It’s been a crazy winter, but temperatures are on the rise, the lakes have completed their ice outs, and only dark, shelters ponds in scattered hollows remain frozen. The water is still numbingly cold, but we can now reach our loggers and we’re busily downloading data and changing our time stamps from the 15 minute over winter interval to a higher resolution 4 minute interval.

This was the first winter for our road salt study, and we’re very excited to see what the data tells us. We hope to add more on this in the near future after more of the data come in from the field.

It was great getting out to our hosts with the Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation District in Maine. I got to hear more about their sites and the water quality concerns they’re addressing Down East in cooperation with LoVoTECS. Their local area drains into coastal flats prized for fishing and clamming, increasing the importance of this data for their endeavors.

Owl Brook's silty bottom, bathed in spring sunshine.