Feature-Grad

Millie Spencer and Emma Tyrrell: New York Times Article "How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain."

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:12:03 +0000

Millie Spencer and Emma Tyrrell: New York Times Article "How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain." Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 03/24/2026 - 09:12

Article copied for archival purposes.

How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain.

A new satellite could transform how water is studied worldwide. But to help unlock its capabilities, scientists first needed to take critical measurements on a mountaintop.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Photographs and Video by Nina Riggio

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey and Nina Riggio reported from high in the Colorado Rockies alongside a team of scientists on skis.

March 24, 2026

At 4:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, three alpine scientists arose from fitful sleep in a chilly research lab in the Colorado mountains, 11,500 feet above sea level. They drank some grainy coffee, strapped into their skis and headed out into the moonlight, dragging a sled loaded with gear.

They had a satellite to meet.

The scientists were on an unusual mission. They needed to measure the depth of the snow at a particular mountaintop location just as a new satellite passed directly overhead. That satellite, equipped with powerful radar, has the potential to be the first one capable of estimating how much water is on the ground, in the form of fallen snow, from outer space.

It would be an extraordinary technological milestone, providing global data on snowpack, precipitation and how much water might be available to feed rivers and reservoirs downstream in spring and summer. But first, the satellite would need to be calibrated.

And one of the most accurate ways to do it is to be physically present on the mountain to measure the snow under the exact same conditions, and at the exact same time, that the satellite does. Other scientists are doing similar things around the world.

Precise timing matters. Snow changes quickly and the satellite passes over the same spot only once every 12 days.

So with hearts pounding from the thin alpine air the three skied out onto moonlit snow. Two of them towed the sled, equipped with a small portable radar that is capable of measuring the snow’s depth and density simply by dragging it back and forth across the mountainside.

“Only 4 centimeters deep here!” one of the scientists, Emma Tyrrell, called out. She was leading the project as part of her Ph.D. at the 91��Ҹ� and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine 91��Ҹ�. At the back of the sled, helping her pull it, was Arielle Koshkin, a postdoctoral researcher in the same lab, who made a note of the measurement.

For two hours, Ms. Tyrrell and Dr. Koshkin skied back and forth in precise zigzags across the slope of the ridgeline, pulling the radar with them and plunging a ruler into the snow every few feet. Somewhere, invisibly above them, the satellite charted its own path across the sky.

The satellite, known as NISAR, was launched last summer by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Indian Space 91��Ҹ� Organization. The satellite’s capabilities are the closest humans have come to measuring water content in snow across vast regions, from space, the holy grail of snow science.

The new technology comes at a critical time. As the world warms, snow is vanishing across many parts of the planet. That includes Western United States, which is currently undergoing a record snow drought. In states including Colorado and Utah, the snowpack is the lowest since comprehensive modern recording began, 40 years ago. That’s a problem because these states rely on snow melt for up to 80 percent of their water.

Snowpack, Ms. Tyrrell said, acts like a frozen water tower, storing and releasing water that then gets used by communities and farms downstream throughout the year. She paused to gesture across the mountain peaks, where the snow was visibly patchy and thin.

The area she was working, known as Niwot Ridge, would typically be blanketed in a thick layer of snow this time of year. The area is part of a watershed that provides a third of the water needed by the city of 91��Ҹ�, which was visible that morning, some 25 miles away, as cluster of twinkling lights.

The warming world will doubtlessly transform Colorado, but because of the state’s high elevation there’s uncertainty about precisely how that might play out, Dr. Koshkin said, speaking as she helped Ms. Tyrrell adjust a GPS sensor on the top of the sled. Some precipitation might fall as rain instead of snow, but rain doesn’t remain stored on the mountainside to steadily provide meltwater later in the year. She also said the swings between good and bad snow years are likely to become more drastic.

The sun had started to rise, tinting the mountains scarlet. Several dozen yards away, Millie Spencer, a Ph.D. candidate in the same research group helping out on the day’s mission, was digging a snow pit with a shovel.

This old-school approach remains the gold standard for accurate data on snow. Even when working with modern technologies, like the sled radar, scientists often take analog measurements from snow pits at the same time.

Water managers still rely on long-term records from manual snow measurements to predict how much water to expect from snow each year, from which they create complex forecasting 91��Ҹ� that patch together different kinds of data. Perhaps most important of these is a large federally run network of snow-weighing sensors that take daily measurements across Western states.

