Getting up in morning isn’t easy. After a day of traveling and 10 days spent in the woods near Mt. SI Washington, I was ready to come back to my new home in Chesterton, IN. Training in Washington was very draining but worth every second! The scenery was beautiful, nestled in the Pacific North Western Mountains. Rivers flowed, cotton seed fell like snow and the music of the campers brought a life that was new and energizing.
During my time there I learned how to save a life during our Wilderness First Aid course and gained a new appreciation for the chain saw, in the Game of Logging. Using a chain saw was something I had previously been afraid of, but I am glad to know how useful a tool it can be in the battle to conserve our lands. Along with the people I met along the way this made for one of the greatest experiences of my life!
On our first day of work with our agency sponsor, National Park Service (NPS), I wasn’t sure what to expect. But, I was anxious to get my hands dirty and on some plants. As luck would have it I did.
NPS Nursery Facility
In the morning, we transplanted Soft Stem Bull Rush (Scirpus validus) from experimental containers onto tarps laid out on the ground. During that time I saw a lot of neat things. It was interesting to see how much life there actually is just within the NPS grounds, which consists of green houses and scattered plots where plants are grown for restoration. Frogs hop and leap within the plots. Different kinds of bugs and critters crawl under mats and vegetation. Tadpoles swim in puddles. After a morning of transplanting, the group gathered for a plant study session and at the end of the day I could identify multiple sedges. I even wrote a song to help remember those beautiful Carex’s, titled “Sometimes you want to know. You know?”
