Mallory Wright traded the Texas heat for the Colorado mountains after childhood trips to Estes Park sparked a lifelong love of the outdoors. A graduate of Tarleton State University, she moved to Crested Butte in 2021, bringing a background in hospitality management and a passion for hiking, skiing, and connecting with people. She spoke with [...]
RMBL principal investigator Benjamin Wong Blonder, PhD, studies how quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides) respond to stress across the high country. This summer's drought and heat, he writes, are the latest chapter in a longer story: aspen decline that builds slowly, over years of accumulated stress, rather than arriving all at once. Below, he explains what [...]
Dear RMBL community, This has been an ecologically weird year, and RMBL scientists are documenting it. After an extraordinarily low-snow winter, wildflowers bloomed weeks early, Blue Mesa Reservoir fell to historic lows, and drought, insects, and disease continued to challenge our aspens and conifers and reshape our forests. And then there are the marmots. About [...]
For Doug La Follette, PhD, stewardship has meant showing up. It has meant driving to the Milwaukee airport to pick up a visiting scientist, teaching a two-week course between legislative sessions, and, year after year, opening his checkbook to support a cabin, a dining hall, Crystal (a big all-seasons cabin), and a new, modern shower [...]
RMBL Scientists Visit Expanding Youth Programs Driving into Gothic on a July afternoon, visitors immediately notice the crags of Gothic Mountain, chest-high monument plants, and roving researchers carrying nets and binoculars. As common as the deer grazing in the protected townsite meadows, a growing number of much younger scientists have brought their own questions to [...]
For a student, a summer at RMBL can be life-changing. There's nothing like experiencing field research firsthand in one of the world's most-studied mountain ecosystems alongside scientists at the leading edge of ecology. There's also nothing like going to sleep after a fit of giggles. Mammal Lab. 10 new summer residents (not including the various [...]
Svata Louda, PhD, spent 11 consecutive summers at RMBL, 1979 through 1989, arriving each May as the snow melted and staying until mid-September. She went on to become the first woman named George Holmes University Chair of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Biological Sciences and, in 1982, only the second woman [...]
Dear RMBL community, Over the past few weeks, something remarkable happened. A playful story about some delightfully round yellow-bellied marmots captured the attention of people around the world. What began as a fun social media moment quickly grew into national and international news, with stories appearing on the NBC's TODAY, in The New York Times, [...]
Christie Hicks joined RMBL this summer as chief operating officer, bringing a background in environmental education, outdoor leadership, and nonprofit management. Before joining RMBL, she led Western Colorado University’s Wilderness Pursuits program and served as executive director of CB Nordic. We sat down with Christie to learn what drew her to RMBL, what excites her [...]
RMBL's Development Manager shares what brought her to the Gunnison Valley, why connection matters, and what excites her about RMBL's future. Suzanne: Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, and what brought you to the Gunnison Valley? Gigi: I grew up in Upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes region, spending [...]
A Conversation With Bobbi Peckarsky For more than 50 years, stream ecologist Bobbi Peckarsky, PhD, has returned to RMBL to study inhabitants of streams in the East River watershed, mentor generations of students, and build a scientific community that spans decades. This August, she’s bringing together more than 60 alumni and their families in Gothic [...]
Public lands are a national treasure. They are integral components of our country’s culture, natural resource management, and biodiversity conservation. But not all forms of protected wild areas always work as well as they should for actually protecting biodiversity. One major gap is that roads run through many public lands — the U.S. Forest Service [...]
A ray of mid-May Gothic sun cut through a light snow shower in 2025 as I visited RMBL research scientist Ian Breckheimer, PhD, and Western Colorado University Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science and Engineering students just north of the Visitor Center. The Rady team had partnered with RMBL since 2024 to identify and [...]
Dear RMBL community, If you've spent any time in the Upper Gunnison Valley this summer, you've likely noticed something remarkable: monument plants are everywhere. Towering above the landscape at heights of 7 to 9 feet, monument plants (Frasera speciosa) are experiencing a "super bloom" year. These extraordinary plants can live for decades — sometimes nearly [...]
The climate at RMBL has always been variable, but this year is breaking records with new extremes in precipitation and temperature. billy barr measured record-late rain last fall, record-low snowfall for the winter, record-early snowmelt, and many new daily high temperatures this winter. The phenology of most plants and animals that RMBL researchers study is driven by the amount of snow and timing of snowmelt, as is the abundance of some species, so we can already predict that this will be an unusual summer. As I write this in mid-May, we’re already seeing flowers in bloom that are more typical of mid-June.
Plant ecologist Margie Mayfield recounts her RMBL journey Like many undergraduates who spent time at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), my experience there was largely the result of chance, youthful ambition, and a sense of adventure. I decided to become an ecologist after visiting Ecuador with my aunt at age 16. I grew up [...]
Evolutionary Ecologist Diane Campbell and Design Researcher Eliza Collin Simulate the Future at RMBL Three years ago, during a residency at the Design Museum in London, design researcher Eliza Collin was developing a new project about olfactory evolution and looking for scientists studying how climate change affects the scent of flowers. Her search led her [...]
Dear RMBL community, There is something magical about the beginning of summer at RMBL. As the snow slowly recedes from the mountainsides, the first glacier lilies emerge through the thawing ground, signaling the arrival of a new field season in Gothic. Soon after, the hillsides and meadows begin bursting with countless other alpine wildflowers, transforming [...]
For more than a decade, Rick Reavis has helped connect visitors to the science, ecology, and wildflowers of the Gunnison Valley through RMBL’s Visitor Center and Gothic Store and Interpretive Wildflower Tours. A longtime educator, ski instructor, and Crested Butte Wildflower Festival volunteer, and author of Rocky Mountain Wildflower Guide Crested Butte & Beyond, Rick [...]
Dear RMBL community, As we head into summer, RMBL enters the season with both momentum and a critical question: After one of the driest winters on record, how will the Gunnison Valley’s lack of precipitation shape its ecology, including impacts on pollinators, plants, water systems, and wildfire risk? This historic weather anomaly presents a rare [...]
I’m Dan Blumstein and lead (with my colleague Julien Martin) the Marmot Project, one of the longest-running mammal studies in the world, here at RMBL. …
Josh Grinath and the power of place-based discovery On a summer morning near Gothic, before most of the valley stirs, ecologist Josh “Bear” Grinath is already thinking about questions that stretch far beyond any single field site: How do pollution and predators shape communities of plants and animals? What might those interactions portend for the [...]
How the RMBL experience shapes life beyond research science Neil Losin arrived at RMBL in 2003 as an undergraduate studying red-naped sapsuckers with Chris Floyd. He returned in 2004, gathered more data, and later published the work. "I fell in love with Gothic in the early mornings before breakfast," Neil recalls. "Give nature a chance [...]
I am one of five winter residents of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, living at the end of the trail at the end of the road in Gothic, Colorado. On paper, it is a very simple job. I help close the cabins in the fall, put up my food for the winter, stack my firewood, [...]
My RMBL story began in a community college biology classroom in the spring of 2019. My professor at the time, Jimmy Lee, introduced our class to the undergraduate research program at RMBL as one of several opportunities that offered hands-on field experience with full financial support. “Extra experience with pay, why not?” I thought. In addition, the [...]
