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.
LANDS 2012 Blog: Week 2
Monday, June 11
We started off our second week at LANDS by preparing for our
first camping trip. After we got all of
the details nailed down, we headed off to Mount Philo State Park to do some
invasive removal.
Evidence of all our hard work.
The plant we were removing, Wild Parsnip, has a chemical in
its shoot that causes a condition called “phytophotodermatitis,” which results
in large, blistering burns when the chemical gets on skin that’s exposed to
sunlight. Therefore, we were out in the
heat in long sleeves and heavy work gloves for protection. Thankfully, no one was burned and we managed
to make a significant dent in the park’s infestation during the few hours that
we were there. After we piled (and then
re-piled) the bags of parsnip, we drove up to the top of Mount Philo to change
out of our now-contaminated clothes and enjoyed the beautiful view.
Tuesday, June 12
Tuesday was only a half-day to make up for some of the extra
hours we’d be putting in while we were camping.
We met at the GreenHouse and then drove over to Oakledge Park, where we
did some reflection exercises in the tree house and talked about some new
duties we would have during our major projects.
Afterwards, we went on our first cooperative grocery shopping trip and
managed to get everything (except the beans) in less than 20 minutes. Then we all headed back home to prepare for
the next day.
At the top of Mount Philo.
Wednesday, June 13
Today marked the beginning of both our first camping trip
and our first project for LANDS. We are
working with Green Mountain National Forest through the White River Partnership
to map invasives around the White River.
We spent the day learning about the invasives we’d be seeing with Forest
Service botanist Mary-Beth Deller and then we explored Rochester to look for
living examples. At the end of the day,
we went to Branbury State Park to set up camp and cook dinner.
Plotting out our routes for the day.
Thursday, June 14
We began Thursday by dividing up into teams of two or three
and plotting out where each group was going to do their surveys. We did the first half-mile of a road together
to practice filling out our data sheets and then we split off to our respective
roads, where we spent the rest of the day looking for invasives. Some of the groups were on busier roads,
while some ended up in areas that were more remote.
Friday, June 15
Friday was a bit more of an adventure than Thursday with
some groups ending up on roads or trails that didn’t exist or that had been
washed out. Thankfully, no one was
really lost and we even managed to get done and head back to Burlington a
little early.
Meet the
2012 LANDS crew! We’ll be posting our
adventures on this blog throughout the summer, so check back weekly to get the
scoop on the coolest conservation kids in the state!
From left to right: Andrew McDonagh, Leah Mital-Skiff, Stephanie Falzone, Kristie Warack, Ally Miller, Kelsey Peterson, Teresa DiTore, Darren Schibler, Sam Gersie, Emily Brodsky
Our first
week really flew by, even as our last member, Dylan Marcus, flew in from a
semester studying abroad in Australia. Unfortunately,
he missed some general orientation sessions, as well as a seminar about land trusts
and conservation easements on Tuesday with Steve Libby, co-director of the
Vermont River Conservancy and a staff member of the GreenHouse Residential
Learning Community, which will serve as our headquarters for the summer.
However, Dylan was able to join us on
Wednesday for a walk at Gleason Brook in Camel’s Hump State Park with Liz
Thompson, co-author of Wetland, Woodland,
Wildland, the go-to guide on natural communities in Vermont. Liz introduced us to some aspects of
Vermont’s hardwood forest communities, including its geologic history, soil
characteristics, and a few common plant species.
Doesn't Andrew look lovely with that Canada Violet?
Before Liz and Dylan showed up, we
had a bit of training navigating around the Gleason Brook area setting without
GPS units, which we had also practiced using earlier in the week. All of that came in handy on Thursday when we
teamed up with Donia Prince and Molly Klepack (2011 LANDS crewmember!) from The
Nature Conservancy to inventory invasive species like buckthorn and honeysuckle
in the LaPlatte River Nature Preserve using iMap software, TNC’s user-friendly
mapping program.
We wrapped up the week by returning
to the U.S. Forest Service station on Spear St. to finish the landscape
improvements we started on Tuesday, which involved clearing the experimental
field and preparing the closed-system tubs for Prof. Deane Wang’s new research
on the impacts of increased soil temperature due to global warming on plant
growth. It was some good, hard, dirty work,
and we discovered Sam’s secret fetish for lawnmowing!
That’s all for now--we’ll be
camping out in the Rochester, VT area later this week, so stay tuned for news
on that adventure!
LANDS 2012 was launched Monday June 4th with a great new Corps. Led by Emily Brodsky, Leah Mital-Skiff and Kelsey Peterson, this year's crew is ready to go to work!
