LANDS Blog, Week 3

 The LANDS crew just finished up our third week of work, spending the past 4 days in Southern Vermont in the beautiful Glastenbury Wilderness, mapping invasives and finding trails for the Forest Service.

Monday was spent in Rochester with Mary Beth Deller and Melissa Reichert from the Forest Service. We reviewed our work from last week, revisiting some of our sites and checking our protocol for entering invasives data. It was extremely nice of them to spend the day with us and make sure we were on the right track. We headed further south and made a stop at the Rutland Forest Service to meet with Jen and begin planning our work in the Glastenbury Wilderness. On the way down, we had an exciting stop as we came across a MOOSE! We pulled over for a quick photo op and watched majestic creature in its habitat. Finally we got to our last stop, Mount Tabor Work station, where we would be staying for the next 3 days. We finished off the night with a tasty pasta, spinach and ricotta dish.

Getting trained by Mary Beth and Melissa on some invasives

Tuesday was an early morning as we got up and headed down to Glastenbury, and we all had our own adventures, from bushwhacking through hobblebush and climbing up a stream, to 12 mile walks. We learned that 15 years on a map can mean a lot of change in the wilderness, including non-existent trails and many new trails. Luckily as we hiked the trails in the wilderness we found that invasive species were limited to the trail heads and parking lots, but were not getting into the wilderness.  After a long day of work, we made it back to Mount Tabor, and had delicious sloppy joes.

Ally and Sam looking over the maps with Emily

Wednesday was another adventure, with 90 degree temperatures. We found more trails, mapped some invasives and enjoyed the woods. To cool off we spent a few hours after work at a great swimming hole near Mount Tabor, where natural water slides made for a great time. Back at the research station we and ate a wonderful Brinner (Breakfast for dinner!), and some homemade nutella brownies.

Darren, Andrew and Teresa enjoying lunch at a beautiful stream

On Thursday, we packed up our bags, went down the Wilderness and mapped some more ground before we headed back to Burlington. We have covered a good chunk of Glastenbury, and are looking forward to heading back there next week to do some backpacking and cover more of the interior of the wilderness and along the Appalachian Trail.