On March 13, 2026, longtime RMBL scientist Paul Ehrlich, PhD, passed away in Palo Alto, California, at age 93. Paul was an eminent biologist who wrote or co-authored more than 1,100 scientific papers and articles and over 50 books, many with his wife, Anne. The following tribute, written by RMBL scientist and board member Dan [...]
We sat down with Cheryl Cwelich, RMBL development manager extraordinaire, to chat about her path from the Colorado Front Range to the Gunnison Valley, the experiences that shaped her passion for conservation and the outdoors, and the power of long-term ecological research. Read on to learn what inspires Cheryl's work — and what she loves [...]
Dear Friends of RMBL, April brings us to Earth Day, a time to reflect on our relationship with the planet and the responsibility we all share in caring for it. At RMBL, Earth Day resonates deeply with our mission. For nearly a century, scientists, students, and educators have come to Gothic to study the natural world, listen [...]
As I prepare for my eighth foray to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, I’m taking part in my own personal tradition of telling anyone who will listen that this might be my last summer at RMBL. …
When RMBL spatial ecology research technician and winter caretaker Sophia Todorov first arrived at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in the summer of 2020, she had never been to Colorado, done fieldwork, or climbed a peak. Yet within days, she was posted in a high meadow with a spotting scope, learning to read animal behavior [...]
The East River carves a perfect “S” just before it flows between the base of Gothic Mountain and a treehouse named “Bean Pod.” Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) scientists constructed this treehouse one year after the organization was founded in 1928. The 5-by-10-foot shack clings to a small hill on one end and two spruce [...]
Dear Friends of RMBL, March is Women’s History Month, and we are proud to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary women who have shaped, advanced, and sustained science and education at RMBL for nearly a century. The Bean Pod Sprouts a Century of Women in Science article in this newsletter beautifully highlights this legacy and RMBL’s longstanding role [...]
Tracing the Path In the mountains surrounding RMBL’s Gothic campus, snow settles into alpine basins, melts into wetlands and soils, gathers into rivers, and ultimately flows to communities far downstream. Understanding what happens in plant communities along that path amid global change — a question with major implications for the Upper Gunnison and East River [...]
A Late Fall On Nov. 14, 2025, I drove the short distance from my apartment in Mount Crested Butte to Dr. David Inouye’s cabin in South Gothic. At that point in this dry year, the Gunnison Basin measured 16 percent of average snowpack (a mere 4 inches total, according to billy barr; see gothicwx.org for [...]
In 2012, I spent my first summer at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), and it was often a lonely one. My research project was streamlined enough that I didn’t need a field crew, and no other graduate students from my program at the University of Wisconsin worked in Gothic. I spent early mornings and late [...]
Dear RMBL Community, February is a time to reflect on water at its source. National River Day and World Wetlands Day, both on Feb. 2, remind us that everything downstream depends on what happens upstream — at the headwaters. Snowpack becomes wetlands. Wetlands feed rivers. Rivers sustain ecosystems, agriculture, and communities far beyond the mountains [...]
My RMBL story begins long before I ever set foot in Gothic. As seniors at Swarthmore College, my classmate Steve Lowe and I were immersed in a yearlong ecological study of Crum Creek, the stream that cuts through campus. With encouragement from Professor Robert Enders, we applied for an NSF grant to compare Crum Creek with [...]
Dear RMBL Community, As we begin a new year, I want to start with gratitude. Thank you for the many ways you supported RMBL over the past year. Your engagement, curiosity, generosity, and partnership continue to sustain and strengthen this remarkable place. Because of you, RMBL enters 2026 with strong momentum, a clear vision, and [...]
“RMBL’s science has always moved at the ‘pace of place.’ Because our researchers have worked patiently and with intention for decades, society is now better prepared to respond to the challenges of climate, water, food, and resilience. RMBL sometimes moves slowly so society can respond swiftly. The next century of RMBL is about ensuring that this depth of knowledge connects meaningfully to the world.” — John Hausdoerffer, Director [...]
This past October, RMBL closed on an 8,271 square foot former hostel at 615 Teocalli Avenue in Crested Butte. The three floors offer a large ground floor living room for scientific collaborations and community discussions, second floor bedrooms for scientists to use year-round and staff to use as offices in winter, a third floor with two different two-bedroom apartments for staff and scientists, and revenue-generating services like an [...]
As I reflect on this year, I am filled with a deep sense of appreciation and excitement for continuing to move RMBL forward into the next century. This year has been extraordinary for our organization, from the acquisition of RMBL 365 and the future of RMBL year-round to reconnecting with alumni and building new partnerships. [...]
Here’s an interesting fact about marmots. They’re surprisingly strong. That’s what McKenna Sanchez discovered when she came to RMBL in 2022 through the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program. She worked on Dr. Dan Blumstein’s Marmot Project, observing the mammals’ behavior as well as taking blood and hair samples, cheek swabs, and measurements, and [...]
Dr. Alison Brody first saw Gothic in 1981, as a summer initiation into Dr. Ken Armitage’s marmot lab. She recalls how immediately and deeply attached she felt. “I just had this transformation. We were driving up the valley at Rosy Point—that curve where the aspens open into the first big view—and I was stunned by [...]
“Go where?”, I asked my undergraduate advisor. “Gothic, Colorado,” he said. “The RMBL. It’ll help! Apply to be a coursework student.” It was 1982. I was a year away from graduating with a degree in Biology, and had no idea what to do with it. I took his advice and was accepted. Four months later, [...]
Walking through Gothic after peak aspen season tunes the senses into what lies beneath the golden canopy—relationships. On October 6, I joined RMBL docent Emily LeClair a mile north of campus. LeClair educated me about the relationships underlying our citizen science programs, which the Association for Advancing Participatory Science now calls community or participatory science, [...]
Dear Friends and Colleagues, We have officially closed on the Crested Butte Hostel - RMBL 365!!! This is such an exciting milestone for RMBL and for our entire community. RMBL 365 represents the beginning of a new era—one that celebrates our legacy while opening the door to year-round science, education, and community connection. This space [...]
At RMBL, our work is rooted not only in science but also in community. For nearly a century, RMBL has been a place where research, education, and collaboration come together to create knowledge that extends far beyond the Gunnison Valley. Today, as we look toward our second century, the impact of RMBL in our local [...]
As RMBL’s Centennial in 2028 approaches, we are proud to share a grassroots effort—RMBL Friends and Alumni—created to strengthen connections across generations of scientists, caretakers, students, staff, and community members who have shaped RMBL into what it is today. The Mission The mission of RMBL Friends and Alumni is simple but powerful: To cultivate lasting [...]
Two students from Western Colorado University helped scientists collect data for the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) this summer. Conducted at RMBL in 2018 and 2025, it is designed to see how plants and ecosystems in the Upper Colorado River system are faring under our current extreme drought conditions. Dr. Ian Breckheimer is the [...]
Dr. Paul CaraDonna first arrived at RMBL on snowshoes at the end of the deep winter of 2011. Approaching Gothic Mountain for the first time proved personally and professionally transformative. “Amy [Dr. Amy Iler of RMBL’s plant phenology project], now my wife, met me on my way in. I had seen mountains before, but Gothic [...]
Dear RMBL Community, As the seasons change and we look ahead to RMBL’s future, I am reminded of the importance of building a strong foundation that allows science, education, and community to thrive in every season. I am thrilled to share exciting progress on the RMBL 365 Hostel acquisition. This initiative is central to our [...]
Science Education and Citizen Science at RMBL “What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.” – Aristotle This summer at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) has shown, more than ever, that learning is not confined to a classroom; it happens best when people are immersed in the environment and actively engage [...]
