A great summer on the way.

This summer I will be mapping willows (streamside shrubs) on Yellowstone's northern range (the area occupied by Yellowstone's northern elk herd in the winter). Basically, my assistant and I get paid to hike all over Yellowstone and use gps units to mark the willow thickets that we find. Then we measure how tall they are and record a few other pieces of data.

The hard part will be identifying the species of each thicket. Willows all look very similar to each other and they hybridize. So we are spending the first week practicing our ID skills. Once we get good at recognizing all 13 species that grow in northern Yellowstone (sheesh!), we're off for a summer of non-stop hiking. It should be pretty cool.

It will be nice to have an extra person with me. I usually work alone, and bushwhacking along streams is a great way to run into bears. Last month, I had to mace a bear for the first time in 17 years. The bear made me nervous, but the blow-back from the mace was actually worse. I spent several hours washing my face, coughing and hacking.

Don't use your bear mace unless you really need to.