Dune walk at Lanphere in early December. Photo by Heidi Walters

Lanphere Dunes, where Sam sometimes led guided walks or restoration events. Photo by Heidi Walters

Sam in Francis Creek, where she and Amber Shows, of the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, collected data for a stream habitat inventory. Photo by Amber Shows

Thor and Elaine Holmes with Sam at the ivy removal day that Sam organized in Sequoia Park, in Eureka, as one of her AmeriCorps duties. Photo by Michelle Gilroy, California DFG

Sam, left, with her mentor Sue Hilton, a hydrologist, at the U.S. Forest Service’s Redwood Sciences Lab in Arcata. Sam did attrition studies -- measuring how fast rocks break down in a stream channel. Photo courtesy Sue Hilton, Redwood Sciences Lab

Sam and another field tech measuring headcuts in Caspar Creek, near Fort Bragg, as part of the Redwood Sciences Lab’s study of the movement of sediments in the watershed. Photo courtesy Sue Hilton, Redwood Sciences Lab

Sam, 1986. Photo courtesy Elaine Holmes

Sam at the Garden of Eden in Kansas. Photo courtesy Elaine Holmes

Sam’s friend, Chrisse Harnos, brought to the memorial this artwork that Sam created in a class at the Emma Center. Photo by Heidi Walters