High school student to the rescue!

Meet super-student Elin Mischler, a senior at Durango High School who rescued a community -science project on the American pika while interning at NWT this summer with Dr. Chris Ray to study pika-marmot interactions.

Mischler learned to sample scat from pikas and marmots on Niwot Ridge for a study of shared gut microbes, and then trained PikaNet volunteers to help with a related project in the San Juan Mountains. PikaNet and its sister organization, the Colorado Pika Project, were initiated 10 years ago to extend the reach and community impact of NWT pika research. Go Elin!