Yesterday, the biologist and I did a vegetation monitoring survey. Basically, we got to drive around in an ATV all day, and then we'd look at random points (generated by a GPS tool) to determine the kind of vegetation that grew in 25 meter transects: native or exotic? Grass or forb? (forbs being plants like wildflowers, shrubs, and basically everything that wasn't grass). The day went by pretty smoothly, except for one point - I will forever loathe #4! Transect 4 was down a ravine (or "cleuch," I think the call it here? I couldn't tell...), which, if you aren't familiar with the term ravine, means a small valley-ish thing, with VERY STEEP sides, and a stream at the bottom. As such, the vegetation there was of a marshy type, mainly thistles, cattails, and Reed-Canary grass, which grows taller than me! We spent literally over an HOUR trying to locate the point, because the GPS unit couldn't find the spot. We had it narrowed to probably a 50 square meter area, considering we had a map and such, but needed much more precision to accurately measure the spot. Finally, after walking around in circles for what felt like forever, the GPS finally cooperated and gave us the location, where we promptly spent about 30 seconds walking the transect, as it was was almost entirely Reed-Canary grass, anyway.
The rest of the day went without much trouble, so I suppose one bad point out of 23 can't be too bad. Although, apparently I'm "crooked as a jaybird," as it was pointed out on numerous occasions that I can't walk a straight line, but I feel it was his fault, as "aim for that set of bushes" over there isn't very descriptive, when you are in an entire field of bushes! We sorted things out, though, so all's well that ends well.
Today was another day of hanging around the office, not too much to report. Only one week left...
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Duck, Duck, Goose
Monday and Tuesday were awesome, the biologist and I did a brood survey - driving around counting ducklings and goslings (say it with me now: "awwwwwwwwwwwww!"). Basically we hopped in the biologist's truck as soon as we got to work (we're late, for a very important date!), since we were technically supposed to start at sunrise...oops. It was pretty cool, and fairly low-key; we couldn't get out of the truck lest we scare the babies, so we basically just drove around in the truck all day. It was tiring just to sit around, not to mention that I'm used to being outside all day, so it was a weird change of pace. We saw everything from "teenagers," that were nearly all grown up - had almost all their feathers and whatnot - but just couldn't fly yet, all the way down to the itty bitty fuzzy guys. I'll admit, I was a total dork and kept exclaiming at how cute they were...poor biologist man, having to deal with that! haha. Really though, it was a blast.
We finished up the brood survey Tuesday afternoon, so we drove around while he did inspections - we're cutting down and/or spraying a bunch of trees that need to go (prairie and all, trees are not welcome here!), so he was making sure that everything was going according to plan. Then he took me to one of the restoration fields, where they plant the seeds of native plants on a once-farmed land, in hopes of returning it to a prairie. This one was really successful, there was a huuuuge variety of plants there, the biologist was really impressed. Our main objective was to uproot some Queen Anne's Lace (nasty invasive!), but once we saw that there was hardly any out there, he took to quizzing me on the plants, since we'll be doing some vegetation monitoring sometime this week. He tried to trip me up (say, by asking about a plant when the flower is gone, so it's just green), but I managed to do pretty good!
Today was rainy, so I didn't do too much. In the morning, a YCC crew from another refuge came by to take a tour, and I somehow got nominated to lead it! It was kind of intimidating, but the kids were pretty cool so the whole affair ended up being pretty fun. In the afternoon I mostly helped out around the office, putting stuff away from the festival this weekend, organizing cupboards, filing away all our surveying crap, that sort of thing. I went out with the big boss - aka the refuge manager - to talk with some people from the Army Corps of Engineers, because apparently a man owning neighboring lands is trying to drain water from his property onto the refuge, so that he can farm it. We were basically out there trying to decide whether he should or not, and what to do about it. That was an experience...ugh, I do NOT want to go into management.
Tomorrow: veg, hopefully!
