Indiana Dunes - Summer 2011

Project Leader Note: Rose had originally tried to type out the lyrics and melody to The Final Countdown by Europe as part of this post and while I've still left those sections intact for comedic value I think it would be more effective, as she would probably agree, to just open this link for the song in a seperate browser window and then read the post to get the desired effect she was going for. Enjoy.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-aWRIrmkM)

THE FINAL COUNTDOWNNNN. DA-NA-NA-NAAA, NA-NA-NA-NA-NA, DA-NA-NA-NAAA, NA-NA-NA-NA-NA, DA-NA-NA, NA-NA-NA, etc.

We spent Monday going back to all of the places we had already planted this season to do our site assessments. It was very rewarding to see that the plants we installed earlier in the season were doing so well. Revisiting all of our planting spots was also a really nice way to wrap up the season. We finished that day up with the dreaded “these-are-all-of-the-things-you-need-to-do-before-you-leave” talk. Afterwards, we comforted ourselves by gorging on delicious enchiladas.

On Tuesday, we spent the morning doing our final polygon of planting. We all placed the last plant in the ground together, and then did a “Saved by the Bell” high-five. Afterwards, the Park and the city of Chesterton threw a good-bye parade in our honor, and then handed us the key to the city (SCA Project Leader’s note: that definitely did not happen).

We spent the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday doing all of the things we talked about having to do on Monday. On Wednesday evening, we went out to dinner with some of our favorite Bio-Techs from the park to Gelsosomo’s. It was fun.

And now for some more of Rose's song transcription...

CLOSINGGG TIMMEEE...

I. HAD. THE TIME OF MY LIIIIIFE. YOU KNOW I’VE NEVER FELT THIS WAY BEFORE. YES I SWEAR. THIS IS TRUUUUUE. AND I OWE IT ALL TO YOUUUUUUUU, Liz.

These are the final maps from the summer NPC team's restoration sites. For detailed descriptions of these maps please review the team's final blog which contains a copy of the team's full report.

On Monday we had a break from our usual adventures in Cowles bog. We traveled to a park near Chicago to assist with a volunteer event with the SCA Tour 40 team. We were very excited to see the team and learn more about their projects. We spent the day doing trail work and removing invasive plant species alongside volunteers from Southwest Airlines.

On Tuesday, we were back in Cowles bog planting native plant species. We were pleased to find the heat wave had broken. We had pleasant planting weather all week with temperatures in the mid-eighties. We spent the remainder of the week touching up areas of Cowles bog that needed attention. With the end of the work season approaching we decided to shorten hitch leader duration to two days, giving everyone on the team an opportunity to be a hitch leader one more time.

Over the weekend we had an opportunity to see more of the area as we hiked trails in the state park with the biotech Krystal. We also visited the nature center and saw the Massassuaga rattle snake in captivity. It was great to see more of the area’s beautiful natural resources.

This week started out a bit rough. Monday found itself with isolated thunderstorms and light rain moving through the middle of the work day. Also, the access road for the intended work site of Cowles Bog (west) was blocked by some utility trucks trimming trees, bushes, and overgrowth. The team quickly recovered from the impediment and rerouted to “plan B” and wound up in the Great Marsh working alongside NPS staff planting populations of Carex stricta, Carex aquatilis, and other mixed sedges and forbs. We left early to do some much needed grocery shopping before returning to the apartment for dinner, movies, and an evening of working on our midseason project.

Tuesday, we returned to the Great Marsh in the morning to finish planting the unfortunate plants that had not made it into the ground the day before, and, as a result sat out in buckets and trays in the shade of bushes, forsaken all night. The planting was finished by lunch, so we went to the greenhouse for lunch. After lunch the team began a new section of Cowles Bog (east) where 20 flats of Carex stricta were already eagerly awaiting us. We had to search for an open site to plant in and were lucky to find a spot where the cattail was already flattened thus saving Adam and David from crushing out the area for the team. We planted 26 of the flats before heading back to heaadquarters to clean things up and tidy up before returning to the apartment to work on the midseason project once more.

Wednesday was the last field day at the park since Adam gave the team off on Thursday to work hard on the midseason project, since the presentation day was fast approaching. We went back out to Cowles Bog east to finish planting the Carex stricta and also planted some Carex aquatilis and Iris virginica before returning to the greenhouse for lunch. The afternoon found us back at Cowles Bog (east), hunting for yet another new site. Luckily, another mostly-flattened area was ripe for picking, so we settled in to planting quickly, placing more populations of Carex stricta in the ground. After successfully finishing off 25 flats, it was time to go home. Dinner was the delayed tacos that everyone missed on Tuesday. That cheered everyone up…along with the fact that, aside from research and working on the midseason project, the weekend had begun.

