Week One in Biosphere 2

Let me start out by saying that I am basically living IN the biosphere. I have spent most of my time inside the sealed structure since first arriving on Sunday. Today, I received a proximity card reader and radio to access all parts of the biosphere and document who enters and exits each area with me. The professors that are running the trip stranded me here in the middle of nowhere with Melanie, the hydrology grad student that is helping to mentor/chaperone the high school kids. We are in charge of herding the kids into the biosphere to sample different quadrants within sections of the biosphere. We are also in charge of keeping them fed, including taking them out to dinner wherever they choose and we agree to. Fun, right?

I am working at the biosphere with an organization called Arizona Rivers. As I understand it, the organization was put together by 2 professors from the SAHRA dept. and UA to educate students and teachers on the value of riparian areas in Arizona that we are losing as our population grows and consumes more water. The organization provides grants and training to teachers to provide them with the funding and knowledge of how to conduct field trips and classroom projects to demonstrate the importance of this rising concern to the students. The workshop serves this purpose as well as giving the students and teachers a basic understanding of each part of these riparian areas, including water quality testing, study of macro invertebrates, animals, insects, birds, and plants. The workshop only goes for 3 days and then the students go on a tour of different riparian areas in Arizona. This part of the program is called the Riparian Research Experiment, where the students will get to implement and use everything they learned in the workshop on their own in the field. It really is a fantastic organization and I am so glad to be a part of it (at least for the next 2 weeks).

Early Sunday morning I was picked up at my house to meet up with all 3 professors and Melanie at Bashas so we could get food to last us through breakfast and lunch for the entire week. The food we bought only lasted one day. A few kids dropped out of the program and didn’t show up at the biosphere orientation so we began the program with just 3 boys and 1 girl. A dozen teachers also arrived to attend the workshop. The living arrangements for the workshop were set up in the village of “casitas” that was built originally for the grad students that were studying the biosphere with Columbia. Now, they are used for organizations such as ours as well as grad students from UA conducting research. The casitas are only a few years old and really nice. The casita I am staying in has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. I am in a room with a full bed while two of the students have to share a room and the other gets a single. We rented one casita to serve as our meeting place for meals and entertainment. After everyone checked into their casitas, we went over to the biosphere to go over the purpose of Arizona Rivers and for an in-depth tour of the biosphere. It seems everyone knows something different about the biosphere. This was the second of I don’t know how many tours I was able to go on. I have been in almost all areas of the biosphere, including the upper rainforest where almost nobody is able to go. We climbed to the top of the rainforest and spent a few almost unbearable minutes in the extremely humid heat. We were near the top of the glass and it was covered in fog and haze as the sun tried to penetrate the thick air. After we quickly ascended, we were all dripping in sweat and feeling disgusting. You should try it sometime. We also got to go to the library - another extremely hot area. The biospherans spent almost no time here because of the heat and it took so much energy to climb all the steps to get to it (it is that circular shaped building in the biosphere picture at the top of the page).

The biosphere 2 really is an amazing artificial world complete with all the major ecosystems on earth including desert, Sahara, rainforest, and a 700,000 gallon ocean. The first biosphere project was funded by a private investor who basically wrote the biospherans a blank check for whatever they needed. I was amazed at some of the attention to detail and foresight that was used in this building that was built 20 years ago. The original carpet was 100% natural and biodegradable, handmade of mostly wool. They wanted everything to be natural and chemical free so that they wouldn’t release the chemicals into their atmosphere and have to breathe them in. They also didn’t use toilet paper because they didn’t want it to contaminate their water supply. The original plan was for a total of 50 sets of people to live in the biosphere for 2 years each. I think they should have known the first experiment wouldn’t work flawlessly as they had hoped. They went in anyway and soon ran out of oxygen because they didn’t take into account the massive amount of concrete that was used. As the concrete began to cure, it released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and threatened to end the project. They decided to correct this by pumping in extra oxygen. The whole point of the biosphere was to be self-sustaining so this really meant a failure for the project. The whole structure is sealed and airtight and can literally be picked up and moved anywhere (hence the idea for a station on Mars). This failure also caused the 8 biospherans to split up into two groups – 1 that was still for the mission and 1 that accepted it as a failure. The fighting lasted the remainder of the project and the people went so far as to spit in each others faces as they walked by in the hallways. One of the biospherans said their main regret of the project was the reality of human behavior. One interesting success of the project was the fact that they were able to cycle all of the original water throughout the biosphere and never have a shortage or problem with water.