But these sources capture only conditions at a single, isolated point. That’s a problem, because snow can vary significantly across even a short area. And as snow vanishes from the places it used to fall, scientists and water managers say these methods will become less reliable.

The new satellite has some important caveats. It can’t measure snow in densely forested areas, or if the snow becomes too wet. And the satellite’s radar doesn’t always strike Earth at an optimal angle for snow measurements.

The problem is that it wasn’t designed or intended to measure snow, said Jack Tarricone, a scientist at the University of Maryland and NASA. The original mission, first proposed more than two decades ago, was to monitor crops and a variety of other Earth systems like natural disasters, tectonic activity and glaciers.

While the new satellite may be no silver bullet, it’s the best chance scientists have had to measure snow on a wide scale. 91��Ҹ�ers at universities and federal agencies alike said they had spent years anticipating the satellite and preparing for its launch.

Now, the clock is ticking. Satellites often stay up well past their intended life spans, but the snow-measuring radar on this one is planned to operate for only three years.

That’s one reason Ms. Tyrrell felt urgency to do these calibration measurements now. Other teams of scientists are also taking measurements at other locations around the world, using a variety of different techniques, to give the satellite the best chance of being accurately calibrated against differing locations and geographical conditions.

Some are flying helicopters and drones with laser scanning devices, other are using radars like Ms. Tyrrell. Each method has pros and cons, but for all its scientific benefits, dragging a sled is certainly hard and slow going.

After several hours, around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Tyrrell and Dr. Koshkin started wrapping up for the day. The satellite had moved on.

They dragged their radar sled back toward the mountainside lab while Ms. Spencer, still working on her snow pit, struggled to examine lumps of snow crystals with a magnifying glass. The task was made nearly impossible by the ribbons of sleet pelting her face.

Back at the shed, Ms. Tyrrell unzipped the cloth covering over the radar and spotted a problem. Snow had somehow gotten onto the device. Worse, one of its many wires had become unplugged.

But there was nothing to be done. It was probably fine, Dr. Koshkin reassured her. The device was made for snow, after all. And most likely the wire fell out as they hauled it indoors.

Next would come a harrowing 45-minute drive back down the mountain in an open-air vehicle with caterpillar treads. Fully checking her data would have to wait until she was back in 91��Ҹ�. Either way, she said she intended to try again when the satellite comes back in a couple weeks, as long as the snow doesn’t melt in the meantime.

That’s just the nature of studying snow. “There’s only so much you can control,” she said. “We have to work with what we’ve got.”

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey covers climate and the environment for The Times.

A new satellite could transform how water is studied worldwide. But to help unlock its capabilities, scientists first needed to take critical measurements on a mountaintop.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

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PhD candidate Millie Spencer featured in Denver Gazette article on Colorado Glaciers

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:49:14 +0000

PhD candidate Millie Spencer featured in Denver Gazette article on Colorado Glaciers Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:49

Science communication has long been a passion of mine, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to share a bit of my work, my perspective on glacier retreat and its environmental and sociocultural impacts with Seth at the Denver Gazette. While we as hydrologists so often focus on the scientific impacts on glacier melt—be it streamflow reduction, habitat loss, sea level rise, or increasing temperatures—glacier disappearance can also impact a community's sense of place and identity. It was a pleasure to chat with Seth and share what I've learned about how those of us living downstream of glaciers are shaped by these stoic features on our landscape. Whether on family hikes or ski days in basins carved by long-gone glaciers or simply driving west from SEEC on Colorado Ave. and looking up at Arapaho glacier, part of our identity as Colorado residents is shaped by our proximity to ice of past and present. As I shared with Seth, there's a sense of grief and nostalgia that comes from knowing that glaciers we have the pleasure of visiting will soon disappear, and that future generations will only know the mark they left on our landscapes and memories.

Spencer (center) with fellow Geography PhD student Sydney Carr (left) after conducting drone flights over Arapaho glacier last summer.

Read the article here: https://www.denvergazette.com/2025/09/28/the-legacy-and-loss-of-colorados-once-mighty-glaciers/

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Anshul Rai Sharma: Navigating Housing Precarity in Bengaluru: Insights from Fieldwork

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:38:01 +0000

Anshul Rai Sharma: Navigating Housing Precarity in Bengaluru: Insights from Fieldwork Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:38

Anshul Rai Sharma is a PhD student in the Department of Geography advised by Yaffa Truelove. His research follows how people navigate precarious housing conditions in one of India's fastest-growing cities, Bengaluru.