We finished up the brood survey Tuesday afternoon, so we drove around while he did inspections - we're cutting down and/or spraying a bunch of trees that need to go (prairie and all, trees are not welcome here!), so he was making sure that everything was going according to plan. Then he took me to one of the restoration fields, where they plant the seeds of native plants on a once-farmed land, in hopes of returning it to a prairie. This one was really successful, there was a huuuuge variety of plants there, the biologist was really impressed. Our main objective was to uproot some Queen Anne's Lace (nasty invasive!), but once we saw that there was hardly any out there, he took to quizzing me on the plants, since we'll be doing some vegetation monitoring sometime this week. He tried to trip me up (say, by asking about a plant when the flower is gone, so it's just green), but I managed to do pretty good!
Today was rainy, so I didn't do too much. In the morning, a YCC crew from another refuge came by to take a tour, and I somehow got nominated to lead it! It was kind of intimidating, but the kids were pretty cool so the whole affair ended up being pretty fun. In the afternoon I mostly helped out around the office, putting stuff away from the festival this weekend, organizing cupboards, filing away all our surveying crap, that sort of thing. I went out with the big boss - aka the refuge manager - to talk with some people from the Army Corps of Engineers, because apparently a man owning neighboring lands is trying to drain water from his property onto the refuge, so that he can farm it. We were basically out there trying to decide whether he should or not, and what to do about it. That was an experience...ugh, I do NOT want to go into management.
Tomorrow: veg, hopefully!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
What a hectic time I've had these past few days!
Wednesday, I woke up bright and early to drive into The Cities for a conference. After an uneventful 4 hours (well, except for getting lost at the end of it...), I made my way to the federal building(!), and my, is it big. After riding the elevator for a few minutes (I accidentally got on an "up" elevator instead of down...oops!), I found my way to the conference room, and the meeting began.
The conference was a sort of networking, meet-and-greet sort of deal for all the interns within the region (which is made up of 8 states: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota), not only to meet with each other, but to meet up with all the big important people, to get ourselves "out there" to get hired permanently by these people. My, was it intimidating! The first day consisted of the department heads of all the different sections talking about what their position/department is, why their job rocks, why we should join them, that sort of thing. While the presentations were interesting, after 3 or 4 hours, attention spans were definitely waning.
After the day was after, I was driving back to the hotel when it decided to pour for only the 15 minutes it took for me to get there, throwing in some hail just to spice things up. I made it there okay, though, and got settled in. Later, I went over and explored the Mall of America...my, it is HUGE! Although they kind of lie, a lot of the shops have multiple locations in the Mall!
The second day started off much the same, hearing from some more of the higher-ups. Then there was a sort of "how to get a job" dealio, where some people were talking about what they look for in a resume, good interviewing skills, et cetera. We also worked on "elevator speeches," which is basically how to give a good summary (of say, what your job is) within 30 seconds - literally a speech that you would give in the span of an elevator ride. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to the start of the intern speeches, where everyone had to do a kind of "what I did this summer" kind of thing - introduce ourselves, talk about something interesting we learned, that sort of thing. After the day ended, we had a little barbecue at the local refuge, so that was fun.
Friday started off with finishing the student presentations, and I had my turn. Man, I was so nervous...I'm not good with public speaking in the first place, and with all those important people there! I think even the Regional Director was there that day...oh boy. I survived, though, so that's all good. We had more presentations by some more important people, and a Q&A session about how to get into the Service. After some chatting with the people that matter, a few of us got together for lunch, and then it was time for me to make the long drive home.
Everyone there was so nice, it was amazing. Every time I turned around, there were a gaggle of other students to say hello, and we all hit it off pretty well. If all goes to plan, we'll be the "new generation" of the Service, so in theory we'll get to know each other more over the rest of our careers.
Saturday was the local anniversary celebration of the town by the refuge, so we helped out with that. As soon as I get there, though, somehow myself and two guys got shanghied into making the mud pit for their Tug of War contest, so we got to shovel dirt for an hour and a half - I'm still a little sore from that! After we finished with that, we went back to the refuge to help people (mostly little kids, but there were definitely some older people, too) build birdhouses, along with other crafts. That was fun! The fire team had their truck out, so the guy in charge of that crew got to have kids mess around with the hose and the lights and their radio, it was so cute! I can't tell who had more fun, the fireman or the kids.
