Some Favorites from a Summer in the Field – Isabella Goodman

This past summer I drove from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Marfa, Texas. This wasn’t your typical summer road trip. This was a field work campaign where we sampled herbaceous biomass (grasses and forbs) and collected soil samples to estimate aboveground net primary production and radiation use efficiency along a latitudinal temperature gradient.   

During this field campaign, my field technician and I sampled 7 different sites along this 2000-mile gradient, all of which had unique climates, plant communities, small town vibes and landscapes. This long gradient means that we had a lot of time to discover new places, new plant species, new books and podcasts, and new memories. Throughout this 6-week adventure, I developed a lot of favorites.

I had two favorite field sites, the first was our site in the Thunder Basin National Grassland near Bill, Wyoming. This site was a beautiful site in the sagebrush ecosystem; it was a mixed grass system that was dominated by blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii). This site was in the middle of nowhere but during our time there, we got to stay at a USDA-ARS field house with a group of researchers. I really enjoyed spending the evenings after a long day in the field cooking dinner together and playing games.

My second favorite site was in Marfa, Texas, this site was owned and operated by the Dixon Water Foundation. Marfa is a small artsy town in western Texas. It’s home to the world’s smallest Prada and the Marfa lights, both of which we saw and are super cool. Additionally, Marfa typically experiences monsoonal summers, meaning they get a lot of water later in the summer, and because it was the last site of our campaign, we got there right after a big rainfall, so the vegetation was healthy, happy, and green.

My favorite grass species throughout the summer was buffalo grass (Bouteloua dactyloides). Buffalo grass is a warm season C₄ grass, so it is drought and heat resistant, so we typically encountered it at our southern hotter sites like southern Colorado and New Mexico. This grass is also stoloniferous, which means it spreads by aboveground stolons. My favorite forb was scarlet globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea), although I didn’t get a photo of it, it’s a beautiful small orange prairie flower.

Along with many hours spent in the field and in small unique towns, we spent many hours in the car listening to audiobooks. My favorite audiobook from the summer was a book called The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson. The story follows a true story about a young adult who breaks into a museum to steal a rare bird feather to tie salmon flies. It’s a perfect combination of natural history, crime, and outdoor adventure to fuel our long drives  

Last, my favorite memory from the summer was getting to share my research with the people I met on the road. Whether it was a land manager at one of my sites or a waitress at the local diner, I was so excited share what we were doing.

Isabella Goodman – Western Resource Fellow | Isabella Goodman is a Master of Environmental Science Student at Yale School of the Environment studying dryland ecosystems in the American west. Her research focus on how climate change is driving changes in primary production in the western great plains. Originally from Alaska, Isabella has always been passionate about ecology, conservation, research, and the outdoors. She holds a B.S. in Conservation Biology from Montana State University, where she also worked as a research assistant. When not studying grasses and ID-ing plants she loves to trail run, ski, and knit.  See what Isabella has been up to.