Supported by the John Pitlick Fieldwork Grant, he conducted preliminary fieldwork in informal settlements and state-led resettlement sites of the city. His days were spent moving between resettlement colonies, informal settlements and city municipality offices, speaking with residents, activists, and bureaucrats.

What emerged is a complex landscape of housing, where stability exists on a spectrum, some households have ownership documents, others hold possession certificates, while many navigate daily life with no formal claims to their homes. This gradation of security shapes everything, from stable access to water to electricity connections, from children's school enrollment to families' long-term aspirations.

In a resettlement colony on Bengaluru's periphery, where concrete apartment blocks house displaced communities (Figure 1), residents shared how unstable water and electricity affected their lives, along with lack of ownership documents to their allotted housing units.

Figure 1: Among the resettlement sites of Bengaluru, with unstable water and electricity.

Young people in these settlements became key interlocutors (Figure 2), offering perspectives on how housing precarity, and its attendant exclusions, shapes everyday life, aspirations and educational and professional trajectories.

Figure 2: Interacting with young people in the settlements, sharing about research.

During festival celebrations (Figure 3), the vibrancy of community life stood out, in contrast to material deprivations, a reminder that these spaces are homes, not just research sites. This is a critical part of Anshul’s research, to present the informal settlements as living, agentive spaces as opposed to being passive victims of urbanisation. These gatherings, full of laughter and song, offered glimpses into the affective and creative dimensions of urban life that are often missed in ‘urban survival’ narratives.

Figure 3: Celebrating festivities in the settlements.

A key moment in the summer was his involvement in the “Bengaluru Waterscapes” workshop (Figure 4), a collaborative effort by local organizations and researchers to address the city’s mounting water crises. These discussions were important in understanding of how environmental stress intersects with questions of housing and social justice.

Figure 4: Workshop on Bengaluru's waterscapes, led by MOD for city organizations to find solutions to water issues in the city's informal settlements.

Emerging from these experiences is a nuanced understanding of Bengaluru’s expansive housing crisis. It is also a social crisis, since settlements are not static or homogenous, they exist on a spectrum of recognition which shaped by caste and religion. Caste, in particular, remains a decisive force in determining who can claim land, who receives services, and who remains excluded from the geography of the “world-class” city. Some of these emerging issues, and calls to address them were featured in Bengaluru’s local new outlet: https://citizenmatters.in/housing-electricity-sulikunte-residents-eviction-ejipura-neglect/

Anshul’s forthcoming research will build on these preliminary findings, combining ethnography, archival work, and collaborative documentation to understand the crisis of housing and social justice in India’s IT Hub city of Bengaluru.

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Ethan Carr Selected as Hindi-Kush-Himalaya-Arctic Climate Youth Champion

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 20:53:12 +0000

Ethan Carr Selected as Hindi-Kush-Himalaya-Arctic Climate Youth Champion Gabriela Rocha Sales Thu, 11/06/2025 - 13:53

Ethan Carr, Geography MA alum 2024 and current Geography Ph.D. student has been selected as one of 12 Climate Youth Champions at the inaugural cohort of the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya - Arctic Youth Leadership Forum. The Champions were chosen from 9 different countries. See full list of Champions. The goal of the Leadership Forum is to "establish an annual Youth Leadership Forum that promotes a new generation of mountain and polar youth climate leaders. The Forum will inform, empower, and support youth from the HKH and Arctic regions by giving them a platform to bring in their perspectives and voices, strengthen their leadership skills, build capacity, and promote intergenerational dialogue to help ensure more youth-focused climate decision-making processes on cryosphere and biodiversity."

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Phurwa Gurung to Join UBC Geography, Advancing 91��Ҹ� on Indigenous Territorialities and Biodiversity Conservation

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:15:43 +0000

Phurwa Gurung to Join UBC Geography, Advancing 91��Ҹ� on Indigenous Territorialities and Biodiversity Conservation Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/29/2025 - 13:15

Tashi Delek! My name is Phurwa Dondrub Gurung, a fifth-year doctoral student at the department. I also did an MA here. Over the years, I feel so grateful to have received rigorous training from and with outstanding teachers and peers in theories and methods relevant to the key areas of my focus: political ecology, critical development studies, and Indigenous geographies. I have benefited immensely from the dedicated support of my Committee and the unparalleled mentorship from my Advisor, who guided me in all aspects of graduate training: teaching, research, publishing, grant-writing, and the job market. I feel truly fortunate to have been part of the vibrant and supportive CU 91��Ҹ� Geography community!

