To build better models of watershed processes and calibrate remote sensing data with observations on the ground, a diverse team of researchers spent two weeks this summer gathering soil and vegetation data from hundreds of individual sites within the East River watershed near Crested Butte, CO.

Two major reports recently came out (the 4^th National Climate Assessment and the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report) that got me thinking about our changing planet and the role of NEON in monitoring those changes.