Week 3

On Tuesday, the weather was finally nice enough for me to hike Mahnomen Trail. It's been raining a lot lately, but I think it's slowing down for the summer. Mahnomen Trail is a 3-mile hike through prairie and oak savanna habitats on the refuge. 

"Mahnomen" is the Ojibwa (a native american people) word for "wild rice"!

I was going to get a map before I started my hike, but then  I thought, hmmm, better not!

Mahnomen Trail

I saw some interesting flora and fauna on the trail! I was about 10 yards away from a deer at one point. I also saw a ton of chipmunks and song birds, as well as some insects (dragonflies and gnats abounded!) and a good variety of plants.

Lupine

Bull Snake!

I stumbled upon this little guy at the very end of my hike. Honestly, I almost stepped on him - I was only about a yard away when I noticed him in the path. Snakes are common on Mahnomen Trail because there is a hibernaculum (a group hibernation chamber, like a winter-long sleepover!) there. It was awesome! Another one slithered right in front of me when I was mapping leafy spurge near headquarters later in the day.

Seed Collector Meeting

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to sit in on Sherburne's annual Seed Collector Meeting. The Seed Collector program is a very valuable initiative for Sherburne. There are a ton of diverse seeds on refuge lands; basically, collecting some seeds each summer saves the refuge from having to go out and buy seed when it's needed in the future. The entire program is run by volunteers, who are gathered for an orientation (or re-orientation) every year right before the peak collecting time begins.

On Thursday, I went to an educational workshop in Elk River focused on using the outdoors as a classroom. It was really informative, and actually peaked my interest in environmental education as a future career path!

Nature Explore Center

An Excerpt from a child's Nature Journal

The second half of the workshop was held on refuge grounds. We gathered on the Oak Savanna Trail on Wildlife Drive to employ some of the observational techniques we'd learned about that morning. 

Replica Eagle Nest

There were some good finds on the Oak Savanna Trail!

Warbler Nest

 Garter Snake

Today I started my summer's main project: mapping phragmites. Phragmites, also known as common reed, has an invasive strain (Type M) that is becoming increasingly prolific on the refuge. In order to  develop a plan on how to effectively manage the phragmites on the refuge, we first have to know where it is has spread to. That's where I come in!

Nomad Trimble (GIS Unit)

I'm mapping phragmites using GIS technology, which was completely foreign to me prior to this internship. It took me a couple of days to get the hang of it, but I know enough now to do what I need to do. There are a bunch of capabilities that I haven't explored yet!

The going was pretty rough at times. Phragmites is a wetland species, so I was effectively walking through marsh/swamp to get to the plots I needed to map. This was only my second time in waders, and I definitely put them to good use. I quickly got a more realistic concept of the phrase "off the beaten path"; blazing my own trail was a lot more intense than I'd anticipated. Finding  solid footing wasn't a luxury I always had; I lost count of the number of times I slipped, slid, and generally got stuck (sometimes up to my thighs) in the mud. Slowly but surely, however, I began navigating the wetland more efficiently. I became better at spotting where to step, and found myself moving with more confidence as the day wore on. I'm nowhere near walking on water, but I'm improving!

As always on the refuge, this expedition was a good opportunity to spot wildlife! In addition to the photos below, there were  tons  of spiders and red-winged black birds.

Water Strider

Frog

Turtle Shell

Bird Nest (look closely!)