Today I hung around my apartment all day, glad for a day to relax. I researched into picking up a minor in biology, because at the conference (and this entire summer, for that matter) it became very apparent how important biology is in this field. Lets hope I can go for it!
Wednesday, I woke up bright and early to drive into The Cities for a conference. After an uneventful 4 hours (well, except for getting lost at the end of it...), I made my way to the federal building(!), and my, is it big. After riding the elevator for a few minutes (I accidentally got on an "up" elevator instead of down...oops!), I found my way to the conference room, and the meeting began.
The conference was a sort of networking, meet-and-greet sort of deal for all the interns within the region (which is made up of 8 states: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota), not only to meet with each other, but to meet up with all the big important people, to get ourselves "out there" to get hired permanently by these people. My, was it intimidating! The first day consisted of the department heads of all the different sections talking about what their position/department is, why their job rocks, why we should join them, that sort of thing. While the presentations were interesting, after 3 or 4 hours, attention spans were definitely waning.
After the day was after, I was driving back to the hotel when it decided to pour for only the 15 minutes it took for me to get there, throwing in some hail just to spice things up. I made it there okay, though, and got settled in. Later, I went over and explored the Mall of America...my, it is HUGE! Although they kind of lie, a lot of the shops have multiple locations in the Mall!
The second day started off much the same, hearing from some more of the higher-ups. Then there was a sort of "how to get a job" dealio, where some people were talking about what they look for in a resume, good interviewing skills, et cetera. We also worked on "elevator speeches," which is basically how to give a good summary (of say, what your job is) within 30 seconds - literally a speech that you would give in the span of an elevator ride. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to the start of the intern speeches, where everyone had to do a kind of "what I did this summer" kind of thing - introduce ourselves, talk about something interesting we learned, that sort of thing. After the day ended, we had a little barbecue at the local refuge, so that was fun.
Friday started off with finishing the student presentations, and I had my turn. Man, I was so nervous...I'm not good with public speaking in the first place, and with all those important people there! I think even the Regional Director was there that day...oh boy. I survived, though, so that's all good. We had more presentations by some more important people, and a Q&A session about how to get into the Service. After some chatting with the people that matter, a few of us got together for lunch, and then it was time for me to make the long drive home.
Everyone there was so nice, it was amazing. Every time I turned around, there were a gaggle of other students to say hello, and we all hit it off pretty well. If all goes to plan, we'll be the "new generation" of the Service, so in theory we'll get to know each other more over the rest of our careers.
Saturday was the local anniversary celebration of the town by the refuge, so we helped out with that. As soon as I get there, though, somehow myself and two guys got shanghied into making the mud pit for their Tug of War contest, so we got to shovel dirt for an hour and a half - I'm still a little sore from that! After we finished with that, we went back to the refuge to help people (mostly little kids, but there were definitely some older people, too) build birdhouses, along with other crafts. That was fun! The fire team had their truck out, so the guy in charge of that crew got to have kids mess around with the hose and the lights and their radio, it was so cute! I can't tell who had more fun, the fireman or the kids.
Today I hung around my apartment all day, glad for a day to relax. I researched into picking up a minor in biology, because at the conference (and this entire summer, for that matter) it became very apparent how important biology is in this field. Lets hope I can go for it!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Nice mishmash of different things today.
Today started off working around the office. Entered in some cactus data, helped organize the new filing system, carried in a bunch of drills that we'll be needing for saturday (needed to charge the batteries!), things like that. The biologist and I drove around for a while, meeting up with the tree contractors (basically watching them RIP SMASH TEAR, pretty entertaining), filling out a paperwork survey for one of the wetland pools (asking about the percent cover of invasive species, the depth of water, amount of foliage, etc; this is to determine how suitable it is as a habitat for breeding birds), and various odds and ends.
For the afternoon, we went out for our LAST BIT OF CACTUS WORK (hooray!). Although it was left last because he didn't know where the stake was, time constraints, etc, I think unofficially it was saving the best for last. This outcrop was basically a really tall hill, and once we (finally) got to the top, we could see a ridiculously large portion of the refuge. It was absolutely breathtaking, I wish I had my camera with me! The area was a little bit wetter than most of the other outcrops, so it had a relatively high biodiversity, since it was still dry enough in areas for most of the regular outcrop inhabitants, but wet enough to support different forms of life. I saw a little brown skink, he was so cute!