After the tour, we had a large dinner of lasagna and then everyone hung around outside and got to know each other until we retired to sleep.

The workshop began on Monday in a cool room used for presentations in the biosphere. Melanie and my main purpose during the workshop was to assist in the activities and direct people with what to do and where to go. After about 4 hours of lecture, we took a break for lunch and then returned for the section on insects. A grad student from UA, Michelle, was brought in as the local expert. I will say this right now, Michelle loves her bugs (notice the picture of her "sucking" the bugs into a tube). She started off her presentation with a slideshow of insects she has photographed. She was super excited and kept pointing out how cute all of the insects were. It was really neat to see someone so passionate about what they do. I really liked her and her unending enthusiasm for bugs. Her main area of study was ants but she knew a lot more about insects than just ants. I learned that Arizona has more insects than anywhere else in the country. The total number of different species was estimated by one of her colleagues at over 30,000. That night, she set up a special bug light and white sheet so we could view the insects that lived around the biosphere. She told us that she regularly attends “bug parties” with her fellow grad students near Madera Canyon to set up this type of display and look at insects all night. She also let it slip that they sometimes dare each other to eat the bugs. I tried to get her to eat a moth but she said they taste awful. We were able to see a large tarantula, praying mantis, moths, bees, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember. By the end of the night the ants took over and were killing and carrying off all the other insects. This may be a good area to note that “crazy ants” are the top predator of biosphere 2. These ants were mistakenly introduced to the biosphere with some of the trees they brought in. The ants killed off almost every other insect in the biosphere and we are currently trying to get a number on just how many may be in the structure. So far we have counted over 2,000 in some meter square areas.

Kendall from the Audubon Society in Tucson came in after Michelle to teach us about the birds of Arizona. Once again, we have one of the largest diversities in the country with almost 500 different species making an appearance. Kendall wasn’t as excited as Michelle but he was pretty good at naming birds and their calls. He taught us that naming the bird is just part of the bird watching experience. Most bird watchers also examine the behavior and sounds to figure out what they are doing. We woke up at 6am on Tuesday to go bird watching with Kendall on a cow trail near the biosphere. We were able to see 2 Great Horned Owls, which was pretty amazing. At one point, one of the owls landed on a tree that apparently belonged to a small finch because the finch went crazy flying around the owl, screeching in its face trying to get it to leave. We also saw a couple Harris’ Hawks, a ton of Mourning Doves, and a bunch of other birds normally seen in the area. Another highlight was watching a Killdeer pretend to have a broken wing to try to lure us away from its nest. They do this so that the predator will follow the Killdeer with the broken wing until it is far enough from the nest, then the bird will fly away.

Every evening, a group of deer venture down to the grassy area just outside the biosphere to munch on the grass. This has become my spot. I have been checking on them every night while they graze away on the grass. Melanie claims she saw them running around the field, playing games together one night. I dismissed this as mere speculation since I wasn’t present. One night I was able to witness an extraordinary event that I have been waiting for since I began hiking in Tucson. I was watching the deer as the sun was setting over the ridgeline just above them when I saw something move. I focused in on the object with my binoculars, thinking it was a coyote. As the image moved, the profile view of its entire body became visible and I saw a nub tail and tufted ears – the outline of a bobcat! It was a beautiful sight. I could make out the perfect silhouette of the animal pasted on the strawberry background of the sky.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday night I had to depart the biosphere. I had to take a 3 hour HOV (high occupant vehicle) training course early Wednesday morning so I could drive the 15 passenger vans. I really did not want to go back to Tucson and felt strange as I entered t he sprawling city. My feeling of inner peace that I was accustomed to from my short stay at the biosphere was immediately swept away. I was able to eat my usual healthy diet at my home so that was a nice perk of this inconvenience. The class was terrifying. It taught me that I was going to be driving a death chamber on wheels. 15 passenger vans filled to capacity are one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road and there are millions of them in America. The design of them is pitiful and they will tip over and roll if you try to turn at a speed above 35mph. This may be my last blog entry so savor every word.

