Friday, August 3, 2012

July 30 - August 3
by Dylan Marcus

Our final week of LANDS was a whirlwind of some final STP work on Monday and Tuesday, then straight into presentation preparation for Thursday with a bit of reflection mixed in.  By Wednesday all of the STPs had been completed and printed out to be handed in to sponsors, along with any GIS layers to accompany them.  The teams working on the Reservoir and Talc Mill properties in Johnson flagged the trails that they had made on the ground (with yellow tape, if you'd like more detail), and all of the teams final maps looked spectacular.

Dylan and Kelsey's STP report



Andrew and Darren's trail map from the Talc Mill STP


Writing and practicing the final presentation was a great way to review what we had accomplished throughout the summer.  As it turns out, we did quite a bit - enough that we could talk for a whole hour and then some in front of a small crowd.  Reviewing our accomplishments in this fashion was also a good precursor to our final reflection session in Centennial Woods on Thursday, in which we were asked to free-write for a few minutes on the topic of why we did this internship, our views on conservation, the skills and knowledge we have gained, and where we will take those views and that knowledge from here.  While some of us differed in the ratio of office time to field time that we would prefer most, we all agreed that having the experience of doing the work that we have done is useful, regardless of the particular field in which we find ourselves in the future.

Finally, Thursday evening we presented our projects, findings, maps, etc. to a group of friends, some family, project sponsors, grad students, and SCA advisors.  The presentation itself went very smoothly, and before everyone left we all had a chance to mingle, answer questions, and to exchange contact information with sponsors and supporters alike.  I sit at this computer, Friday morning, typing this blog post, the proud owner five official SCA shirts and other assorted schwag - however delayed they were in arriving - and a satisfied alumni of the LANDS program.

The LANDS 2012 Crew