As February transitioned into March, I was far from home. Leaving the long leaf pines and palm trees behind in Florida, I flew to Phoenix for a road trip up the West Coast. From Phoenix to San Diego to Santa Barbara to Monterey Bay to San Francisco, I visited five long-term ecological research studies to explore their experiments, stewardship and outreach: the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research site, Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research site, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

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