Summer field work of 2021 has been an excellent adventure for newbies to the rural nature of Vermont and New Hampshire. Undergraduate and rising senior Bailee Street and second year PhD student Wenxiu Teng have had a quite the trip digging soil pits in rocky New England soils. Although the ticks and mosquitos make the field work less than ideal, the sights, smells, and sounds of being in that idyllic hardwood forest cannot be missed.

Field work is the best and worst of both worlds. Lugging equipment to the individual sites and hauling soil from a trowel a meter down up to the surface are intense work outs. Installing equipment 50 cm or deeper is also back-breaking work. But these challenges are met with a big smile by the O.G. Alexandrea Rice. She knows that this tough work will yield data not readily accessible by those who remain surface bound.

Of course, we have had ample work as no person is ever an island. We’ve had University of Vermont crew supporting us all the way, including Co-PI Nico Perdrial and our very own lab alum Trevor Mackowiak. Thus, it has been a brilliant and fun summer of hard work, new and old friends, and of course tonnes of soils!