June 1 2009

The road opened almost a month earlier this year- the fourth of May instead of early June. Being able to get into the Lab early makes it much easier to open. We’ve got quite a few returning staff, and when you throw in less snow damage than in 2008, things are running more smoothly than last year. We always lose one or two staff members at the beginning of the summer; no matter how well we try to describe Gothic to people who have never been here before, there is someone who decides it isn’t for them. Last year we had a cook who lasted two days; she never got out of her pajamas and called for family to pick her up ASAP. This year we hired an extra staff person on the assumption we’d lose someone. We’ll see.

We are scrambling to determine whether to go after some of the federal stimulus money. The National Science Foundation received quite a bit of money and there are two programs (instrumentation and buildings) that we might pursue. Both proposal deadlines are Aug. 24. We are considering renovating Willey or the Dining Hall.

We are also exploring possibilities for an instrumentation proposal. We were excited about the possibility of getting equipment that would allow scientists to tag and follow critters. Unfortunately it appears that the technology is not quite ready. So we’re thinking about an automated radio telemetry system that could track larger animals. We’re also thinking about ways to track phenology—the annual cycles of plants and animals. Both proposals would be large- $500,000 to $ 2 million; putting them together in three months would be a challenge!