroach the fen, but the advance of the native Phragmites has been most notable. This year, almost all of the Phragmites died; perhaps a pulse-stable process with recent high water! Typha lives on.