Leah plays the piano; however, her favorite activities are outdoor sports, including soccer, tennis, and swimming. She is also an avid reader and is very involved at her church. Leah's career path is uncertain, but she likes animals and is good in math.
Her mentor is Cliff Crawford, a professor at the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program, who inspired Leah to pursue the study of salt cedar trees.
Salt cedar trees are a non-native, invasive species that drink up to 300 gallons of water a day in the riverside forest known as the bosque in New Mexico. The trees' massive taproots also tend to interfere with the water table. A professor at the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program challenged Leah and Rachel to see if saltcedar trees grow better in the open or under the cottonwood canopy of the forest. A recent forest fire provided an opportunity to see if, after a summer of growth, there would be more salt cedars in the burned areas than in the unburned areas.
The girls counted the number of salt cedars on either side of a firebreak. They divided areas on the burned and unburned sides into 10m x 10m plots and recorded the height, health, and relationship of the saltcedars to the cottonwoods. They found that there were more salt cedars in the burned areas than the unburned areas. Further studies are needed to see if this is because the cottonwood canopy inhibits the salt cedars' growth or because salt cedars thrive in areas cleared by fire.
