More quickly than expected the time has come and our field season has begun. Over the last couple of weeks the drone labs have been a buzzing hive in the final push to get everything ready for our departure. Last minute deliveries, calibrations, carbon fibre cutting, soldering, painting and preparing boxes. The list of things to be build, calibrated and tested seemed endless and it felt like a huge relief on Monday evening when everything came together and the boxes were finally packed.
Once more we’re seriously in debt to the UoE Airborne GeoScience team for all the time and effort they put in to make it all happen. And let’s not forget to the fabulous finance team without whom we couldn’t have been able to complete our orders and shipments, the insurance folks for providing our a financial safety net for our pile of equipment and us should anything go wrong, the computing staff and Justin for getting us our field work station just in time, Arthur the servitor of the Crew Building for seeing our shipment off and Richard our safety officer for helping us with first aid kits and risk assessments. Thanks everyone!
Now the boxes are in the hands of the couriers and Santeri and I are on our way to Canada, excited about the adventures that lie ahead of us this summer. This year Team Shrub will be split into two:
Team Drone
The first stop for us on the drone team is Vancouver for a quick reunion with Isla and Andy. From there we’re all heading North to the Yukon to check upon our common garden and to catch up with old friends at ‘base’, the Kluane Lake Research Station, before finally heading on to Inuvik to prepare for our summer on Qikiqtaruk – Herschel Island.
The Kluane Crew
The second team consisting of Haydn, Sandra, Eleanor and John will follow us to the Yukon shortly, starting in Kluane and Pika Camp in mid-June, before joining us on Qikiqtaruk for the peak of the growing season in late July.
We’re curious to find out how our birch and willow is growing in the common garden, how Haydn’s teabags are decomposing and how the tundra will look like from the air this year. Again we would like to invite you to follow us on our journeys through this summer. So please come back here for updates from the North.
By Jakob on behalf of Team Shrub
Team Shrub 