Wow. Just like that, the summer has passed. I complete an internship of a lifetime next week. It’s bittersweet – but I am very proud of what I have accomplished despite my initial feeling of…

Zooplankton are an important part of the San Francisco Estuary food web. Zooplankton are small (often crustaceous) organisms that feed on phytoplankton (algae) in the water. Phytoplankton derive their energy from the sun. Zooplankton filter…

To understand why longfin smelt have been in decline in recent decades we must familiarize ourselves with the life history of this unique fish. Longfin smelt are an anadromous fish species, meaning that they migrate…

I have been very fortunate this summer to have split my time between two urban refuges. There has been so much to learn from each site and it has been a great lesson to see…

As my eleven-week fellowship comes to an end, it’s hard to imagine that barely three months ago I sat at this computer writing my first emails with my new Fish and Wildlife Service email address.…

On June 17th, I had the opportunity to accompany two interns into the field to map Smith’s Blue Butterfly habitat. Fort Ord Dunes State Park, where we surveyed, is only a few miles from Monterey,…