"Forever Eyes Wide" I started the essay that got me into college with the line I never thought I would say this, but voles changed my life. It’s true - learning about montane voles from Dr. Rosemary Smith in RMBL’s high school program set me on the course I’m on today. But it would be [...]
This summer, Dr. Ian Breckheimer has been busy with CHESS — not the game but the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study, a project funded by NASA with help from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. It combines new remote sensing technology with field measurements to understand how plants and ecosystems in the [...]
This summer, the impact of RMBL was felt more deeply than ever. Our scientists continued to break new ground in understanding climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystem dynamics. Their work reaches far beyond the valley and informs global conversations about our planet’s future. We welcomed a new generation of students and early-career researchers whose passion and [...]
The Impacts of changes to hydrology on water quality Sam Pierce, a Standford University PhD student, shares about his research project on floodplain hydrology and biogeochemistry in beaver-impacted systems. Understanding the chemical processes that occur in beaver-impacted wetlands is crucial to grasp what was lost when beavers were removed on such a large scale. [...]
Thirsting for Answers It’s a conundrum. According to the Desert Research Institute, the Colorado River (to which the Gunnison River is one of the largest tributaries) delivers water to 40 million people in seven states, not only for drinking but also to grow food for the entire country. The problem is that the river [...]
Dear RMBL Community, The energy in Gothic this summer has been incredible. June and July were brimming with activity—field research is thriving, visitors are returning in record numbers, and excitement about RMBL’s future continues to grow. We have hosted nearly double the number of events this summer, from community dinners, expert talks, and science [...]
Docents out and about: The team's trip to Gothic this past winter In early March 2025, twelve RMBL volunteers and staff met at the Snodgrass trailhead, strapped on skinny skis and packs, and ventured three miles to Gothic for an overnight stay at RMBL’s Crystal Hut. We were mostly acquaintances yet bonded by summer volunteerism [...]
The heart of volunteerism and citizen science at Gothic RMBL's docent program started as a way for the lab to better connect with the community and communicate the remarkable science happening at the lab. Since its creation through the Visitor Center, the docent team has become a tight-knit bunch that benefits both researchers and those [...]
Benn Schmatz and the Facilities Team - opening up a field station for the summer Tag along with Facilities Manager, Benn Schmatz, as he takes us through the process of "waking up Gothic for the summer." In order for ground-breaking research and science to take place, our students and scientists need basic amenities - running [...]
Behind the Scenes with RMBL Operations: The Heart of Gothic Katie Harper prefers to stay behind the scenes. As RMBL’s Administrative and Operations Manager, she was genuinely surprised when we asked to feature her in the e-newsletter. “Who cares about operations when we have such exciting science going on?” she said with a laugh. But [...]
Trees of knowledge – and benefit While Curtis Beutler and Austin Shirley dig snow pits measuring the snow’s density and temperature to predict how much water it will deliver to streams and soil in the East River basin, they’re also active in another study in the Taylor River basin. There, scientists and land managers are [...]
Curtis Beutler and Austin Shirley - winter research at rmbl Even though the road to Gothic is closed in the wintertime, research and discovery happens all year long. Spend a few minutes learning about the hydrology of mountainous systems with Curtis Beutler and Austin Shirley, scientific research associates for a RMBL-Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory project. [...]
Ericka Bremer development and summer events Learn more about what a summer looks like as a RMBL Explorer. Every summer, we curate exclusive events for our major donor community. As we finalize our events list for 2025, we are excited to share what's on the docket, which includes hikes with other local non-profits, science lectures [...]
Exploring possibilities - Kevin and Lotte Roache, Explorer Club Members You don’t have to be a scientist to be an Explorer — a member of RMBL’s Explorer Club. Curiosity helps, though, because Explorers learn plenty about science that’s critically important, science that helps us understand and adapt to our changing Earth. Explorers support RMBL with [...]
Bird brainy Sometimes, all it takes to have your life changed by RMBL is to take a walk with a scientist. When she was a freshman in high school, Savannah Troy visited relatives living in Crested Butte. During her stay, the family decided to take a scientist-guided tour at RMBL. On the tour, Savannah held [...]
Susan Washko undergraduate education program Spend a few minutes watching a short video about Dr. Susan Washko, who has been an instrumental part of RMBL's longstanding undergraduate research program. This project has been funded since 1991- likely one of the only education programs to have received continual funding for over 30 years. The program [...]
RMBL in the news In 2024, RMBL received over 200 media mentions spanning numerous media platforms. The most widely distributed story of the year was a piece on billy barr by the Associated Press. It covers billy’s curiosity-filled quest to observe the world around his remote mountain cabin and how these humble observations have become [...]
Word is out. Have you ever seen Dr. David Inouye trap a hummingbird? You can. Just find the Rocky Mountain PBS online video “Gothic’s Outdoor Science Lab.” Thanks to programs like this, anyone can tune in and watch science happen. Media coverage of RMBL research puts science news in front of non-scientists. And the more [...]
The future is here. RMBL has a new executive director. Meet Jenifer Blacklock, PhD. She comes with impressive credentials and achievements, and her enthusiasm for RMBL’s future is infectious. Yet she is quick to acknowledge that she has big shoes to fill. Dr. Blacklock wants it known that she has a deep respect for Ian [...]
Transition “Hummingbirds have a very good ability to navigate long distances. However they do it, they manage to come back to the same place year after year. I guess as it turned out I was working with plants that are going to live longer than I am. That can sometimes make my lifespan feel a [...]
A pearl like no other The success of RMBL's science can be attributed to the success of RMBL as an organization. The sum of RMBL's parts is great, which leads to the whole of RMBL being even greater. So, we've laid it all out. See below for a summary of RMBL by the numbers. Who [...]
Mother of pearl “The oyster stirs, a silent plea, To coat the grit, with pearly sea, Layer by layer, a glistening coat, A lustrous gem, the shell will tote. With each caress, the nacre grows, A shimmering sheen, the beauty shows, A pearl is born, from pain and strife, A treasure found, a precious life.” [...]
Supporting science changes the world Rocky Mountain PBS spent the past year visiting Gothic to capture the sights, sounds, and voices of the RMBL community. It tells a story of scientific discovery, seasonal change, and connection to the natural world. Hear three of these stories by clicking on the links below. A family of scientists [...]
Philosopher’s Stone “Alchemy neither composes nor mixes: it increases and activates that which already exists in a latent state. Therefore, alchemy can be more accurately compared with botany or agriculture than with chemistry.” - Franz Hartmann (19th century theosophist) "Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and [...]
Soil “If I could do it all over again, and relive my vision in the twenty-first century, I would be a microbial ecologist. Ten billion bacteria live in a gram of ordinary soil, a mere pinch held between thumb and forefinger. They represent thousands of species, almost none of which are known to science. Into [...]
Grounded Corey Lawrence has a deep connection to the Earth. He’s always loved being outside, and having a career that allows him to do fieldwork in one of the most beautiful places in the country is a dream come true. He’s a biogeochemist at the U.S. Geological Survey, where he studies carbon storage in the [...]
Wolves welcome Eric Odell wasn’t raised by wolves, but he’ll be living with them, along with the other people who call western Colorado home. Eric is the Wolf Conservation Program Manager at Colorado Parks and Wildlife. He’s in charge of the agency’s plan to reintroduce and manage gray wolves (Canis lupis) in western Colorado. The [...]