Based on nearly two years of ethnographic field research (2023-24) in Dolpo, Nepal, my home and research site, my PhD dissertation research develops a deep and critical understanding of how Himalayan lifeways interweave and fare with global biodiversity conservation efforts and national state-making projects. I focus on two key nonhuman agents, the caterpillar fungus and the snow leopard, to understand the intersections of global and national conservation governance with Indigenous territorialities and place-based governance. I examine how these nonhumans participate in coproducing the state, Dolpopa identity, and multispecies worlds in a context of profound socio-environmental transformations in the high Himalaya.

My research is grounded in participatory, visual, community-engaged, and Indigenous methodologies. To this end, I employed ethnography, documentary filmmaking, participatory mapping and painting, solicited journals, and a collaborative in-situ documentation of oral literature as the primary methods of knowing and being in good relation with my community. The dissertation fieldwork and the multimodal, community-engaged works have been supported by generous grants from the Social Science 91��Ҹ� Council (SSRC IDRF), Wenner-Gren Foundation, Firebird Fellowship, National Geographic Society, American Philosophical Society, and the CU Office of Outreach and Engagement. I am currently working on my dissertation, which I plan to defend in August 2025.

I accepted a new position in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia (UBC). I will join in July 2025 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences. UBC is an ideal academic home for the kind of work I do, with its vibrant community of Indigenous scholars engaged in critical work on Indigenous issues, both locally and globally. In addition to teaching, I will continue expanding my community-engaged works I began during my PhD studies here. I am especially looking forward to the postproduction of a documentary film I shot during my field research and publishing a bilingual multimedia book of Dolpo folk songs.

I will also be affiliated with UBC’s Interdisciplinary Biodiversity Solutions Collaboratory, where I am eager to collaborate with scholars across the disciplines to develop policy-relevant solutions to biodiversity conservation that center Indigenous knowledge. I also look forward to joining and getting to know new colleagues in the Department of Geography, the Himalaya Program, and Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC. And of course, my family is excited to explore the beautiful mountains and waters of British Columbia!

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Local Institutions and Resource Conflict in Northern Kenya: Fieldwork Insights from PhD Candidate Sarah Posner

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:53:10 +0000

Local Institutions and Resource Conflict in Northern Kenya: Fieldwork Insights from PhD Candidate Sarah Posner Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/28/2025 - 13:53

Posner and her 91��Ҹ� Assistant, Noor Hussein Noor, piloting the questionnaire with a Samburu pastoralist at his manyatta (homestead) March 2025.

Sarah Posner is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography advised by Professor John O’Loughlin. Her current work focuses on the role of local institutions used by four pastoralist societies to manage resources and associated conflict and thus sustain their livelihoods in an arid region of Northern Kenya.

The arid rangelands of Northern Kenya support the livelihoods of diverse pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, which depend on natural resources including grazing areas and water sources that are seasonally available and thus prone to environmental pressures. When conflicts arise over resource use, traditional reconciliation forums exist which have evolved alongside mechanisms implemented by formal county and national governments as well as NGOs and other non-state actors, creating increasingly hybridized local institutions.

In March 2025, with CU support from the CARTSS grant, Posner conducted pilot dissertation fieldwork in Isiolo County, Northern Kenya. At the time, US federal funding remained uncertain, and her recently awarded NSF-DDRI (Doctoral Dissertation 91��Ҹ� Improvement) grant had not yet been disbursed. Posner piloted her questionnaire through focus group discussions (FGDs) to refine the design of a large survey (N=1000) and ensure contextual relevance. These FGDs were conducted in three of her four field sites in ethnically distinctive wards. Posner sought to identify the roles and practices of local committees, specifically those responsible for grazing, water, and conflict management. These FGDs built upon earlier participatory mapping exercises Posner conducted in summer 2024 and had two primary aims: first, to validate the participatory maps with a new set of respondents in each site; and second, to understand the institutional architecture governing the management of water and pasture resources, as well as mechanisms for resolving associated conflicts.

Posner and her RA taking notes during a focus group discussion with the local grazing committee in Ngaremara, Isiolo county March 2025.