It felt good to get back to the biosphere on Wednesday to say goodbye to the teachers because the workshop ended just as I got back. The following day we loaded the van full of kids and water and took off for Aravaipa Canyon. We hiked 13K through the canyon and crossed over the creek over a dozen times. It was amazing to see that there was water flowing here year round! To start the hike off well, we spotted a black and orange gila monster. We took as many photos of it as we could before the fat, slow creature disappeared into the brush. We spotted many different birds, fish, and deer along the hike. The most beautiful bird was the Vermillion Fly Catcher. It had a bright red head and black body. I’d post a picture of it but it was too fast for my 3x zoom to capture a decent picture. The hike was long and tiring and I kept a close eye on my GPS unit the whole way back wondering how much further we had to go. I know this is bad but I really enjoyed the first half of the hike and didn’t think once about time. I like to think that cancels out my impatience. It was hot and you would have done the same. I decided that all of my summer hikes will need to take place at a spot that has water so I can take a dip every once in a while. Splashing around with the high school kids made it so much more fun and tolerable with the heat. At one point, I bent over to splash water on my face and my camera flew out of my backpack and into the water in front of me. I grabbed it as quickly as I could but it got completely submerged. The water must not have had enough time to soak into the camera because I let it air dry over night and it works fine now. It was quite a scare. By the time we reached the van, everyone was wiped out. The professors both left to go home as soon as we got back to the casitas, leaving Melanie and me alone with the high school students. We ordered in from a nice Italian restaurant and watched a movie. My eyes were sore from looking around all day at the canyon so I didn’t pay much attention to the movie. Plus, Megan called me from Peru just as I opened my eggplant parmesian. I figured since it was an international call I should take it. I’m kidding, of course. I was excited to talk to her.

So that brings us to where we are now. Actually, I started this blog on Friday and now it’s Sunday. Melanie and I were relieved of our babysitting duties last night when John (a professor) came back. Melanie and I also had to return our backstage passes to the biosphere. It was pretty cool to work in the actually wilderness of the biosphere, off the visitors path. We had to scan our cards to open the air-tight doors and then speak into the radio and say how many people we were bringing in/out. Today, we went to a Nature Conservancy outside of Mammoth. On a side note, Myron just came in to show me his roommate’s sandal frozen in a block of ice. He is showing the kid his sandal right now and taking pictures of his reaction. Anyway, the conservancy was a career eye opener for me – or at least that is how I feel at the moment. The watershed manager, Rob, that looks over the 6,000 acre plot of land took us on a tour of the property and showed us a beaver’s den on the lower San Pedro River. He told us the story of how humans killed off tens of thousands of beavers in an effort to rid the area of mosquitoes. Genius, right? He explained the real reason for the mosquito problem was due to stocking ponds with fish. It’s really an elementary school problem that they tried to solve by killing beavers. You see, by stocking the ponds with large fish, all the small fish were eaten. Since all the small fish were eaten, there was nothing left to eat the mosquitoes. You know, the way the food chain works? I honestly question why I live in the realms of society sometimes. Anyway, Rob was a really interesting guy. He has a PhD in a marine something or other. He explained how he got to where he is today at the Nature Conservancy but his background has little to do with any of it. He has worked on many different projects since he started his schooling when he was 27. I have been having problems thinking of one area I would like to study because I am interested in so much and feel like I would be missing out and bored with one area of study. This gave me hope that there is a career path for me. I can just work on a project for a few years until it is resolved, a qualified individual can take over, or I just can’t handle the politics and move on. I can’t really explain the vision I have but don’t worry, you’ll see. I may even go back to school, who knows.