This is our final week of the LANDS program. We have been wrapping up our STP's, finalizing our group projects, and preparing for our final presentation. The presentation is Thursday night at 6pm in Stafford Hall - room 101. We hope to see you there!
Here are some pictures from our field work in Kirchner Woods.
What a week it has been at LANDS! We are nearing the end of our nine-week program now and all of the loose ends are starting to come together, a long with a few new beginnings.
Monday, July 25th
This was our first week back form Mount Tabor and everyone is happy to be back in Burlington. We started off the week in the office and began compiling all of our data for the two Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) projects we did field work for over the past three weeks. First we began working on the Wetlands Delineation Project, for which Mollie Klepeck is the project leader. With her guidance we began working on the final report. This process began by uploading all of our GPS points onto the computer, creating shapefiles from them, and then using the data is Arc GIS to create comprehensive maps of the wetlands we found in GMNF. Our maps will indicate the type of wetland, its size, and location. We focused on relating the crucial data to the GMNF and creating outstanding maps for them to use in their management plans of the wilderness areas we surveyed.
Tuesday, July 26th
On Tuesday we began working on the report for our other GMNF project, the Informal Campsite Assessment project. This report followed a similar format as the Wetland Delineation project and required a lot of mapmaking, so we spent some more time using GIS. Abby Okoniewski and Raymond Waweru were the project leaders and helped us all stay on task. We also began our service projects for the GreenHouse. We had the pleasure of painting an Adirondack chair to be used as GreenHouse furniture, and were asked to varnish a large wooden table built by GreenHouse residents. It was a nice break for us to explore our creativity in the midst of report mania.
Wednesday, July 27th
Wednesday was a great day as we finished our last day of surveying for the Informal Campsite Assessment project. We went back out into the wilderness areas, split up into three groups, and surveyed one last batch of campsites. The weather was cool and sunny and we had an all around good day. We are all going to miss the Green Mountain National Forest.
Thursday, July 28th
Thursday we came back to the office to wrap up both of the GMNF reports and begin putting finishing touches on all of the summer’s projects. The Rockville Market Farm report met its last stages of editing and formatting, the Colloredo-Mansfeld Project neared completion, and the final maps for the Burlington Parks and Recreation project began to materialize. It’s hitting everyone that our time with LANDS is limited; it’s hard to believe that LANDS is almost over. We are all going to miss each other and this experience.
But in the face of an ending, we all began something new. It is time for our small team projects! Some groups began their STP’s on Thursday, meeting with community partners or beginning fieldwork. Tanya and Story are doing a survey of non-native invasive species for Lake Champlain Land Trust at the Zen Center property in Shelburne, VT. Isabel, Colin and Nick are working with the Stowe Land Trust and completing a wildlife habitat assessment of Kirchner Woods in Stowe, VT. Abby and Marisa are also working with Stowe Land Trust, but they are taking a different approach and surveying for non-native invasive species in Kirchner Woods. Lastly, Mollie and Ray are surveying for non-native invasive species for the Native Conservancy at Raven Ridge, which falls in between Monkton, Hinesburg and Charlotte, VT.Everyone is really excited to take ownership of a project and put into practice all of the skills we have learned this summer.
Friday, July 29th
Today we continued doing work for our small team projects. All of the groups took today to really get into our fieldwork, and we put in a full day of surveying and data collection. We are all leaving this weekend feeling good and looking forward to some R&R before LANDS’ final week begins on Monday!
Last week (week 6), we worked on a project with the US Forest Service mapping wetlands within the Green Mountain National Forest. It was full of bushwacking, wet boots, and plenty of herps! Overall, the wet boots were worth the chance to be in such unique ecosystems. We were lucky enough to have Jim Andrews, Vermont’s well-known herpetologist, come to educate us about what sort of creatures use the wetlands as habitat. Early in the week, finding a wetland was quite the task, involving weaving through the forest hoping to stumble upon saturated soils. As the week went on, it became much easier to find these spots. We learned to pay attention to the slope of the land, the proximity to water, and the way the plant communities change as you near a wetland.
This week (week 7) we finished our wetlands project and began a new project inventorying and assessing campsites in designated wilderness areas. Under the US Forest Service, we have been locating campsites and documenting their level of impact. So far, we have been mapping along the Appalachian/Long Trail near the Big Branch and Peru Peak Wilderness. This new project has been a pleasure, giving us the opportunity to be on trails and take in scenic views. No more bushwacking! We have also been stumbling upon some interesting items campers have left behind, including an entire tent! As the summer draws to an end, we are all looking forward to our final presentations when we will be presenting everything we have been working so hard to produce!