Posner found that each community manages peace, water, and grazing through committees that range from customary to formalized structures. In two wards, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), which oversees 43 conservancies in Northern Kenya, manages these committees. Respondents generally viewed NRT positively due to its provision of essential services often lacking from the state. However, in one ward, Borana respondents criticized NRT over transparency, accountability, and alleged land appropriation. The Borana rely on a customary system, dedha, governed by elders to manage grazing and water, but its lack of formal recognition hinders negotiations with other groups, including Somali communities in neighboring Wajir and Garissa County. Posner will conclude this phase of fieldwork in eastern Isiolo county to gather Somali perspectives on rangeland management and conflict, particularly over frequent cattle raids with the Borana.

Data from the FGDs was instrumental to Posner’s dissertation work as she used the local knowledge to inform a questionnaire that is more locally appropriate and context specific. The large N survey will be implemented in Summer 2025 to investigate whether the efficacy of these local institutional arrangements is associated with attitudes towards armed conflict and cooperation arrangements.

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Sara Fleming: New Course Engages Students in CU 91��Ҹ�'s Climate Action Plan

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:42:49 +0000

Sara Fleming: New Course Engages Students in CU 91��Ҹ�'s Climate Action Plan Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/28/2025 - 13:42

Members of the Co-teaching team (Pictured from left to right: Mariah Bowman, Brigid Mark, Sara Fleming, and Sean Benjamin)

The Geography Department is offering a new Special Topics course this semester, GEOG4002: Climate Action Planning. This unique interdisciplinary course was co-designed and is being co-taught by five graduate students from across departments: Sara Fleming (Geography), Sean Benjamin (Mechanical Engineering), Jonah Shaw (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences), Brigid Mark (Sociology), and Mariah Bowman (Law). The 24 undergraduate students in the course are learning the fundamental skills of climate action planning and are now working on group research projects to better understand and reduce emissions from different areas of CU 91��Ҹ�'s campus, including waste, business travel, commuting, and student/parent travel.

Students have been incredibly engaged in the class and excited about the hands-on opportunity to influence climate action at CU. They will present their ideas to administrators and stakeholders at the Sustainability Summit on April 22. The graduate students received financial support from the College of Engineering and Zonta Foothills Club to teach this class and hope to continue the course next academic year. If you are interested in supporting or being a part of future iterations of the course, please reach out to sara.fleming@colorado.edu.

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Millie Spencer Studying Glacier Retreat in Chile

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:35:36 +0000

Millie Spencer Studying Glacier Retreat in Chile Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/28/2025 - 13:35

My name is Millie Spencer, and I am a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Geography Department. I am currently on a Fulbright Award studying glacier retreat and its downstream impacts in south-central Chile. Hosted jointly by the University of Chile’s Civil Engineering Department and Indigenous Peoples Program, my work integrates glacier field measurements, glacier-hydrological modeling, and semi-structured interviews with periglacial communities. This approach seeks to bridge scientific methods with Indigenous and local knowledge, recognizing community memory as a critical resource for understanding climate change and informing adaptation strategies.

The first month and a half of my time here in Chile has been a whirlwind. The season to safely and accurately measure glaciers here in Chile is February-April, so I am working hard to hike to as many glaciers as possible before winter begins in full force. Accompanied by my generous colleagues here in Chile, we are hiking a chain of stratovolcanoes in south-central Chile to fly uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) and build digital elevation 91��Ҹ� of the glaciers. These 91��Ҹ� enable us to compute the volume loss of the glaciers over time.

In March, I spent two days camping at the base of Glaciar Nevado with my colleague Robert Clasings. The hike to Glaciar Nevado is an arduous 8 miles up volcanic sand dunes and lahars. However, our gorgeous camp near a waterfall with a view of the glacier above made the effort worthwhile. This mission enabled us to map the entire glacier, including a debris covered portion that was previously unidentified by scientists.

