From the Team

In order to provide a fresh perspective of life in the field, team members take to the keyboard this month to tell their personal accounts of the coming of fall in Southeastern Ohio.

Sarah Farley, Corps Member:

"Our first two hitches working and camping in the Ironton district have been an adjustment but good with the cooler temperatures at night. Sleeping under the stars and building campfires after a day of work has been a refreshing change of pace despite the lack of air conditioning provided in our Athens apartment. Lake Vesuvius has proven to be an excellent camping spot with trails, swimming, and rock climbing close by. Heidi and I ingeniously set up a camp shower which has come in handy after working in the field.

"We concluded our latest hitch in Ironton with a local cultural experience at the 12th Annual Ohio Paw Paw Festival by Lake Snowden in Albany. Our weekend camping out at the festival was spent sampling local food products made from Ohio’s only native fruit, Asimina triloba, including paw paw pancakes, paw paw sauce on burgers made from local ranchers, and for those of age, paw paw beer. We also attended workshops ranging from Tai Chi to 'Sheep to Shawl' to native medicinal plants to expand our knowledge of species we might see on our transects in the field. Evening highlights included some amazing local bluegrass bands.

"Truck maintenance has been part of our daily experience this last hitch with oil refills and changing two flat tires in the field, but we are ready to get back to work after its successful replacement. In the next few weeks we are looking forward to completing the pack test qualifying us as Wildland Fire Fighters, Leave No Trace (LNT) training to expand our responsible wilderness use practices, as well as recruiting the next set of conservation leaders at the Ohio University Career Fair."

Heidi Braunreiter, Corps Member:

"Last month we completed our FIREMON plots in the Athens district so we’ve moved our work to the Ironton district. Although smilax, a woody shrub with thorns, is more prevalent in the area, the terrain and vegetation of the Ironton district is very beautiful and full of wildlife. Since we live several hours away, we’ve been staying at a cute little campground near Lake Vesuvius. Its close enough to go swimming, hiking and rock climbing.

"We took a break from plots this last hitch and attended Ohio’s twelfth annual Pawpaw festival for a couple days where we enjoyed lots of pawpaw’s, the areas native fruit tree, in a variety of different forms. Several of us volunteered at the festival on an array of tasks such as serving an assortment of beers including two brewed from pawpaws. We also enjoyed local music and some educational workshops including a medicinal plant walk where I learned a very helpful bit of knowledge. The common plant plantain (Plantago in latin) when masticated and applied to a bug bite will dry out the wound, and reduce the itchiness which is very useful to know seeing as we encounter lots of bugs in the forest.

"Although we’ve had to work around a couple glitches, mainly car problems, we have been enjoying ourselves in the field and are looking forward to the rest of the season now that its cooling down and hopefully the ticks will start to decline in numbers."

Andrew West, Corps Member

"To say the absolute least, this season is moving quickly. Now that our team has finished up plots up in the Athens District, we have the opportunity to enjoy a good drive down to Southern Ohio and spend some nights camping. It has been a good change of pace that helps keep us out of the apartment and lounging around. Doing plots down in the Ironton District of the Wayne National Forest is adventurous. The plants are different, the trees are different, we don’t know our way around, and the itsy bitsy ticks we find in nests of 50 or more at a time on our leg sure keeps us alert. Although, firemon is firemon no matter which district of the forest we are in.

"My favorite activity this season was the Paw Paw festival. It was three days of music, workshops, craft vendors, local farmers, and environmental education in celebration of the wild native Paw Paw. For a greater part of the season, we had no idea what a Paw Paw was. We knew about the festival and that we could find the fruit in the woods, but it was this mysterious thing that we needed to try.

"Nick Galentin, our agency contact was the first to show us this fruit earlier in the season. It is a yellow, green, brownish colored potato looking fruit, varying in size from the size of a golf ball to the palm of your hand, has yellow innards that taste like a banana, has the consistency of an avocado, and seeds that are large and varying in shapes. Every paw paw in every stage of ripening will have a different flavor than the last. It is a wildly unique fruit. I have grown to like it a lot and ate some manifestation of the paw paw in every meal of the festival, starting with Paw Paw chili on Friday night. My favorite form of the Paw Paw was from Marietta Brewing Company in an aqueous form of a wheat beer, it was tasty.

"In my time off I have enjoyed traveling to Ontario, West Virginia, and NE Pennsylvania. Next break, I will be heading to New York City! I have also found more opportunities to work during time off with local area farmers helping out cutting and staking hay, baling hay, feeding farm animals, assisting with building projects, and recently working on a Dairy Farm milking cows and making cheese!

"Southeast Ohio has been a very rich cultural experience. I have learned new skills, eaten delicious local foods, and met some wonderful people. With less than two months less, I’m sad to be on my way so soon. With the end of one seasonal position comes the beginning of another. With winter approaching, I plan on working on my snowboard bum skills. The job is to be determined, but I have a number of applications out and hearing back from some already!"

Michael Young, Corps Member

"In the past few hitches, I have become more comfortable with my fellow team members, and more confident in the work that we do together. I won’t deny that it was intimidating and nerve racking to come into an established group halfway through a season. I was completely inexperience, and I feel that during my first couple hitches I was considerably more of a hindrance than any help in the field. However, I learned quickly with the patient help of the team, and I can now at least name some plants and trees.

"We recently participated in the Paw Paw Festival of Southeastern Ohio. It was absolutely splendid. I am a local, so most of my fun came from hearing about Andy’s, Heidi’s, and Sarah’s new adventures involving all paw paw related activities. They especially seemed to enjoy the many ways that people have discovered to prepare paw paws. I personally enjoyed late nights around a campfire with my friends, tossing a Frisbee around, and just generally having as much fun as possible. All in all, the festival was a roaring success.

"I think I will wrap up my web update with emphasizing what a good experience this has been for me. Before I got this position, I had decided to take a year of school after graduating this year. I was, however, not interested in doing nothing. I was seeking a source of income, and a learning experience that could help me decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. It was a lucky chance that I heard about the SCA through a friend, and since I started working, I haven’t regretted it once. I am immensely happy with the people I work with, and the work I’m doing, and that’s just what I was looking for."

Pictures are once again courtesy of Gary Chancey and Wayne National Forest.