When we were finally done, we drove around a bit more, then headed back to the office, where I finished entering in all the data(!) - we ended up with roughly 1600 cacti, phew!
Tomorrow I head out bright and early to drive out to The Cities, where I'll be sitting through a 3 day workshop; therefore, I don't know when I'll be posting next!
Today started off working around the office. Entered in some cactus data, helped organize the new filing system, carried in a bunch of drills that we'll be needing for saturday (needed to charge the batteries!), things like that. The biologist and I drove around for a while, meeting up with the tree contractors (basically watching them RIP SMASH TEAR, pretty entertaining), filling out a paperwork survey for one of the wetland pools (asking about the percent cover of invasive species, the depth of water, amount of foliage, etc; this is to determine how suitable it is as a habitat for breeding birds), and various odds and ends.
For the afternoon, we went out for our LAST BIT OF CACTUS WORK (hooray!). Although it was left last because he didn't know where the stake was, time constraints, etc, I think unofficially it was saving the best for last. This outcrop was basically a really tall hill, and once we (finally) got to the top, we could see a ridiculously large portion of the refuge. It was absolutely breathtaking, I wish I had my camera with me! The area was a little bit wetter than most of the other outcrops, so it had a relatively high biodiversity, since it was still dry enough in areas for most of the regular outcrop inhabitants, but wet enough to support different forms of life. I saw a little brown skink, he was so cute!
When we were finally done, we drove around a bit more, then headed back to the office, where I finished entering in all the data(!) - we ended up with roughly 1600 cacti, phew!
Tomorrow I head out bright and early to drive out to The Cities, where I'll be sitting through a 3 day workshop; therefore, I don't know when I'll be posting next!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Took myself to watch Harry Potter tonight, since I didn't want to wait a month until I was in civilization. As I was driving home at 9:30 at night, though, it struck me odd that it was still light enough that I could easily see beyond my headlamps. I'm still not used to being this far north; I had so much trouble falling asleep my first few weeks.
Sunset, at 9:30! This picture doesn't do it justice.
Sunset, at 9:30! This picture doesn't do it justice.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cactus, cactus, and more cactus. Also, did I mention cactus? There can be 40, easy, in an area the size of a dinner plate. Needless to say, I think we've gotten a couple thousand over the past few days...When I close my eyes, I see green and white speckles...cactus will forever be burned onto my retinas.
Since the last post, though, things have gone better. The outcrops we've been going to have been a little bit more secluded and away from annoying members of the public, so there's been a huuuuge reduction in stolen/missing cactus; things have gone much smoother.
Not too much to report, except tomorrow should be our last day, finally!
Since the last post, though, things have gone better. The outcrops we've been going to have been a little bit more secluded and away from annoying members of the public, so there's been a huuuuge reduction in stolen/missing cactus; things have gone much smoother.
Not too much to report, except tomorrow should be our last day, finally!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sunday afternoon, I decided to go to the refuge and try and gather up some decent pictures for you all. Apparently the critters thought it'd be wonderful to hide since I finally had a camera for me, so I don't have much aside from plenty of flowers...of course, they've been added to the album!
Yesterday morning, the biologist was in a meeting for a while so we didn't start on cacti right away. Instead, I continued my efforts to try and brainstorm a reasonable craft for the festival we're helping out at next weekend (result: no craft is good enough!) for the kids to do, helped the office manager do errands around the office, that sort of thing. After lunch, though, we got to go out again and do more cacti! It was really depressing this time around, because as the day wore on, it became more and more apparent that a lot of the missing cacti have simply been stolen by greedy guests, as the outcrops are open to the public. It was extremely upsetting to see it; this morning I was uploading the data and on one site there were more missing cacti than found. Not only is it ecologically uncool (the cacti are really rare here, they only grow on certain rocks on the refuge - we have the only population in the state), but extremely frustrating for us - we had to search around the expected area for a few minutes, scrambling around in vain before determining that the gaping hole was, indeed, the absence of cactus.