We leave for our field studies tomorrow and return next Monday. It is going to be hot and unhealthy. I haven’t even touched on the food of this trip. Before I came on this trip, my diet consisted of primarily local, organic foods. Now, I am eating almost all processed foods from who knows where. I picked up a few healthy foods to last me through breakfast and lunch for a few days while I was in Tucson.

Ruby

I spent this past weekend in an old ghost town known as "Ruby." Ruby started out as Montana Camp in the 1870's and was named "Ruby" after a store owner's wife in 1909. Ruby was a lead mining town that grew to be the second largest town in Santa Cruz County (1,800 residents). It became a ghost town in 1941. Older folks in Tucson can tell you about some type of connection they have to the town. The town has not been restored and is in its original condition after being destroyed by either weather or curious jackasses. A rule in Ruby is to not lock anything or else people will automatically assume there is something valuable inside and will go to whatever measures necessary to get inside. This theory was put to the test when someone recently attached a chain from their truck to the iron door of the old record keeping structure. The door and part of the building were ripped off to reveal an empty shed. Nice job…jackass.

That's a brief history of the town; now let's move on to my experience of this hidden Arizona gem. A fellow volunteer/friend of mine, Howard Frederick, owns a percentage of Ruby along with a few other families. Howard and his wife, Pat, are the only ones who look after Ruby and spend time there. After much destruction of the town, they decided to hire a caretaker a few years ago. The first caretaker they hired didn't work out, to say the least, so they had the cops haul him off for beating his wife. He is currently standing trial as an accomplice to murder (not his wife). The new caretaker who has been looking after the town has been employed for almost 5 years. He is known simply as "Sundog." We'll talk more about Sundog later, don't worry. The plan was for a group of CSA volunteers to meet up at 9am on Saturday morning to head down to Howard's town to hang out for the weekend. Only I and one other guy, Nick, showed up. Nick came equipped with a 1971 Volkswagen van that he loaded his mountain bike and kayak into. I attached my bike to the back of his rig and we took off for Ruby. The drive down was absolutely beautiful. We passed through rolling hills, mountains, desert grassland, small rural towns with streams that still ran, and cottonwood forests. It was a nice relaxing drive to start out the weekend. I was told the trip from Tucson to Ruby is about 1.5 hours. We made it in about 2.5 in the van. The van is known for having about 55hp and being perfectly happy chugging along at 28mph up hills. Nick has been close to death after pulling this off in the Sierra Nevada’s with a long trail of cars honking furiously behind him.

We rolled into Ruby and followed a sign that directed us to check in with the caretaker. Sundog came walking out with his arms swinging wildly at his sides. He was wearing shorts, sandals, and an unbuttoned, short sleeve shirt. His hair was long and unkempt but went well with his image. The long beard with white tips didn't hurt either. He smiled at us with his bright blue eyes and told us Howard was probably in his house. Nick corrected him and said that he was probably down by the lake and Sundog confessed that he had no idea.