“We are as gods and might as well get good at it”. Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalogue, 1968. “We are as gods and have to get good at it”. Interview with Stewart Brand, Edge, 2009. Humans have transitioned from being a thread in the tapestry of life, to being the image within which all threads [...]
Beetles and Benevolence Carrion beetles are like homicide detectives. They make their living off dead bodies. Dr. Rosemary Smith makes her living studying them, among other subjects. Specifically, she looks at things like how different habitats affect their breeding behaviors, how multiple species coexist in the same habitat, and how they’re adjusting to changing climate [...]
Kith and Kin “Because we have not made our lives to fit our places, the forests are ruined, the fields eroded, the streams polluted, the mountains overturned. Hope then to belong to your place by your own knowledge of what it is that no other place is, and by your caring for it as you [...]
Bugs “It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.” (From All the Little Live Things, Wallace Stegner) Despite fear of judgement, I admit that the cleanliness of my [...]
Small climates, big questions Dr. Kazenel first came to Gothic in 2013 as a student in RMBL’s Education Program. She did what nearly everyone else does when they first encounter RMBL. She fell in love — with the mountains, the science, and just about everything else. Then she came back in 2014 and 2015 to [...]
Great things happen when we work together Erik Hulm is one of those individuals who is often called upon to move projects forward. It’s what he does. He moves things forward. As implied in his title at RMBL, Director of Institutional Advancement, what he’s moving forward these days is RMBL. He joined the staff in [...]
Are you on the bus? “You’re either on the bus or off the bus” - Ken Kesey, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test To paraphrase William Shakespeare, “to be (part of something larger) or not to be (part of something larger), that is the question!” Evolution is often defined by changes in genes, or changes in [...]
Mining for marmots Taylor Bastian is a PhD student at University of California Los Angeles and part of Dr. Dan Blumstein’s lab. Last year, she spent her first summer at RMBL working on the marmot project. We caught up with Taylor as she was heading to RMBL for her second summer. What led her to [...]
The Marmot Abides “One generation passeth, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-9, King James Version) Like “The Dude”, the marmot abides. “I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that.” – The Big Lebowski. Similar to a rug that ties a room together, the Marmoteers make RMBL [...]
Engineering the Future One of the qualities that sets RMBL apart from other field stations is its knack for encouraging multidisciplinary collaborations among scientists. Think of Dr. David Inouye’s over 50-year-old flower phenology project and the research that has sprouted from it, such as Dr. Rebecca Irwin’s study of native bees and Dr. Aimee Classen’s [...]
New Insights "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? I have lived my life, and that which I have done May He within Himself make pure!” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) An unusually warm [...]
Force of nature Never underestimate the power of family vacations to shape a child’s future. For Dr. Pat Magee, Professor of Wildlife Biology and Conservation at Western Colorado University, childhood family trips always led to the great outdoors. Growing up in Littleton, Colorado, he and his six siblings would pile into his parents’ Volkswagen bus [...]
Brigadoon To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. (William Blake) For better and worse, Gothic is no longer the Brigadoon of the West Elk Mountains. Located in the Scottish Highlands, an enchantment froze [...]
The price of nature It’s a common story. A family visits Crested Butte to ski, falls in love with the alpine wonderland, and returns again and again. Soon they discover the gifts that other seasons bring, like summer’s riotous explosion of wildflowers and fall’s golden blankets of aspens. Before long, they’ve bought a home and [...]
Learning I have learned that everything has its own language and that if I listen carefully to the birds and the creatures, and even the grasses, I will hear the sound of God in the music of the silence. There are multiple realities surrounding me and I know that I must keep the eyes of [...]
RMBL in the News With about 70 media mentions in 2023, RMBL attracted a lot of attention. Any summary (and apologies for paywalls) of RMBL media coverage in 2023 has to start with the National Geographic piece on the Phenology Project. Beautiful photographs and great writing, it captures the extent to which the RMBL Phenology [...]
Ruby Peak: A monument to inference and ways of knowing Ruby Peak stands at a metaphorical point of triangulation on the map of how we know the world involving the West Elk Mountains, 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, and field science. Edward Howard Ruffner was a minor surveyor who was overshadowed by the four [...]
The Power of Mitzvah: from Thanksgiving to Hope “A great flame follows from a little spark.” Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, 1321 AD (Courtney Langdon translation) Communities and futures are built upon lifetimes of small actions. We gathered on an earthly knoll within the Crested Butte cemetery, in the embrace of the surrounding mountains. We gave [...]
The science of giving There is something about spending time in nature that ignites an appreciation for science. Char Carbone and Pete Rowland each carved an independent path from nature lover to science supporter. As a married couple, however, their journeys have both converged and become wider. Pete had a place on the mountain near [...]
Dr. Rebecca Irwin is a bee researcher. And tagger. And curator. She’s also, as of 2009, a collaborator in Dr. David Inouye’s Phenology Project. The 50-year study of the phenology of RMBL wildflowers Dr. Inouye founded has blossomed into a multifaceted exploration of flowers and their pollinators, particularly bees. While Drs. Brian Inouye and Nora [...]
“History repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme” James Burn, In the Christian Remembrancer, October of 1845 “The enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and .. there is no rational explanation for it” Eugene Wigner, In The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the [...]
I was pretty excited when Ian asked me to write a piece on the intersection of geology and biology for the RMBL newsletter. My scientific career in soil geomorphology places my research at that intersection and many of my friends and colleagues work in that intersection as well. As you can probably imagine, the boundaries [...]
Philosopher and historian Will Durant reminds us that we might benefit by occasionally considering the ground upon which our feet stand, metaphorically as well as literally. Geology is often destiny, and explains Crested Butte’s coal mines, ski resort, and even RMBL. The presence of Crested Butte’s coal mines is explained in part by the Western [...]
Brianna Guijosa is an undergraduate who has spent the last two summers at RMBL studying how decomposition adds nutrients to the soil. The decomposing subjects are mice, and the creatures converting them to soil nutrients are carrion beetles and flies. While a student at East Los Angeles College, Brianna got a scholarship from the National [...]
When the child was a child, It was the time for these questions: Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? When did time begin, and where does space end? Is life under the sun not just a dream? Is what I see and hear and smell [...]
“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked [...]
Imagine that you’ve grown up a city kid in a concrete jungle. But at some point, a science class suddenly whets your appetite for aquatic biology, and the intellectual craving follows you to college. How do you find the path that leads to a career? If you have an educator like Dr. Susan Washko, you’re [...]
With the GPT-3 chatbot writing college essays and computer programs for students desperate to reduce homework loads, concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) destroying humankind have taken on a new urgency. One version of AI-driven doomsday involves a computer program deciding on its own to eliminate humans. This ascribes an intentionality to AI that seems unlikely. [...]
We all know it’s important to see the big picture. Dr. Ian Breckheimer can confidently say that he does. But he also doesn’t miss the details. With his spatial data platform, he and fellow scientists are building a digital twin of the Gunnison Basin, a highly detailed model of the watershed and its climate and [...]
“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a [silver] sixpence in her shoe.” You will have to bear with me to see how I connect the dots. But oddly enough this traditional wedding rhyme captures RMBL’s Science Strategy. First, the old. It’s great to see the exposure that the RMBL Phenology Project is [...]