Today started off in a disappointing way - it was threatening to rain, so we (biologist and I) messed around on our computers for 2 hours trying to wait it out, since the site we had to start with is hard to access and it would be lame to have to wait in the truck, or come back to HQ. Finally, though, enough was enough and we went out to brave the rain, and drove out to the site. Barely 10 minutes into our operation, though, the instrument we needed thought it would be a great time to break! We had to drive into town to buy a new one, and by that point it was nearly time for lunch.
We spent the afternoon with the YCC kids hacking down trees that were growing on the outcrops - they're not welcome here! It was exhausting work, to say the least. After a few hours we were taking a break, and got, er, distracted by the wild raspberry patches that were running rampant throughout our site. Our break got fairly extended, and we spent the last hour or so of the afternoon snacking on berries and chatting. The weather had somehow gotten beautiful and sunny...what a perfect way to end the day.
tomorrow: more cacti!
Yesterday morning, the biologist was in a meeting for a while so we didn't start on cacti right away. Instead, I continued my efforts to try and brainstorm a reasonable craft for the festival we're helping out at next weekend (result: no craft is good enough!) for the kids to do, helped the office manager do errands around the office, that sort of thing. After lunch, though, we got to go out again and do more cacti! It was really depressing this time around, because as the day wore on, it became more and more apparent that a lot of the missing cacti have simply been stolen by greedy guests, as the outcrops are open to the public. It was extremely upsetting to see it; this morning I was uploading the data and on one site there were more missing cacti than found. Not only is it ecologically uncool (the cacti are really rare here, they only grow on certain rocks on the refuge - we have the only population in the state), but extremely frustrating for us - we had to search around the expected area for a few minutes, scrambling around in vain before determining that the gaping hole was, indeed, the absence of cactus.
Today started off in a disappointing way - it was threatening to rain, so we (biologist and I) messed around on our computers for 2 hours trying to wait it out, since the site we had to start with is hard to access and it would be lame to have to wait in the truck, or come back to HQ. Finally, though, enough was enough and we went out to brave the rain, and drove out to the site. Barely 10 minutes into our operation, though, the instrument we needed thought it would be a great time to break! We had to drive into town to buy a new one, and by that point it was nearly time for lunch.
We spent the afternoon with the YCC kids hacking down trees that were growing on the outcrops - they're not welcome here! It was exhausting work, to say the least. After a few hours we were taking a break, and got, er, distracted by the wild raspberry patches that were running rampant throughout our site. Our break got fairly extended, and we spent the last hour or so of the afternoon snacking on berries and chatting. The weather had somehow gotten beautiful and sunny...what a perfect way to end the day.
tomorrow: more cacti!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"if it were up to me, there would be beer here for you guys"
So said one of the guys I was working with yesterday.
I had to drive over an hour away to work at "prairie days," a local festival/fair thing for another part of the wetland management district. Too bad there were WAY too many people work, so I mostly just sat around, chatting with people and taking pictures of flowers and such.
They can be seen here, of course, starting midway on page 2.
Not too much to report, but just wanted to show off the latest batch of photos!
also, happy birthday to my sister! (:
I had to drive over an hour away to work at "prairie days," a local festival/fair thing for another part of the wetland management district. Too bad there were WAY too many people work, so I mostly just sat around, chatting with people and taking pictures of flowers and such.
They can be seen here, of course, starting midway on page 2.
Not too much to report, but just wanted to show off the latest batch of photos!
also, happy birthday to my sister! (:
Friday, July 10, 2009
As promised in my last post, I (along with the YCC kids and another summer temp guy) was with the man in charge of the Fire crew, and we had a little workshop. We first started off with a 2 hour powerpoint/presentation, which was very interesting! Although I was already somewhat familiar with what they do, he taught me so much more than I was aware of. We talked mostly about prescribed burns, since that's what their main job is; he taught us really cool things about how beneficial they were, and what happens when they don't get to good burn. He also talked about some wildfires they've had to deal with, the kind of training they go through, and that sort of thing. Then he took us out to their portion of the garages, where he introduced us to all the equipment they use - since they often have to deal with soft ground that isn't ideal for regular fire trucks, they instead use ATVs, pickup trucks, and even a machine called the Marsh Master, which is basically a small tank.
