Posted by Bob Ford on May 30, 1997 at 14:28:28:
In Reply to: California is Good, So is Vegetation posted by Ken Foote on May 20, 1997 at 09:02:11:
To all:
I could be very interested in a California transect or series of
virtual trips emphasizing biogeography and "environmental change". I worked many years in
the Sierra Nevadas and can provide hundreds of slides from valley
bottom (both Owens Valley - Eastern Sierra - and Central Valley -
Western Sierra) up to the Alpine zone. I also just returned from a
trip to the Channel Islands National Park and California Coastal
region - could add material from that area. A participant from last
year volunteered to work on Death Valley--that would be interesting as
well (though there are several interesting modules on the latter that
already exist).
As I think I already mentioned my students are currently
collaborating with UCSB students to do an "online" comparison of
"human-induced environmental change" comparative study of the
Southern Sierra Nevada (around Mineral King/Sequoia/King's Canyon)
and the Central Wasatch Range in Utah. In Utah my virtual trip
will cover from the bottom of the Great Basin (The Great Salt Lake)
up to the Alpine zone in the Wasatch/Uinta Mts...as seen specifically
in Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons.
As an overall ORGANIZATIONAL IDEA WHAT ABOUT
us all participating in RELATING OUR INDIVIDUAL TRIPS TO a
TRANSCONTINENTAL TRANSECT. It could start in California (with what
Linda Freeman and others are doing) and extend across
the Great Basin to the western Rocky Mountain Province (Wasatch Ranges) then link
up with what Mike Ritter is doing in the eastern Rocky Mtn province (see his
already existing virtual trip). Each of our SUBTRIPS WOULD LINK
TO THE MASTER TRANSECT that extends across the continent.
The Master Transect would follow simple/single template/rubric that would give
a common entry point and thus a single "look and feel" as well. It
would also allowe the "subtrips/submodules" to express the individuality
of each person creating those more indepth trips.
Bob Ford