Many of us humans complain about the disruption of daylight saving time, yet somehow we adapt. Imagine the clock shifting enough to throw whole seasons off by weeks or more. If all the species in nature set their clocks to synchronize with the new schedule, it might not be a problem. But they don’t. Seasons [...]
“The gaps are the thing. The gaps are the spirit’s one home, the altitudes and latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself for the first time like a once-blind man unbound. The gaps are the cliffs in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they [...]
Brett Biebuyck grew up exploring Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the lush landmass flanked by three of the Great Lakes and filled with dense forests, diverse wildlife, and spectacular waterfalls, among other natural wonders. From a young age he became hardwired with wilderness wanderlust. Not surprisingly, after graduating from high school, he went straight to Alaska, where [...]
When we last talked with Dr. Jessica Lundquist of the University of Washington (Spring 2022 Newsletter), her team was setting up all the instruments needed to measure snow sublimation, the transformation of the snowpack (a solid) into vapor. Last October, the team installed the instruments at RMBL. Then winter came and generously dropped all the [...]
Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel, but it is a centre hole that allows the wheel to function. We mould clay into a pot, but it is emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful. We fashion wood for a house, but it is the emptiness inside that makes it livable. We work with [...]
An MBA might have been better preparation than a PhD for serving as RMBL’s Executive Director. But studying ants turns out to have been good job training. For 5+ years I hiked up to Virginia Basin above Gothic and counted ants to understand what controls the sizes of colonies. When my friends call me Dr. [...]
The life cycle of a research project begins with a question, something a scientist wants to know about the world. How do hummingbirds court? How do flower colors evolve? How are bumblebee populations changing? What are the tipping points in an ecosystem’s responses to climate change? And on and on. Permission granted The next [...]
RMBL has a unique talent for turning budding scientists into fully formed researchers whose scientific contributions resonate around the globe. Case in point: Rebecca Prather. Fresh from finishing her PhD at the University of Oklahoma, she took a postdoctoral position at RMBL with two objectives: One, to collect flower field data for the long-term phenology [...]
In addition to supporting the work of individual scientists through ensuring access to field sites and providing logistical support, RMBL is changing field science by encouraging integrative research. Supported as a RMBL Synthesis Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Rebecca Prather (see accompanying article) and 14 collaborators recently published work utilizing 10,812 observations involving 30 plant, 25 insect, [...]
(Apologies in advance if you hit unexpected paywalls on any of the following articles.) Always charismatic, mammals got plenty of attention. Work by Drs. Gabriela Pinho and Dan Blumstein (both UCLA) caught the attention of both the Smithsonian and Discover Magazines for what marmots can tell us about human aging. The NY Times asked Blumstein [...]
While the acceleration of time with age can be distressing, when it is -10 F and daylight is a precious commodity, the blur of time can be comforting. But my New Year’s resolution is to seek comfort not in escaping, but in looking up. I’m back in my early morning routine of walking up and [...]
Jocelyn Navarro grew up in Pomona, a city in southern California. She’s the daughter of Mexican immigrants whose highest level of education was elementary school. So who could have imagined that she would one day pursue a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology? Actually, her parents could. Highly attuned to nature, they nurtured Jocelyn’s fascination [...]
Only through the bringing together of head and heart- intelligence and goodness- shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature. From Love in Action, Martin Luther King, Jr. RMBL has a responsibility to evaluate the success of our education programs. In spending 10 weeks in Gothic, students give us the greatest gift, the [...]
According to Doug Johnson, he and his sister Carol Johnson, along with their late brother Dan, won the parent lottery. Their parents, Dorothy and Chris (John C. Johnson Jr.) not only were loving to their children but were nature lovers who believed in letting their children explore the great outdoors. Doug built dams in the [...]
Dr. Johnson first encountered Gothic on July 4, 1919. He had just finished a PhD in Parasitology at the Univ. of California, Berkeley and he was visiting friends and family in Gunnison for some rest. But by his own admission, Johnson was not someone for whom idleness came easy. He jumped at a friend’s invitation [...]
You may remember the story in our spring printed newsletter about two important studies at RMBL that are going to great depths, and heights, to improve the ability to predict water availability for the western United States. They are SAIL (Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory) and SPLASH (Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface [...]
RMBL research sits at the center of one of the most critical issues facing the western United States, water. The Titan Prometheus defied the gods to bring fire to humans, a metaphor for the generation of knowledge and technology that enabled the emergence of civilization. But if fire birthed civilization, water will maintain it. The [...]
Maintaining and sharing knowledge is nestled in the core of being alive, and human. There are many ways of knowing. DNA molecules sit in our nuclei, bits of information transmitted across generations reflecting an accumulated wisdom that if we are lucky, allows us to survive and reproduce. How we share knowledge today is intertwined with [...]
They are the longest continuous residents of Colorado. They have lived in the Rocky Mountains since time immemorial and are still here today. Their original territory was a massive landscape covering most of Colorado and Utah and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. They are the Ute Indians. A traveling exhibit [...]
In a classic film Bill Murray’s character repeatedly wakes on February 2, Groundhog Day, doomed to live the day over and over. Stuck in an endless loop, he initially wreaks havoc, with each dawn erasing his bad behavior. Ultimately he breaks the cycle that a Buddhist might call samsara by embracing his better self. It [...]
For Karole Armitage, spending her childhood at RMBL was like growing up in utopia. In this remote Rocky Mountain wilderness, she says that she and her brothers roamed wild and free. They held skunk cabbage wars. They tried riding and were thrown off a donkey. They watched their border collie herd porcupines. At the same [...]
This spring my family visited London, taking one last family trip after opportunities lost to covid before our oldest son leaves for college. A highlight was visiting the Old Royal Observatory. Stepping off a ferry on the Thames, we grabbed a coffee in Greenwich Village, walked past the National Maritime Museum (“Dad, how can you [...]
For decades, RMBL has hosted world-renowned scientists, supporting their research with field sites, lab facilities, housing, technological and logistical assistance, and access to historic data. We have achieved this as an independent, nonprofit field laboratory, not affiliated with an academic institution or the government. What keeps RMBL in operation is philanthropy. From the work of [...]
You don’t have to be a scientist to know that carbon is the key to life. Everything on Earth is fundamentally made from carbon, and since our planet itself is a self-contained environment, the amount of carbon stays the same. It simply moves around, cycling from the Earth to the atmosphere and back again. The [...]
Red Rock rises just south and east of Gothic. A relatively easy climb with good south facing exposure, it is a popular first hike for RMBL students without a lot of experience. Ferdinand Hayden, visiting the East River valley 150 years ago, indicated Red Mountain was laid down during the Carboniferous period about 300 million [...]
Hosted by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Alvin can transport scientists miles underwater to explore the deep sea. With no light, organisms scavenge material falling from above or manage to make a living off thermal vents. Deep sea fish are composed almost entirely of water; any air pockets would get crushed. The water pressure three [...]
There are three new members of RMBL’s Board of Trustees, and they’re bringing nothing less than a tsunami of scientific insights and practical experience. Let’s meet them. Dr. Susan Avery is well-seasoned in the art of guiding scientific organizations through board leadership. She is the president emerita of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She chairs [...]
Caroline McLean wears many hats, and they’re all Earth-friendly — biologist, teacher, nature photographer, RMBL volunteer, to name a few. As a volunteer for RMBL, she assists Dr. Rick Williams, curator of RMBL’s herbarium. She demonstrates a biologist in action for people who come through the Visitor Center. The action happens to be pressing plants [...]