My favorite part was unfortunately also the shortest. He finished the workshop by taking us out to a field to show us examples of burns; there was a path dividing two of the parcels of land, and one side had just been burned in the past few months, while the other hadn't been burned in 2 or 3 years (they can only do these burns every few years, because the wildlife needs a place to say, and burning too much can end up causing more harm than good). The difference was phenomenal! The one that hadn't been treated in a few years was covered almost entirely with Smooth Brome, an invasive species of grass that is the bane of all who know what it is. The sparse scattering of native plants were definitely smaller and generally a poorer quality than normal. The side that had been recently burned, though, had an amazing variety of flora on it! I snagged a few pictures (in the album!), but honestly, I can't do them justice. Some of the species we found were:
-Lead Plant, one of the photos: the leaves are a pretty silvery-green, and the flowers are a bright purple with orange bits
-a type of wild pea that I can never remember the name of: the other photo, these leaves are an even brighter white-silver color
-Purple Prairie Coneflower: ever heard of that echinacea stuff, the medicine that was hyped up a few years ago? Comes from the genus that this flower is part of. If you eat the roots of this plant, your gums will go numb!
-Evening Primrose: a cute little yellow flower
-Big Bluestem: a type of native grass, the tips turn this really pretty reddish purple after a while
-Alfalfa: not just for salads! It has a very gorgeous, dark purple flower - I didn't recognize it at all!
-Prairie Rose: a low wildflower, with pretty pink roses on them
-Blue Vervain: another purple wildflower, really cool looking
amongst others that I can't recall at the moment, my brain is swimming with so many names I can't keep them straight! I really recommend googling some of these flowers if you have a minute, they're absolutely gorgeous! The best part was that the Fire guy was kind of quizzing us to see if anyone recognized them, and after working with the Biologist so much, I actually knew quite a few. I didn't know it, but the Fire guy also has a biology degree, and knew lots of interesting things, which was a nice surprise.
Guys...seriously, this stuff is so amazing, I wish I could properly convey this. When we go out in the field, my heart sometimes actually starts racing because it's all so exciting. There's so much to learn, and it's just unbelievable all the factoids I'm gathering. I wish I could do that kind of fieldwork all the time.
After we got back to the office, there were only a few hours of the workday left. I spent it playing desk jockey, doing the Biologist a favor by organizing a little booklet of the wildflowers that are seen on the refuge; the intent is that these booklets will go in all their trucks as a reference guide while people are out in the field.
Today, after talking about it for WEEKS, the Biologist and I finally got to start the cactus survey. Man...even he said he wasn't a fan of it, to say the least. From 9am to 2pm, we only got 2 of the 13 sites done! Basically what happens is that we have to walk around on the granite outcrops (which are normally very awesome!) and look for these little ball cacti. The last time he did this survey was back in 2004, so we had to use a compass and measuring tape to locate the old clusters, which surprisingly most of them were still left! Some of them were gone, though, and some it took us a few good minutes to find, so that got frustrating pretty quick. The worst part was that we had to somehow count all the cacti in the clusters and measure the diameter of each, even though there could easily be nearly 40 in a cluster the size of a paperback book. They kind of grew around and on top of each other, so it was really hard trying to keep them all straight, and most of them were less than 2cm in diameter, so try to measure that accurately!
I know that's a lot of complaining, but it wasn't so bad, mostly just repetitive and exhausting after a while. There was one cacti that was completely uprooted - like, I picked it up and carried it over to him to show him uprooted - and yet it was still completely green and healthy, which was basically amazing. I learned later that it was uprooted back in '04, and had managed to survive the past 5 years! It's stuff like that that makes the annoying bits completely worth it.
We saw a duck's nest on the way back to the truck, at which point I learned that ducks nest in open fields, NOT by the water - who knew?
Also, we saw a BADGER waddling across the road while making our way back to HQ. A BADGER. Even he said he hadn't seen one on the refgue all his time working here!
From what it looks like, the next few workdays will be out finishing this cactus thing. Wish me luck!