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Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation 91��Ҹ� in Wallmapu/Chile

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:21:30 +0000

Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation 91��Ҹ� in Wallmapu/Chile Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:21

Viviana Huiliñir-Curio

Viviana is a Mapuche scholar from Southern Chile and a graduate student in the Geography doctoral program at CU-91��Ҹ�. In her previous work in Chile, Viviana has been exploring the production of landscapes through various forms of Mapuche mobilities in the Andes borderlands in the context of colonialism, nation-state formations, commodification, and extractivism. Her areas of interest are at the intersection of cultural geography, political ecology, and critical Indigenous studies.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation supports doctoral research on anthropological knowledge, integrating two or more subfields. This dissertation fieldwork grant will fund a one-year-long fieldwork in Chile for her dissertation project called: “Green Borders: Protected Areas and Mapuche Mobilities in the Southern Andes in Wallmapu.” Her dissertation project explores the intersections between mobility, conservation, and dispossession from an Indigenous perspective, focusing on the role of national parks in transforming the Mapuche territory in the Andes borderlands.

"This doctoral program has been crucial in acquiring more theoretical and methodological perspectives for my dissertation project, especially in expanding my own perspectives about Indigenous geographies. Another important point for my personal and academic development is that the Geography department groups grad students worldwide, creating an international and cross-cultural environment. This has been very positive for connecting with grad students from different backgrounds, exchanging points of view, and building a respectful community. Therefore, the PhD has been a very enriching experience in many ways."

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Taylor Johaneman Floating for Science: Fieldwork on the Snake River (WY) and Ninemile Creek (MT)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:11:43 +0000

Taylor Johaneman Floating for Science: Fieldwork on the Snake River (WY) and Ninemile Creek (MT) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:11

My name is Taylor Johaneman - I am a fluvial geomorphologist and a third-year Ph.D. student in Geography. My dissertation work investigates the ecogeomorphic controls (e.g., sediment size, vegetation type, erosional and depositional patterns) on floodplain organic carbon (OC) storage and how human intervention in rivers, specifically artificial levee construction and river restoration, may alter OC storage. My study sites include two rivers, the Snake River near Jackson, WY and Ninemile Creek near Missoula, MT; data from leveed and unleveed sections of the Snake River are being used to investigate ecogeomorphic controls and impacts of artificial levees, while data from Ninemile Creek are being used to investigate the effects of river restoration.

One of the best parts of my work is going out to the field and collecting data. Not only is it a great excuse to camp and float in beautiful places throughout the summer, but being in the field helps visualize and clarify processes discussed in the literature or displayed in aerial imagery. More importantly, fieldwork allows you to observe the finer-scale spatial complexities that cannot be conveyed in aerial imagery.

I spent the last two summers floating the Snake River, collecting hundreds of soil samples and tree cores, measuring large wood and wood jams in the floodplain, and observing the substantial ecological and geomorphic variation that occurs throughout the floodplain. This past summer, I also spent a week on Ninemile Creek to collect samples. The data are still being processed in the lab, so I’ve included a few photos of my fieldwork.

Floating on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park between sample collection sites.

Picture 2: One of nearly 400 soil cores collected on the Snake River between Summer 2023 and Summer 2024. We would collect cores down to a 1 meter depth or depth of refusal, if refusal was less than 1 meter in depth. The depth of refusal is where coarse alluvium begins; this core was the last sample collected at this site, as indicated by the pebble sticking out of the core.

Picture 3: A recently restored section of Ninemile Creek.

Not pictured: Getting bluff charged by a grizzly bear with my advisor, Dr. Katherine Lininger.

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Feature-Grad

Millie Spencer and Emma Tyrrell: New York Times Article "How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain."

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PhD candidate Millie Spencer featured in Denver Gazette article on Colorado Glaciers

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Anshul Rai Sharma: Navigating Housing Precarity in Bengaluru: Insights from Fieldwork

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Ethan Carr Selected as Hindi-Kush-Himalaya-Arctic Climate Youth Champion

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Phurwa Gurung to Join UBC Geography, Advancing 91���Ҹ� on Indigenous Territorialities and Biodiversity Conservation

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Local Institutions and Resource Conflict in Northern Kenya: Fieldwork Insights from PhD Candidate Sarah Posner

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Sara Fleming: New Course Engages Students in CU 91���Ҹ�'s Climate Action Plan

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Millie Spencer Studying Glacier Retreat in Chile

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Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation 91���Ҹ� in Wallmapu/Chile

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Taylor Johaneman Floating for Science: Fieldwork on the Snake River (WY) and Ninemile Creek (MT)

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Phurwa Gurung to Join UBC Geography, Advancing 91��Ҹ� on Indigenous Territorialities and Biodiversity Conservation

Sara Fleming: New Course Engages Students in CU 91��Ҹ�'s Climate Action Plan

Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation 91��Ҹ� in Wallmapu/Chile