I think regularly about the article by David Brooks in the Atlantic (Oct. 5, 2020) "America is having a moral convulsion." He cited polling data showing that among Americans, trust is at a historic low. With “high trust institutions,” like public schools and libraries, facing an onslaught of lawsuits and criminal charges, trust continues to decline. [...]
“The only real requirements for the job are imagination and ingenuity; so far as experience and expertise are concerned—forget it. The idea is to correct the successes of the past, and people who know how to do things are a drawback.” George Sibley, Part of a Winter: A Memory More Like a Dream. I am [...]
RMBL’s winter caretaker program turns 50 this year; this is an account of how it started, and of our experience as the first caretakers in the winter of 1971-72 – myself, my partner Barbara and our seven-month-old son Sam. Barbara and I were a little burned out at what we were doing in Crested Butte [...]
Director’s Letter, January 2022 It’s deep winter in Crested Butte. My early morning skis above Mt. Crested Butte bring double digit negative temperatures joined by dawns that splash warm, red glows on the surrounding peaks. The summer of 2021 is quickly fading in memory, but I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on RMBL’s [...]
Almost 2500 years ago Archimedes famously waxed poetic about fulcrums and torque: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.” As high school physics students have long learned, with sufficient leverage, a small force can move worlds. There is an educational equivalent; the right mentor at the right time can shift [...]
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the problems our world faces, now that our generation is waking up to the possibility that we could cause our own extinction. But within this dark awareness lies a spark of hope because the generation on our heels is not only aware but ready to act. One example: [...]
He spent almost 50 years alone at 10,000 feet. His hobby helped shape climate research in the Rockies.
The year 2013 was an auspicious one both for RMBL and for some new residents of Crested Butte. Jim and Doris Brogan had just purchased a second home in the Skyland subdivision and with their children — Daniel, Elizabeth, and Mairead — were looking forward to dividing their time between their new home near the [...]
I’m a telemark skier and getting new equipment can be a bit traumatic for reasons hard to explain to non-telemark skiers. The staff at the local outdoor gear company, the Alpineer, has been dropping hints as only good friends can. I got new boot shells, but with odd-shaped feet I desperately clung to my old [...]
Water. Aspen. People. To steal a metaphor from author Barbara Kingsolver, fall brings low tide to Gothic. But unlike oceanside tidal pools, our ebbs and flows come from the sun, not the moon. Our highwater point? One summer a health inspector expressed concern about an outlet valve on our old water treatment plant not being [...]
It’s interesting how a scientist’s research trajectory can change over a summer. One minute you’re all about the deep blue sea, and the next minute you’re overturning river rocks to find insects. That’s one of the cool things about science. You never know where it may lead you, both geographically and intellectually. Brittney Cleveland is [...]
TO: RMBL scientists, students, staff, and other stakeholders FROM: Ian Billick, Kelly Sudderth, Jennie Reithel, Brett Biebuyck and Steve Jennison RE: Review of 2021 Operations DATE: October 15, 2021 Thank you for another great year of science and education at RMBL! Each year, we ask for your feedback and formally assess operations at the close [...]
Benjamin (Benn) Schmatz has been hard for newsletter writers to get hold of lately. It’s not that he isn’t responsive. After all, responsiveness is a key requirement of his job on RMBL’s Work/Maintenance crew, and he’s nailed that qualification. In fact, he says one of his favorite things about the job is getting the call [...]
Scientific Hogwarts It is a sign of how far Gothic’s facility plant has come that there is no possibility I would be considered for a RMBL maintenance job today. That wasn’t the case in 1991. It was a glorious summer for me. Cash, or more accurately “loose change”, in my pocket, free room and board, [...]
Scoop a fishing net into one of the ponds at RMBLS’s Mexican Cut Nature Preserve, and you can easily come up with more than one tiger salamander. But there’s no guarantee that any two individuals will look the same. From the beginning of their lives, tiger salamanders — the only salamander native to Colorado — [...]
What could have been a wet, soaked July 3rd turned into a day of sunshine. The day was a celebration of the life of Dr. Scott Wissinger. Scott has been a big part RMBL’s success. In 1988 he picked up the torch of long-term research at the Mexican Cut from long-time RMBL’ers, including Dr. Scottie [...]
Does RMBL produce better science because it’s family friendly? It wouldn’t be a stretch to make that claim. Time and again, scientists say that one of the best ways RMBL supports them, especially those that return year after year to work on long-term studies, is by welcoming their families. For decades, RMBL has understood that [...]
Pink tutus. Stiches to heal a foot. Mucking about in mud filled with caddis flies. Hikes to remote mountain basins. Learning more about identifying flowers that might ever be expected of a teenager. Washing dishes in the dining hall and stocking outhouses with toilet paper. Wandering off into the willows and learning to avoid porcupine [...]
Bees are truly beautiful. At least they are to Dr. Jessica Forrest. And she’d love for you to appreciate their beauty, too. Yes, bees are becoming more popular as more people understand their pollination superpowers and importance to agriculture. But if you mention bees, what comes to mind for most people are honeybees. And they [...]
Melittology, the bee-you-ti-ful study of bees, may seem like an obscure subject. However, one-third of the calories that humans eat come from plants which are pollinated by insects and animals, with bees being a major pollinator, alongside butterflies, wasps, hummingbirds, and many other types of pollinators. Plants can also pollinate themselves or rely upon the [...]
You don’t have to be a scientist to be pulled into RMBL’s magnetic orbit. Simply caring about the environment or history will do. Shelley Popke has a deep affection for both. As RMBL’s new director of development, Shelley feels that she and her job were made for each other. “It aligns with my values and [...]
I love the current RMBL staff. We have had some great people working for RMBL over the years, but this group is special, from top to bottom. Their collective experience includes serving on the leadership team on an international nonprofit going through a major campus expansion (Kelly Sudderth), running a field station on the North [...]
One of our long-term RMBL scientists has submerged herself in research on streams for nearly 50 years. Dr. Barbara (Bobbi) Peckarsky came to RMBL in 1974 as a graduate student and took an aquatic ecology class from the late Dr. Stan Dodson and his wife Ginny of the University of Wisconsin. After getting her feet [...]
My quiz of the month—name this environmental feature! Its moods range from raging in the spring to placid and calm in the fall. It is 1450 miles long. It starts in La Poudre Pass Lake west of Fort Collins, but if we can make a reasonable argument that much of the journey starts in the [...]
RMBL is reaching for the stars. Or to be more precise, the lower atmosphere. For the next two years our bug hunters and wildflower counters will be joined by snowflake measurers and scientists who track storms. Led by Berkeley Lab climate modeler Dr. Dan Feldman a whole posse of atmospheric scientists will be descending on [...]
Most of us who aren’t scientists take water for granted. It comes from a faucet, but what is the source, really? Those in mountainous states know that rain and snowmelt supply rivers with the water we depend on. But it’s watersheds that help produce and deliver it. In fact, watersheds manage water resources worldwide. And [...]
Hundreds of scientists flood the hills of Gothic every summer to do research in one of the most-studied ecological sites in the world. But come winter, only one man is still standing. He’s made this abandoned silver mining town his home. He’s also made a name for himself without even trying. He’s billy barr.