My favorite part was unfortunately also the shortest. He finished the workshop by taking us out to a field to show us examples of burns; there was a path dividing two of the parcels of land, and one side had just been burned in the past few months, while the other hadn't been burned in 2 or 3 years (they can only do these burns every few years, because the wildlife needs a place to say, and burning too much can end up causing more harm than good). The difference was phenomenal! The one that hadn't been treated in a few years was covered almost entirely with Smooth Brome, an invasive species of grass that is the bane of all who know what it is. The sparse scattering of native plants were definitely smaller and generally a poorer quality than normal. The side that had been recently burned, though, had an amazing variety of flora on it! I snagged a few pictures (in the album!), but honestly, I can't do them justice. Some of the species we found were:
-Lead Plant, one of the photos: the leaves are a pretty silvery-green, and the flowers are a bright purple with orange bits
-a type of wild pea that I can never remember the name of: the other photo, these leaves are an even brighter white-silver color
-Purple Prairie Coneflower: ever heard of that echinacea stuff, the medicine that was hyped up a few years ago? Comes from the genus that this flower is part of. If you eat the roots of this plant, your gums will go numb!
-Evening Primrose: a cute little yellow flower
-Big Bluestem: a type of native grass, the tips turn this really pretty reddish purple after a while
-Alfalfa: not just for salads! It has a very gorgeous, dark purple flower - I didn't recognize it at all!
-Prairie Rose: a low wildflower, with pretty pink roses on them
-Blue Vervain: another purple wildflower, really cool looking
amongst others that I can't recall at the moment, my brain is swimming with so many names I can't keep them straight! I really recommend googling some of these flowers if you have a minute, they're absolutely gorgeous! The best part was that the Fire guy was kind of quizzing us to see if anyone recognized them, and after working with the Biologist so much, I actually knew quite a few. I didn't know it, but the Fire guy also has a biology degree, and knew lots of interesting things, which was a nice surprise.
Guys...seriously, this stuff is so amazing, I wish I could properly convey this. When we go out in the field, my heart sometimes actually starts racing because it's all so exciting. There's so much to learn, and it's just unbelievable all the factoids I'm gathering. I wish I could do that kind of fieldwork all the time.
After we got back to the office, there were only a few hours of the workday left. I spent it playing desk jockey, doing the Biologist a favor by organizing a little booklet of the wildflowers that are seen on the refuge; the intent is that these booklets will go in all their trucks as a reference guide while people are out in the field.
Today, after talking about it for WEEKS, the Biologist and I finally got to start the cactus survey. Man...even he said he wasn't a fan of it, to say the least. From 9am to 2pm, we only got 2 of the 13 sites done! Basically what happens is that we have to walk around on the granite outcrops (which are normally very awesome!) and look for these little ball cacti. The last time he did this survey was back in 2004, so we had to use a compass and measuring tape to locate the old clusters, which surprisingly most of them were still left! Some of them were gone, though, and some it took us a few good minutes to find, so that got frustrating pretty quick. The worst part was that we had to somehow count all the cacti in the clusters and measure the diameter of each, even though there could easily be nearly 40 in a cluster the size of a paperback book. They kind of grew around and on top of each other, so it was really hard trying to keep them all straight, and most of them were less than 2cm in diameter, so try to measure that accurately!
I know that's a lot of complaining, but it wasn't so bad, mostly just repetitive and exhausting after a while. There was one cacti that was completely uprooted - like, I picked it up and carried it over to him to show him uprooted - and yet it was still completely green and healthy, which was basically amazing. I learned later that it was uprooted back in '04, and had managed to survive the past 5 years! It's stuff like that that makes the annoying bits completely worth it.
We saw a duck's nest on the way back to the truck, at which point I learned that ducks nest in open fields, NOT by the water - who knew?
Also, we saw a BADGER waddling across the road while making our way back to HQ. A BADGER. Even he said he hadn't seen one on the refgue all his time working here!
From what it looks like, the next few workdays will be out finishing this cactus thing. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
finally added a few new photos to the album!
Monday was kind of painful, in that after our weekly meeting, I spent the rest of the day folding pamphlets/brochures. Six hours of folding those papers into thirds! Talk about mind-numbing.