Thursday, we all slept in before getting to work on the midseason project that loomed ever nearer. Hours were spent in the library and at computers, typing notes, making diagrams, and organizing information to plaster all over the posterboard; as well as to cram into our and others’ brains. Thursday ended too soon, for the work was far from finished. Luckily, we still had one more day to prepare.

Friday began slowly, but we all got organized and began working steadily once more. We worked into the night, pasting our facts, figures, and plenty of pictures on to the posterboard. The posterboard was finished near midnight, except for the corner reserved for Adam to add SCA information the next morning before the event begun. Accomplished, the team went to bed.

Saturday began earlier than the previous two days and the team found themselves back at the greenhouse to get a few things. Adam and Christine stayed at the greenhouse to gather a flat full of sedges, forbs, and rushes to display for all the people in the park while David and Rose went out to the bog to pull a cattail. The specimen they returned with was a very impressive—tall, fluffy cattail with a full chunk of roots and rhizome, connecting it to the adjacent cattail, which had been pulled at the same time. It made for a good eye-catching piece, as everyone would soon learn. The team left the greenhouse then, having plants, waders, and trowels in tow…only to remember that the tent we were supposed to use had been forgotten, so we had to turn around and get it. We made it to the park 5 minutes before 9, which was when Bark in the Park began. Adam was waiting for us and showed us where to pull up to we could unload and get things set up. We hauled things over to our place by the bandstand and quickly got our table and tent in place, our board going up with plants alongside. The board refused to be free-standing, so Adam drove off to get tape for stability and candy as an attractant for the fair-goers. We met lots of friendly people and spread the word about invasive cattail to any who were willing to listen. Christine got to leave the table early (before noon) because her parents and aunt and uncle arrived and took her away for a tour of the park. However, everyone won with that situation, since her mother had brought fresh rice crispies bars along, and Christine shared them with the team when she returned to the table with a whole 30 minutes left before the event ended. Luckily, the event didn’t go long into the afternoon, because the day was getting hot and muggy. Clean-up went swiftly and we returned the plants and tent (we remembered it this time) to the greenhouse and were on our way to enjoy the rest of our Saturday.

Week four began just as any other in Indiana… stormy. Due to weather, we spent the day at the library researching topics for our midseason project. The team was also able to obtain a booth in an upcoming festival in a town near the park. We are looking forward to using this opportunity for educational community outreach.

Tuesday was spent planting again in the SCA sedge meadow. The team planted the remaining Iris virginica and also some Pontederia cordata that had been transplanted from the greenhouse. The team then returned to the greenhouse to perform miscellaneous chores such as weeding. In other important news, the team finally finished season two of True Blood. With the beginning of season four on HBO the team has been frantically trying to catch up. This has occupied much of the team’s free time over the last two weeks.

Wednesday morning we returned to the Great Marsh to plant Carex squarrosa. Following lunch, we planted Carex stricta in Cowles Bog.

We continued to plant Carex stricta populations in Cowles Bog on Thursday. We also scattered populations of Carex lupulina, Carex scoparia, Carex projecta, Carex tribuloides, and Carex cristatella. As we plant more and more in the bog, we have been shifting the locations in which we plant. On Thursday we created a new entry point and laid down a board walk to prevent damaging our young and newly planted biota or the rest of the mat.

Week two gave us a great opportunity to work alongside two NPS bio-techs, Vaso and Steve, and collect seed for the native plant Carex stricta. This allowed us to see additional phases of the plants’ life cycle as well as the National Park’s restoration efforts. Unfortunately some of the seeds were diseased and this set back our collecting efforts. As of now the park is unsure of how the disease is transmitted, hopefully with more research the problem can be resolved.

We also planted Carex utriculata and Carex atherodes in the Great Marsh. These plants were propagated at the NPS greenhouse and prepared for planting by our SCA team the week before.

The following day we spent the morning transplanting Carex stricta and the afternoon planting in Cowles bog. This gave us another opportunity to work with the NPS bio-techs and also with Jayben. Jayben is a high school biology teacher working with the park this summer to create a new high school biology curriculum in the area and give high school children more opportunities within the park. Working with additional bio-techs and park staff allowed the team to be more productive but also complicated the data collection process.