First things first. Why is his name not capitalized? “Oh, it’s a stupid reason,” he says. “When I got here, I had two roommates. One of them signed his name with all small letters. I tried doing it, and it felt comfortable. A “b” is a big letter when you capitalize it; it’s not that big when it’s small. I just felt more comfortable with it.” Besides, he added, “It fit my personality better. I live a quiet little life, and it just fit me.”
billy barr, subject of the adjoining article, is the beating heart of the RMBL community. He embodies a lot of what makes Gothic unique. Empathetic and engaged, he creates a sense of acceptance and inclusiveness. When I first arrived as a student 30+ years ago and went to his office to pay my bill, billy [...]
Sixty to 90 percent of the world’s water comes from mountainous watersheds. And 100 percent of them are being affected by climate change. This is what makes environmental research at RMBL so critical. Without water, there’s no life. Without knowing how our water resources are changing, there’s no future. To get a deeper understanding of [...]
What does it mean to know a place? As a field scientist, knowing often involves quadrats, binoculars, and sensors—data we collect and mine for insight. But there are other ways of knowing a place. One spring when I was at graduate student in San Diego, avid snowpack watcher billy barr gave me hope in early [...]
Lee R.G. Snyder spent many summers as a researcher at RMBL before his untimely death in 1985 at age 39. Having been an astute observer of nature since childhood and racking up a slew of national scientific awards even before graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, he would have contributed immeasurable insights to science had [...]
For what am I giving thanks for as we put 2020 behind us? A big part of my winter routine is climbing up Mt. Crested Butte early in the morning and skiing down just as the light breaks on the mountains. It can be hard for me to spend as much time outside in summer, [...]
One summer at RMBL can change the direction of a student’s life. Take Daniel Novoa, who just finished his sophomore year at East Los Angeles College and a summer internship at RMBL. His biology professor, Dr. Jimmy Lee, who’s the undergraduate education program coordinator for RMBL, gave a presentation about a program funded by the [...]
What type of person is RMBL looking to for support in the season of giving? Our community is committed to science and education. From medicine, to energy innovation, to smart phones, scientific innovation is the foundation of the modern world. This is not a huge step for most, but there are a lot of scientific organizations. Why RMBL?
RMBL supporters are passionate about the outdoors; many have had formative and powerful experiences outside. Our community also values the importance of the natural world to well-being, affecting everything from mental health, to food security, to water, to air, and disease. We attract people who combine a love of science with a passion for the outdoors. But the world is a big place. Why the high alpine valleys winding their way through the central Colorado Rockies of the Gunnison Basin, centered on Gothic?
Here’s my list, rooted in how the Power of Place transforms us and the world we live in.
Standing on the shoulders of the giants that came before me, I know my place and I’m sticking to it. It gives me a view to the past, and more importantly, to the future. It can be hard to appreciate the great scientists that have passed through RMBL. A member of the Oklahoma Hall of [...]
There’s a place near Gothic that is one of the best kept secrets among RMBL field scientists. It’s the Mexican Cut Preserve. A cirque (bowl-shaped basin) on the side of a mountain, it was originally a site explored for gold and silver and later abandoned. Since then, it has remained a virtually undisturbed blanket of [...]
We are born into a world of chaos of fragmented and disconnected light and sound, but millions of years of evolution have shaped our brains to find order. Our five senses are data collecting machines designed to satisfy our innate curiosity. Within the space of 10-20 years we pass from a helpless babe sheltered in the arms of our parents, to individuals capable of beautiful music, writing sonatas, and peering into the mysteries of the universe. The challenge of an educator is not to fill the heads of students with facts, but to nurture curiosity and reveal tools of discovery that complement our five senses.
Want to know how to spark a kid’s fascination for science? Send them to RMBL summer camp. Case in point: Liam Atkins has been a regular in the summer education programs since he was just a little tyke of six. Now he’s 15 and has just finished the high school program. He’s loved every year [...]
Forever is a long time, even for a 90+ year-old organization like RMBL. On July 16th RMBL placed a conservation easement on the Gothic Townsite, dedicating the land and the buildings to research and education in perpetuity. The power of a place is the result of how shared human experiences are woven into a region’s [...]
Easily the main feature that brings people to Colorado, and especially to Gunnison Valley, is the breathtaking beauty of the landscape. Part of that is due to Gunnison County being 83 percent public land. The rest is due to ranchers — ranchers who have preserved the unparalleled beauty of the Valley simply by being there [...]
Five million wildflowers and counting! The National Science Foundation will invest almost $750,000 to support the RMBL phenology project another 5 years. In 1973, Dr. David Inouye (emeritus at the Univ. of Maryland) started tracking when plants flower. His daughter-in-law Dr. Nora Underwood (Florida State University) now heads the project and is joined by Dr. [...]
What do the words “wildlife at RMBL” bring to mind? Marmots? Fair enough, but there’s another member of the Tribe Marmotini that RMBL scientists have been studying for over 30 years. It’s the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis). And it might arguably surpass the marmot on the cuteness scale. But who’s keeping score? We love [...]
Ian Miller is one of the scientists on the front lines. He’s a PhD candidate at the Metcalf lab at Princeton University, and he’s studying a particular plant native to the Rocky Mountains, Lewis flax (Linum lewisii) and its enemy, a fungus called flax rust (Melampsora lini). Conducting his research at RMBL not only offers [...]
RMBL owes our ability to move creatively in response to Covid19 because our founder, Dr. John C. Johnson, was fired from his job for not being a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. After World War I, the Colorado State Normal School, which trained teachers, became Western State College, offering 4-year degrees. Dr. Johnson had [...]
In a normal year, RMBL scientists return to their universities at the end of summer and, except for the fall youth program, things get quiet around here. But Gothic doesn’t go into hibernation. While everyone else is back home, there are a few hardy souls who stay in Gothic through the long, snowy winter.
They clean and manage the Nordic ski huts used for winter rentals. They shovel snow off the dining hall roof. They take care of all the ongoing maintenance that keeps RMBL functional. One of those caretakers is Rachel Dickson, a graduate of the University of Montana, who has spent the last three summers at RMBL. She began as a student in the undergraduate program and then worked as a research assistant for the next two seasons. This past winter was her first as a caretaker. The snowpack was below average, so she adjusted quickly. It was only when spring and a global pandemic arrived that things got weird.
Field scientists enjoy studying evolution in the field but are less excited to be in the middle of it themselves. Gothic will be different this summer! Having operated through the Great Depression and World World II, RMBL curates one of the largest collections of long-term field studies. The show goes on!
RMBL has received approval for an operating plan from public health that will allow us to house scientists in Gothic. We are eliminating shared bedrooms, so we will operate at about two-thirds capacity. To minimize having a scientist re-introducing the virus to Gunnison County and to keep the virus from spreading within Gothic, we will have aggressive containment procedures. We will require scientists to self-isolate for 7 days upon arrival, conduct daily symptom-monitoring, and use face masks.
We’re mad for marmots. What’s not to love? First, they’re adorable (especially the babies). You know the chubby, furry guy that emerges in February to predict the duration of winter? He’s a groundhog, which is one of the 15 species of marmots. And his close relative, yellow-bellied marmots, are found all over the mountainous western [...]
Scientific detectives are pointing to the pangolin as a key puzzle piece in understanding the biological tragedy that has killed tens of thousands, thrown millions out of their jobs, and stranded even more in their homes. Covered entirely in scales, pangolins are the least cuddly mammal. Lacking teeth, they use tongues as long as their [...]
