We started our week off in a new area of the Great Marsh rescuing plants such as Carex stricta, Iris virginica, and milk weed that would have been destroyed due to upcoming road construction. As the day went on we saved 25 buckets worth of plants to be installed elsewhere in the Great Marsh.
The next day we gathered the plants we had rescued and installed them in areas of the great marsh previously infested with the invasive cattail. We sped through those plants quickly and were able to rescue even more plants. In the afternoon, before we went back to planting, we took a field trip to an Artisian Spring nearby to bless us with its iron-y goodness (which Mason enjoyed oh so much). On our way out to go plant, Adam’s keen eye spotted 2 Monarch Butterfly cocoons. The rest of the day was spent mucking around in the Marsh planting the remaining plants.
Wednesday started out rainy and dreary and Dan, our NPS agency contact, told us to go home in light of the storms. Instead of wasting a perfectly good research day we spent the morning at a local café finalizing plans for our mid-season project. After a quick lunch we went out to visit local nurseries and stopped down by the beach to watch the massive waves, generated by the storm, break onto the shore. The next day was also extremely rainy and we spent the day in the library continuing our research for our midseason project. Friday was Adam’s birthday which we graciously gave him off and made up our last day on Saturday.
Saturday we went back out to Cowles Bog and went to town on any Carex stricta that was left out there so that it was planted prior to the onset of cold weather. Our grand total for the day was close to 2500 plants installed a record for not only our team but for THE WORLD!!! All in all it was an awesome week.