Reflective assignment #2

Introduction: Almost nothing from my original project proposal is going as planned. But as we’ve come to learn, we should always expect plans and situations to change to some degree, and adjust accordingly by exercising adaptive management. Good news, there are valid reasons why I’m not where I thought I’d be at at this point and even better yet, the future looks bright.

Weekly Recap #8: July 2nd – 8th

This past week may have been my favorite so far this summer. In one week, from Friday June 29th to July 6th, I was able to participate in a variety of different activities including permanently tagging Oak Trees, counting Butterflies, sampling another prairie, seed collection, and banding Purple Martins. And that was all on a short week given the 4th of July Holiday!

Weekly Recap #7: June 25th – July 1st

This week I have more sampling analysis maps from the Lapinski-Kitze Prairie, a trail system map, and Oak tagging information to share. 

Weekly Recap #6: June 18th – June 24th

This week I’m excited to say I’ve finished analyzing data Mark and I collected while sampling Jill North on Thursday, June 14th. I’ve summarized the results of each of the two methodologies we’ve been considering, and I now enough enough information to choose which to use moving forward.

Weekly Recap #5: June 11th – 17th

I’ll try to keep things short and sweet this week. Good news is I’m continuing to make progress on all three of my main objectives for the summer, and I’m on the verge of answering a critical evaluation question.

In respect to my main objectives, I 1) am still busy with my ongoing work of mapping the trails and prairie perimeters throughout the property. 2) Ordered and have already received the supplies needed to permanently mark/tag the oaks and other herbaceous species of interest, as mentioned in week 3. And 3) Mark and I initiated quadrat sampling by completing our first round of it in the Jill North prairie. In doing so we tested both of the sampling methodologies we’ve been considering to date so that I may compare differences in the determined frequencies and species list.

Weekly Recap #4: June 4th – June 10th

This week was highlighted by the initiation of data collection For Goose Pond’s trail system, which also serves the dual purpose of completing the first step needed to conduct quadrat sampling which is due to start at the beginning of week 6.

Monday, June 4th: The first half of the this week was a continuation of my hunt for less-common species. On Monday, Mark guided me to area of the Lapinski-Kitze prairie where Wild Strawberry was planted a few years ago. According to mark this extent of the patch has been increasing in the years since its planting, and I marked its current perimeter so that we can continue to monitor its progress overtime.

Historically speaking, Wild Strawberry (top) was an extremely common prairie species. However, its extent is currently limited to a very small section of only one of our prairies (bottom)

Reflective Assignment #1

Introduction

My first four weeks at Goose Pond have been a tremendous learning experience. I’m still eagerly awaiting to get started with quadrat sampling but my activities to date have still been challenging and also quite rewarding. My official start date was May 15th, but prior to that I was able to join mark for a couple days in late April to finish the rest of this year’s controlled burns.

My first official activities during weeks 1 and 2 were to survey the 8 burned areas for Reed Canary Grass and Wild Parsnip. These invasive species are some of the first to grow following a burn and the one-two punch of burning and marking these surviving undesirables for management provides native prairie-flora with the best opportunity to thrive.

Weekly Recap #3: May 28th – June 3rd

This was somewhat of a short week for us due to the holiday weekend and rainy weather, but I still have a lot of great news to share.

Monday, May 28th: Day off for Memorial Day.

Tuesday, May 29th: In my first weekly recap I mentioned the presence of Wood Betony at Goose Pond. Wood Betony is a rare native-species valued for its ability to help sustain pollinators through the early flowering period and its tendency to promote biodiversity in areas that would otherwise be dominated by tall grasses.

Weekly Recap #2: May 21st – 27th

Monday, May 21st – Thursday, May 24th: Throughout week 2 I spent most of my time continuing to survey the rest of the of the recently burned prairie plots for Reed Canary Grass (RCG) and Wild Parsnip. I surveyed 8 different plots in total; Hopkins, Sue Ames, Manthe, Lapinski, Brown South, Jill N, Jill S, and Jill E.

RCG is an invasive that spreads rapidly and Wild Parsnip is potentially dangerous. Hence why I’m pinpointing areas for herbicide management by mapping out the size and locations of patches. In coming years future interns will also survey for these invasives and can monitor whether or not the total amount of these species are increasing, decreasing, or holding relatively steady.

Weekly Recap #1: May 14th-20th

My first week at Goose Pond has been hectic but also quite rewarding. In only a few days we banded American Kestrels, completed the rest of the burns for this season, went birding, collected data on Wild Parsnip, Reed Canary Grass (invasives), Prairie Dropseed, and Shooting Star (Natives), and I began organizing and analyzing my data with ArcGIS.

Tuesday: May 15th – My official start date