When you think of the RMBL community, it’s tempting to define it as the group of scientists and students who converge on Gothic every summer. Granted, that’s an esteemed, international group, but it represents only the scientific community. Widen that circle, and you must include the families of those researchers who return year after year, [...]
What does it mean to support field scientists and students in the year of Coronavirus? As soon as we figure it out, we will let you know! With one of the highest rates of infection in Colorado, the local school, ski resort, hotels and short-term rentals are closed. Most flights have been cancelled and restaurants [...]
Having met my wife and raised two boys in Gothic, the subject of families at RMBL is dear to my heart. Jennie and I had a typical RMBL romance (and you can read another story of family and science in the adjoining article), wandering across years, states and universities, as we narrowed in on how [...]
What happens when two scientists at RMBL fall in love, get married, and start a family? The result could be a baby scientist, or if not a scientist, an exceptionally curious child who grows up with an innate affinity for nature. Exhibit A: Dr. Amy Iler, Dr. Paul CaraDonna, and their daughter Zoe. Amy first [...]
A Gothic winter is magical and RMBL is expanding opportunities for students of all ages to experience it. When the snow starts to fall, the larger world fades away. A typical year brings 40 feet of snow, covering one-story buildings with a white, smooth blanket of snow. The snow came so fast in one storm [...]
When’s the last time you dug someone out of the snow? We hope you never need to rescue a companion from an avalanche. The thing is, in Colorado your odds of encountering an avalanche are higher than elsewhere. In a December 2019 article in The Salt Lake Tribune, the headline blared: “Colorado is the most [...]
Philanthropy makes it possible for us to reach undergraduates who otherwise would never make it to Gothic. In 2019 we provided approximately $150,000 in financial awards to students, equivalent to full rides for 20 students, or half of the 40 students we host. For a society in which children have fewer opportunities to grow up [...]
For University of Tennessee undergraduate Gavin Belfry, the summer of 2019 was particularly seedy. He spent the summer assisting with Dr. Benjamin Blonder’s seed distribution research at RMBL. For six years, Dr. Blonder’s team has been looking at where plants are showing up at a series of plots on Mount Baldy. The point is to [...]
RMBL relies upon donations to operate. Scientists and students all pay to be at RMBL. But we maintain 70+ buildings in a harsh environment almost 2 miles above sea level. The elevation is a double whammy. Not only does almost 40 feet of snow beat up the cabins, but Gothic is closed for half the […]
It’s hard not to admire burying beetles. They fly around, lured by the aroma of a small mammal’s fresh carcass (which they can smell from far away). When they find a carcass, they meet a date, hook up, and start preparing the carcass to feed their growing family. It’s quite a ritual. They strip off […]
Dr. Rosemary Carroll is following the lifecycle of a snowflake. We can’t use a slow motion camera to watch a snowflake as it falls onto Schofield Pass in deep winter, and then trace it underground before it eventually makes its way back into the East River and through a fish. But Rosemary uses isotopes, different […]
When it comes to water behavior, what happens in mountain watersheds doesn’t stay in mountain watersheds. After all, water is everywhere. It’s packed in the ice or snow, it runs through streams, it’s transpired through plants, and it hovers in the air. But it’s always on the move and always affecting every living thing it […]
We don’t need to tell you how beautiful Colorado is. Beautiful places attract people. Lots of them. In the last 50 years our state’s population has grown from two million to nearly five and a half million. Most of those people use Colorado’s public lands — the parks, the recreation areas, the ski resorts — […]
It’s a small thing, but it makes me proud. In early September Volunteer Outdoor Colorado (VOC) visited Gothic and reworked the Judd Falls Trail (see the adjoining article). One of the most heavily used recreation areas, the previous trail was not “designed”. It “emerged” as people scrambled through rocks and picked their way, occasionally through […]
With your support, RMBL is investing in youth science. 30 years ago, RMBL started Kid’s Nature Camp. We now focus the program on science and formalized that transition in 2016 by renaming it Youth Science Programs. In 2001, we had 190 summer contact days with younger children. By 2018 we had over 1700 youth contact […]
Your parents were right. It’s good for you to get out of the house. Besides, you can learn things. Just ask the Pre-K through high school kids that show up for our nature and science camps every summer. We take them to lots of cool spots at RMBL. They participate in hands-on activities. And they […]
When you think of climate change, it’s likely you picture glaciers melting in the arctic, or massive wildfires scorching California hillsides. You probably don’t consider the thousands of little ponds tucked away in the Colorado Rockies, many of which can be found just up the Gothic Valley. But for freshwater ecologist Dr. Scott Wissinger, the relationship between climate change and high alpine ponds has culminated in thirty plus years of research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL).
The phrase “climate change” evokes a range of responses. For many, climate change is a defining challenge; will our society be able to maintain the ecosystem services that underlie food, water, and human health? For others, the words invoke confusion, disagreement, or even weariness. Oddly, for a subject that is so tied up in complicated [...]
Biologists are learning that to understand life, we need to understand teams. Your body is composed of a series of teams. Only half the cells in your body are human. The other half are bacterial, viral, and fungal. We used to think that these non-human cells were invaders.
Dr. David Inouye first came to RMBL in 1971 and started his Ph.D. research there in 1972. “I was a graduate student studying hummingbirds and bumble bees, and I wanted to know what flower nectar resources are available for them, so I started counting flowers,”
If you’re a field scientist, having access to over 40 years of prior research in the precise location you want to study is a huge advantage. Having access to advanced technologies that allow you to analyze and add to that data is icing on the cake.
If you are old enough to have been lost, you can appreciate how quickly mapping technology is changing field science. It wasn’t that long ago that my trips involved stacks of maps and my shaky sense of location. Now, a swipe of my smartphone keeps my trip stress free.
Scientists have been observing the effects of climate change on plants for decades. And most studies have treated all individuals in a species the same. But whereas most plant species are hermaphroditic – where individuals are both male and female – 10 percent of them are dioecious, meaning that, like most animals, individual plants are either male or female.
The importance of a Gothic summer to individuals is clear. We assess and track students, and they describe RMBL as “unforgettable”, “life-changing”, “once in a lifetime experience”, and “the best thing that has happened throughout my academic career”.
What’s it like to watch a tiny male hummingbird soar to about 100 feet in the air and dive at breakneck speed towards the Earth while snapping its tail feathers and flashing its iridescent throat patch in a breathtaking display of lust? Or, more to the point, what’s it like for a female hummingbird? Ask Dr. Cassie Stoddard.
Hummingbird research captures why RMBL’s plans to archive historic data are so important.
Family and community are at the heart of what makes RMBL special. It is tempting to think of scientists as lonely figures in white lab coats working late at night amongst test tubes and beakers. But there are as many ways of being a scientist as there are scientists. Many RMBL scientists bring their families to Gothic year after year, and the importance of family and community at RMBL has a big impact on our science.
Join us for a Valentine’s Day nordic ski to experience Gothic in the winter! We will check in with billy barr and his weather station, learn about a new winter snow science research program, and have a warm lunch in the Maroon Hut. The hut is a 4-mile, one-way ski on moderate terrain; we will not be travelling to Gothic if avalanche conditions are high or extreme – so this trip is weather dependent.
To illustrate the power of place, each month we will share a story of science happening at RMBL.
Last year the RMBL Board of Trustees adopted a new vision: To unleash the power of place to transform how we understand the world and provide the scientific knowledge needed to maintain the environmental processes that support food security, air and water quality, and human health. This month we are launching a new communications effort with this newsletter.