The next day we transplanted even more Carex stricta and rebuilt plant beds outside of the greenhouse to eventually hold the Carex stricta growing trays. After lunch we returned to the Great Marsh to plant alongside the park bio-techs. Following the instruction of the park botanist, Dan Mason, we planted a variety of species in small populations. The area of the Great Marsh we worked in Thursday was particularly beautiful and we spent time watching the monarch butterflies fly around the milkweed plants throughout the marsh. Week two was very productive as we were able to plant every day. The team was able to plant 6,168 plants over three days in week two.

Day One:
FAIL (missed flight).

Day Two:
Success! We arrived in Washington around 8:00pm and were treated to a wonderful Mexican Dinner at Los Pepes by project manager Brian (Thanks Liz!). The team then traveled to Camp Evergreen located in Longview, Washington to join the rest of the Conservation Corps. By this time it was past 10:00pm breaching quiet hours. The team split up and gingerly entered the dark cabins to retreat for the night.

Day Three:
On day three Adam, Adam, and Dave awoke exhausted after a sleepless night filled with terror. Rumors of a Longview gargoyle had spread fast. Demonic noises plagued the cabin in which they slept. Luckily the day was lecture-orientated, consisting of risk management, drive safe-drive smart, field operations standards and other opportunities with the SCA.

Day Four:
On Day four the team participated in behind the wheel training and vehicle maintenance training. This was followed by another wonderful lunch provided by the amazing Raven, the wizard of the backcountry kitchen. After lunch the team partook in CPR training. By the end of the afternoon we were all certified in CPR.

Day Five:
The camp had grown restless as the notorious Longview gargoyle harassed the helpless under the guise of darkness. Earplugs were mass-distributed to help calm the frightened corps members. As trying as the times were the training continued. Day five began wilderness first aid training. This training was done by Aerie Backcountry Medicine. The day began with a lecture on scene and patient assessment. We then covered chest wounds, bleeding and shock. Following lunch we covered spinal trauma, injuries to the extremities and splinting.

Day Six:
Wilderness first aid training continued. Additional patient assessment techniques were discussed. This was followed by wound management, controlling bleeding and managing infection. Corps members were split into pods to practice scenarios in smaller groups. The pods then reformed to cover additional topics such as heat exhaustion, allergies, and asthma. After a lunch break we split up into pods for more scenario practice. By the end of the day each team member was certified in Wilderness First Aid.

Day Seven:
Work Skills! Corps members were split up into groups covering tools and base camp skills. The tools group began by naming and identifying common field tools as well as learning how to use them properly. The base camp skills group learned various techniques to purify water, common knots used, proper stove use, and base camp set up.

Day Eight:
The team participated in a plant scavenger hunt along with the other native plant teams. This was followed by a discussion on plant identification and dichotomous keys. The team then departed for a mock work day in which we removed invasive Himalayan black berry from a roadside ditch. Following dinner, the conservation corps members were treated to a presentation by work skills instructors on opportunities outside the SCA.

Day Nine:
End of training. The team said their goodbyes and departed. The whereabouts of the Longview gargoyle are still unknown. Proceed with great caution if ever in the area.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a national park that stretches from Gary to Michigan City, Indiana on the southern coast of Lake Michigan. The fifteen miles of Lakeshore within the park is comprised of a variety of ecosystems. These ecosystems include beaches, dunes, wetlands, marshes, lakes, interdunal ponds, prairies, rivers, bogs, fens and forest. The variety of ecosystems within the park creates a wealth of species diversity. The diversity along the Lakeshore has attracted scholars such as Henry Cowles since the late 1800’s. Landmark research such as Cowles has famously defined the lakeshore as the birthplace of ecology and inspired preservation efforts against the industrial growth surrounding the area. The preservation efforts resulted in the designation of a state park on the Lakeshore in 1926. Following the designation of the state park, efforts to expand began almost immediately. A group of 20 women formed the Save the Dunes Council with the goal of expanding the protected Lakeshore. While at first dismissed as “harmless birdwatchers” the group had 2,000 members nationwide within a year. By the 1960’s the council was seen by the steel industry as a threat to development. The efforts of the council and politicians such as President John F. Kennedy were successful in designating 8,330 acres as National Park in 1966. Today the park has expanding to over 15,000 acres.

I am lucky enough to call the beautiful and green mountains of Southern Vermont home. In my free time I enjoy hiking, kayaking, star-gazing, and plant identifying. This is my first season with the SCA! Having graduated from Colgate University last spring with a BA in Environmental Biology, I decided to get involved in the SCA to get my hands dirty before applying to graduate programs. I am particularly interested in wetland ecosystems, so I expect this summer in Cowles’ Bog to be a lot of fun.