Yesterday, I was with the YCC kids, helping them around the refuge - we swept out one of the storage bays where they keep all the industrial equipment (like farming tractors, the snowplow, that kind of thing). With 6 people, it still took over an hour! We got a nice break early on, when the leader's wife came in with cinnamon buns for breakfast for everyone - it was the leader's birthday yesterday! After that, we were sanding down the wooden fences and various gas tanks around the building, in preparation to repaint it all. There were some crazy storms brewing, and we got a break midafternoon when it started raining on us.
We went back out soon enough, though, once the rain let up for a bit. At one point, the biologist came out in these really thick coveralls, explaining that he was preparing for the potential tornadoes that were forecasted, pointing out that the padding would cushion him if the twister were to toss him around! Really, though, he just got his shipment of new uniforms and wanted to model off those sweet overalls.
Today we did our last day of fencing! Fortunately there wasn't much, so the work wasn't too hard.
Tomorrow we're going to learn about the Fire crew, and after that I should finally get to work on tha darned cactus survey with the biologist that we've been talking about for weeks!
Monday was kind of painful, in that after our weekly meeting, I spent the rest of the day folding pamphlets/brochures. Six hours of folding those papers into thirds! Talk about mind-numbing.
Yesterday, I was with the YCC kids, helping them around the refuge - we swept out one of the storage bays where they keep all the industrial equipment (like farming tractors, the snowplow, that kind of thing). With 6 people, it still took over an hour! We got a nice break early on, when the leader's wife came in with cinnamon buns for breakfast for everyone - it was the leader's birthday yesterday! After that, we were sanding down the wooden fences and various gas tanks around the building, in preparation to repaint it all. There were some crazy storms brewing, and we got a break midafternoon when it started raining on us.
We went back out soon enough, though, once the rain let up for a bit. At one point, the biologist came out in these really thick coveralls, explaining that he was preparing for the potential tornadoes that were forecasted, pointing out that the padding would cushion him if the twister were to toss him around! Really, though, he just got his shipment of new uniforms and wanted to model off those sweet overalls.
Today we did our last day of fencing! Fortunately there wasn't much, so the work wasn't too hard.
Tomorrow we're going to learn about the Fire crew, and after that I should finally get to work on tha darned cactus survey with the biologist that we've been talking about for weeks!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Of Butterflies and Barbs
Had a short week, thanks to the holiday.
The biologist was gone this week, so I didn't get to hang out with him. :(
Monday morning, I hung around the office, doing paperwork and stuff - the office manager gal got a new filing system, so I spent the morning hole-punching papers that were in hanging folders, and clipping them into binders. In the afternoon, though, I went out with a guy doing a butterfly survey. Unfortunately, the butterflies thought it would be cool to not come out, so mostly we just wandered around hoping they would. We probably saw about 20 butterflies in the entire five hour period! The ones we did see were very pretty, though, so that was cool.
The rest of the week (Tues-Thurs) I, along with the Fire team, helped the high school kids rip up more fencing. Fortunately the weather was cooler this week, so it wasn't quite as unbearably hot...but I guess we're supposed to break triple digits again next week. Too bad the cool weather didn't last!
Sorry I don't have much to report, but it was a pretty simple week. Next week I think I'm checking out cacti (the biologist will be back!), so hopefully I'll have a better post soon.
The biologist was gone this week, so I didn't get to hang out with him. :(
Monday morning, I hung around the office, doing paperwork and stuff - the office manager gal got a new filing system, so I spent the morning hole-punching papers that were in hanging folders, and clipping them into binders. In the afternoon, though, I went out with a guy doing a butterfly survey. Unfortunately, the butterflies thought it would be cool to not come out, so mostly we just wandered around hoping they would. We probably saw about 20 butterflies in the entire five hour period! The ones we did see were very pretty, though, so that was cool.
The rest of the week (Tues-Thurs) I, along with the Fire team, helped the high school kids rip up more fencing. Fortunately the weather was cooler this week, so it wasn't quite as unbearably hot...but I guess we're supposed to break triple digits again next week. Too bad the cool weather didn't last!
Sorry I don't have much to report, but it was a pretty simple week. Next week I think I'm checking out cacti (the biologist will be back!), so hopefully I'll have a better post soon.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)