Blog Assignment #2

Follow this link to find out about the Toolik Field Research Station in Fairbanks Alaska. http://toolik.alaska.edu/  If I were to go work at a Field Research Station, I would go to this one because I have always been fascinated with the Alaskan Wildlife and this would be a great place to go to study that.

A national park that interests me is the Denali national Park in Alaska.  The landscape there is beautiful and it is home to the highest point in the USA: Mt. McKinley.  Mt McKinley is the geologic feature that interests me.  I have seen Mt Ranier in Washington state, and it is not nearly as high as Mt. McKinley.  Mt Ranier was 45-60 minutes away from where I was in Washington and it towered above everything.  I think it would be absolutely amazing to see Mt. McKinley towering even higher above the landscape.  Here is a link to a Pic of Mt. McKinley: http://nature-reserves.net/?p=495
This Pic is one  that I took while in Washington of Mt. Ranier: 
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=411114032460&set=a.411113342460.197834.527767460

I can't really pick a favorite animal that I would like to study, because I am so interested in so many of them.  All of them large animals, and all of them are hunted.  but since we are sticking with an Alaska theme, the animal that interests me at this present moment is the Grizzly bear.  They are so huge and powerful, I would love to have the opportunity to hunt them one day.

Check out this link: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/grizzly-bear/ 

Other Maps for the assignment

This is a map of the whitetail deer density across the US.  It is a cheropleth map.


This map is a combination of a proportional symbol map and a cheropleth map illustrating the elk harvest in idaho. 

Map I made

This is a map of my home growing up in western PA.  Having grown up running around in the woods, and hunting I have had alot of time to observe the patterns of the wild life and where they tend to travel.  This is a map identifying the travels, patterns and sources of sustinence for the wildlife in the area.  The light purple is a food source for Deer.  The light green area is a major bedding area for deer and offers alot of cover for rabbits and small game.  The dark purple is a great place to hunt squirrels.  The light blue is a staging area where deer tend to bed down and travel through on a regular basis.  It is also a great place to hunt rabbits.  All the yellow lines are secondary and tertiary trails that the deer follow when traveling about the properties.  The red line is a major deer trail that covers most of the area.  The Dark blue line is the nearest water supply, which is a creek that flows through the area.