Okay, let's talk about Sundog now. I liked Sundog immediately after meeting him. Sundog was mentioned in the summer edition of Tucson's 110 Degrees magazine. The article he is in is about transcendence, or the feeling of oneness with all of existence that people sometimes experience. Sundog's contribution told of how he has had this feeling through the use of botanical psychedelics that helps him "enjoy all this." Sundog is a skilled botanist and herbal healer. He has a beautiful garden of flowers and vegetables outside his cottage. He has also learned a lot of herbal remedies from Native Americans and other groups he has lived with across the world. He was once bitten by a rattlesnake that he was trying to catch and eat. He survived for 3 days using his herbal medicine until Howard found him and forced him to go to the hospital. He was on the verge of death and spent 2 days in intensive care. After he recovered, a group of scientists wanted to interview him to ask how he managed to survive for so long without any antivenin. He now wears a hat made from the rattlesnake’s skin to commemorate the occasion. Sundog is described in 110 Degrees as a recluse who lives in Ruby. He is a recluse, however he is very social. He has been married 5 times and has children somewhere out there. He always has friends or girlfriends around. The girlfriends don't seem to stick around for too long, though. I'm sure this can be blamed on the slim pickings he has in the nearest town of Arivaca and I bet he's not the easiest guy to tie down in a relationship. Sundog is also a brilliant cook. The first night that Howard and Pat stayed in Ruby with Sundog, he cooked them Basmati Raccoon. It was road kill, of course, but they both claim it was divine. Howard is a former nutritionist and knows his food so I trust his opinion when he says that mountain man, Sundog, is a genius in the kitchen. Sundog is a myth in his own time and I highly recommend taking the chance to meet him. I was not able to have a lengthy conversation with him on my visit, but I assure you that it will happen on one of my next visits.

Okay, so anyway, we drove down to the lake and parked in front of this huge area of what appeared to be sand dunes. We walked across the dunes to a ramada in front of the lake where Howard and Pat were sitting while drinking a beer and reading. Howard told us that the sand dunes were actually crushed minerals from the mine and contained 20% lead. The wind was ferocious and kept blowing the sand all around into our mouths and lungs as we talked by the ramada. I couldn't help but imagine how much lead poisoning I was being exposed to. Howard claims it's harmless and the water is safe enough to drink, let alone swim in. He backed this information up with stories of old miners living to be old and healthy. In fact, Sundog drinks the lake water straight. I hear it takes at least a week for a typical person to get used to drinking the stuff.

After a while, Howard and Pat lead us up to their cottage that was situated behind Sundog's. By cottage, I mean ruins of the town that are more intact than the rest. They say they have a bad mouse and kissing bug problem. Also, they can't really fix up the place or leave any personal belongings there because as I said earlier, someone is likely to come by and demolish or steal it. The cottage served its purpose and made for a great hang out for reading on the porch or eating. Howard took Nick and me on a tour of the town which included the old school, jail, post office, and the mine. The mine had cool air blowing out of it that had a lovely scent of bat guano. Howard informed us that the bat show would begin at sunset when all the bats pour out of the mine to feed. He also added how large the mine was and that it extended underground all over Ruby. He told us that Sundog has been through most of the tunnels despite the horrid smell (I bet he doesn’t even notice).

After the tour ended, we headed back to the cottage so I could go mountain biking. By this time, Howard's son, Liam and his girlfriend, Mai-Lee, had showed up. They greeted us at the cottage with a beer. The beer was perfect after walking around the town in the sun. We talked for a little while, and then Liam drew me a map of a good mountain bike trail to follow. I took off out of Ruby, flying down the dirt road. I knew before I left that I was going to miss the trail he told me to turn off on and sure enough, I did. I kept an eye out for it as I road on but soon realized that I had gone much farther than I should have. The road was torn up like a trail anyway so I road for a few miles until the washboards in the road started bothering me...as well as my testicles. I turned off on an immigrant trail (for those who don't know, Mexicans crossing the border create trails all over the desert) because Liam said some of these were fun to ride on too. I rode the trail until I couldn't handle my legs getting ripped apart by plants. Most plants in the desert are covered in thorns to ward off animals...and apparently people with shorts too. Once the blood started touching my socks I decided enough was enough. As I pedaled back to Ruby, I noticed how tired I had become and kept hoping Nick would drive by on his way back to Tucson so he could pick me up and take me back to Ruby. I got lucky and when I was 2 or 3 miles away from Ruby, Liam came by and picked me up. It was getting close to bat time and he had to meet a tow truck for a family of hicks that got stranded. I say hicks because the man had a mullet and was wearing a shirt with a picture of Snoopy and the name "Joe Cool." His wife (or maybe kid) had blue hair with about 3 months of blonde roots showing. Hmm, there must be a better word than "hick" to describe this family.

