Pearson - 1996 2 student of Veblen's who is working on the fire cycle in Cipres and Nothofagus (Tommy Keithburger). Peter Feinsinger is in town. In the afternoon drove down the Rio Limay road to the tuco place at 10 km north of the outlet of Nahuel Huapi. The fire last January had burned everything west of the road but nothing east of the road. The ridge along the road where we used to catch sociabilis had been burned, and we could find no tuco burrows in it. There was considerable green grass, but the bunchgrasses and the neneo had been burned. Many of them were however, sprouting anew. Chacay trees had been killed, the willows seem to have escaped. The grove where Eileen Lacey camps was pretty much untouched. On the east side of the road, nothing had burned, the vegetation was lush (but not green), lots of Reithrodon sign. Could not find any tuco sign on this side of the road either, but we did not look out in Eileen's meadow. There is a new irrigation ditch dug across her meadow, runnning, apparently, from the River north to the Estancia on the east side of the road. There had been a ditch there before, but it has been enlarged. Stopped to see Michael Christie, but he is incomunicado taking a 2-day course. Patricia Fierro came by. Heavy frost last week that killed tops of fuchsia bushes in her garden, etc. This was after the snow of last week. Otherwise, the season is unusually advanced (warm). Met Werner Flueck on the street. He seems to be involved mostly with building his house on Lake Gutierrez. 29 October- Sunny and mild, not windy. Went up Cerro Otto and visited our two bamboo clumps there. The lenga leaves are completely out, the calafate Berberis is blooming and the big-leafed Berberis percei. No snow, hardly any earth cores. There must have been very little snow. There seem to be the usual number of tuco mounds. Bamboo clump A1 out in the open had numerous yearling culms but no new shoots yet. The single cipres nearby was covered with tiny cones. Many pines are growing up nearby, and one Douglas Fir. The pines seem to be naturally seeded, perhaps from the biggish individual along the "road" directly above the bamboo clump. These are all 5-needle pines, growing very