While I left the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to accept the research director position here in Wells, I've maintained ties to some projects in St. Thomas, VI.

In January, I went down to do field work in the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER), a marine protected area on St. Thomas' east end, with Dr. Andy Reeve from the University of Maine, UVI graduate student Jessica Keller, Dr. Renata Platenberg from UVI, and Anne Marie Hoffman from the Nature Conservancy. STEER contains the largest remaining mangrove stand on St. Thomas; these mangroves also directly abut the island's unlined landfill.

We're interested in understanding if and how groundwater moving through the landfill affects the nearby mangroves by installing an array of groundwater wells to understand flow patterns and collecting water chemistry samples.

If you want to hear more about this project, come to my Lunch-n-Learn on April 9.  See you there!

In the meantime, some pictures for you to enjoy:

1. Me climbing through red mangroves en route to one of the groundwater well sites.
2. A black-necked stilt in an open pool area in the black mangrove fringe.
3. A mangrove buckeye.