We got back to Ruby just in time to grab a beer and watch the bats. I followed Howard onto the top of a tractor to watch the show. The bats poured out for 20 minutes and formed large clouds as they moved over the mountain and out of sight. The most recent count by biologists has been 175,000 bats but Howard insists the number has grown much since then.

Nick decided to leave after the bat viewing and I decided to stay the night and get a ride back with Liam the following day. I walked with Nick to the house and grabbed my backpack so I could set up camp for the night. I took Howard's suggestion and followed a cattle trail on the opposite side of the lake to a hidden spot behind a section of cat tails. A foundation of an old house occupied my space and I contemplated setting up my tent inside but opted for the fluffy grass by the marsh instead. I set up my tent and got my new thermarest ready for me to crash on. Then I grabbed my headlamp and continued on the cattle trail until the lake became a small stream that I could pass over to the other side and head back toward the cottage. On the other side of the lake, I noticed the skeleton of a sweat lodge. I was immediately taken back to my memories of the sweat lodge with Two Crows in Baja California. Somehow, I bet Sundog's sweat lodges are way better. I'll have to come back when he performs his annual sweat lodge in the winter.

Back at the cottage, Liam was grilling organic lamb from Trader Joe's and venison, while Howard prepared a salad made from CSA greens and Pat opened a bottle of wine. I'll spare you the details but the meal was by far the best camping meal I have ever had. It was all fresh and mostly organic and local. After dinner, Mai-Lee, brought out a chocolate cheesecake. Does camping get any better than this? The conversation and company of the Frederick family was not only interesting, but calm and relaxing after a long day outside. It was a terrific dinner all around. The food was too much for any of us to fight so we all turned in for the night. I half seriously said I was going to jump in the lake before going to my tent because of how sweaty and nasty I felt. As I walked past Sundog's house, I saw 4 sets of glowing eyes watch me from the trees. Evidently Sundog has a few cats and even a cat door on his cottage. When I got to the lake, I decided it was too cold and a little too creepy to jump in so I fought my way through the forest on the opposite side of the lake and lay down in my sleeping bag. I left the cover off my tent so I could see the stars and the crescent moon reflect off the water. I watched a few shooting stars race across the sky before shutting my eyes to end the day.

I awoke the next morning to the sound of children debating whether or not to take the canoe out on the lake. I had forgotten that a tourist family was camping in Ruby too. The tent was starting to heat up with the early morning sun and the layer of dirt and sweat on my skin told me that there was no way I was going to go back to sleep comfortably. I guessed it was 6 or 7am and was not sure if the Fredericks would be up yet. They invited me to breakfast the previous night but I didn't want to intrude on their hospitality and wake them. I decided to go for a hike and check out the area. Biologists visit Ruby once in a while to study wildlife, including mountain lions and jaguars. I knew I wouldn't see any lions or jaguars but hoped that I would see some type of wildlife on the hike. Along with some incredible views into Mexico and of the surrounding area, I saw cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits, and a few white tail deer. I hiked through the brush, straight up the side of the mountain I was camped under and hiked along the ridge for a little while before descending and finding myself at the far end of the lake. I walked over to the cottage just in time to see a plate of scrambled eggs and potatoes waiting for me. I was gone long enough to miss breakfast but my incredible hosts put a plate aside for me anyway. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon reading on the porch (I read the newspaper with the article about Sundog) and kayaking on the lake. We all agreed how nice it was to be at peace with no cell phone, no TV., and no radio. It was just another nice, relaxing day in Ruby.

I feel very much in debt to the Fredericks for such a wonderful time in Ruby. I plan to return with a cooler full of beer and some specialty food from the CSA. Also on the list is an in-depth discussion with the one and only, Sundog.