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The warm sunshine of the Okanagan Valley beckoned the physical geography fieldschool once again and 19 students made the trip to experience 12 days of immersive fieldwork. Amongst the abney levels, total stations, flowmeters and weather stations the students developed their ability to work in groups both large and small and entertained themselves with canoe adventures, soccer games and campfires.

We were joined by SFU FENV’s newly appointed Field Operations Manager – Peter Locher, who provided critical logistical support throughout the trip. B-Jae Kelly (Associate Dir. Facilities and Technical Ops) joined us as well, actively handing off the torch to Peter after many years of faithful service supporting the logistical challenges that the fieldschool represents. B-Jae’s engagement with the physical geography fieldschool (basically since the inception of this iteration) reflects the importance he ascribes to field experiences like this one and I suspect it will be difficult for him to stay too far away from the hip waders and tree cores. Meaghan Dinney (PhD Candidate), our teaching assistant and field school alum (2017), provided a wealth of relatable field experience and solid guidance for the students.

Despite curious bears exploring our camp, and record-high streamflows cascading down the local rivers we managed to collect and process a wealth of data around our local study site – working through a scenario that organized students into two teams of consultants working either for an exploration company or conservation organization.