Hey Flog, just one more person saying bye! What an awesome experience I had on Team Echinacea this summer. I appreciated the community and learned a lot from the age and experience range of the team. I learned a lot of new skills, from assessing flowering phenology to using a survey-grade GPS to conducting an independent project to becoming familiar with new plant species! The age stratification of the team also got me thinking about both learning from people and being someone others could learn from. With such a variety of work this summer I was never bored, often felt challenged by the responsibilities I was trusted with, and got to enjoy the company of an awesome group of people.
I enjoyed one last day of demo with Mia and Anna 🙂Living at Andes was great, especially because Lea and Mia were two awesome housemates. Hoping the ATH team compensates me for use of this publicity photo.I got shocked by electric fences twice this summer. Glad this goat (or a similar-looking friend) got to share one of those moments with meNot grass corner this week but the last species I made a visor record for on my project (Symphyotrichum laeve), plus a flying BombusAww! Sharing a special moment with my sister when she visited. It’s fun when you have people to share it with!
The next few weeks I’ll be thinking of Mia and Drake as they wrap up harvest and the field season! See you next time!
Yesterday was my last day with Team Echinacea. I’m sad to say goodbye so soon, but my Junior year of high school is calling me. I had an amazing summer with the team, and I learned so much about plants and the prairie in a unique experience I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.
It wasn’t just my last day yesterday, but also Lea, John, and Emma’s. We wrapped up our time together with one last goat-herding excursion, some packing, and a little bit of demo before our early lunch.
At lunch, we had some delicious vegan chocolate cake (Thank you Jean for all the cakes you’ve made us this summer!) and sat in our 2020 grass-circle for the last time. John and Lea’s puppy pals came to visit too! I’m going to miss our little spot under the oak trees, but I won’t miss the constant fear of acorn-pelting…
Who’s a good boy? Clyde’s a good boy!Huxley and Velmie came to visit too!
In the afternoon, Emma, Mia and I went out to Hegg Lake/P2 to shoot demo on some recruitment sites. I got some quality time with Darwin in the car while we drove, and Emma was able to shoot one final site with him. I think it was a pretty sentimental experience for the both of us.
MYSTERY DOGS!! These guys were hanging out on the side of the road as we drove by… we thought they were coyotes, but we were pleasantly surprised!“don’t speak to me or my son ever again” Just kidding! Darwin and I are very social
At the end of the day, we cleaned up Hjelm as much as we could, returned our equipment, and said the final good-byes for the summer. I’m going to miss Team Echinacea as Fall and Winter come, but I’m hoping to visit again next summer. Thank you to all the people who helped me grow as a scientist and student. I wouldn’t exchange this summer for anything, and I’m grateful we were given the chance to come together in 2020.
Today the loud lumbering noises came back, it has been a while since they last visited but the day lengths seem similar to last time. The noises got louder when they found me, I guess that means that they were excited to see me again. I wonder if they know that I look forward to their visit every year.
This has been a big year for me I worked really hard and I grew two whole leaves! The longest one is all of seven whole centimeters! My parent plant would be so proud of me! Speaking of the good old ‘rent, I haven’t heard from them in a while. I miss them but I am excited to strike out on my own, I hope that I can flower some day and make them proud.
Anyway, today was a good day since the loud lumbering noises came for their visit and I look forward for when they come and visit again. But for now, I have to go back to getting ready for the cold. I am keeping busy making sure all of my sugars are packed away and ready for midnight snacking.
Sincerely,
M
The Tart Plum Plum Tart is ready for Mary Berry’s approval
Today Emma and I did some sling in the morning when we visited this seeding M. Lea did her last field work of the year this morning! During lunch Drake brought his Tart Plum Plum Tart, to share! It was very good, and we all appreciated the time that picking all of the plums took. In the afternoon Emma and I set off to do some of the little demo left. I got some practice at operating Darwin. Operating Darwin is a bit trickery than I was expecting but with a good teacher like Emma I picked it up fairly quickly.
Me attempting to get the GPS in the exact right spot….
Sporobolus heterolepis, or prairie dropseed. I included some Sporobolus seedheads in my independent project sampling this morning at Staffanson, and I appreciated seeing a grass that I hadn’t much since last summer. Last summer I learned that S. heterolepis provides good habitat for the endangered Dakota Skipper butterfly, along with other mid-height grasses like Schizachyrium scoparium (heart eyes). It grows in bunches, has many long, thin leaves, and has nice airy seedheads. I’m glad I got to reacquaint myself with an old friend on the prairie! Staffanson is always good for that, and for introducing me to new ones.
I was having some GPS troubles yesterday and this morning, but it turns out it was operator error (to borrow a phrase from my high school ski coach), and I owe it to Lea for helping me figure out what I was doing wrong. Now that I know I need to make sure the GPS is set up to read Ax and Ly coordinates in the same order as they’re set up in my stake file, I don’t think I’ll make that mistake again. Frustrating but a lesson learned and I’m glad there are people willing to help.
After a good morning working on my project, I hung out with John in P1 to harvest some more heads. We had a good time I thought, and we saw a pretty wild looking bug that I did not recognize!! Since I’m not taking an entomology class this fall I don’t know if I ever will…this is going to bother me, I can tell. The tall Sorghastrum nutans grass in P1 was swaying in the wind, creating an effect similar to seasickness as I walked through it. P1 harvest round 2 is almost done, but I couldn’t help thinking about Mia taking it on again next week, possibly solo…
All in all it was a pretty good Monday; it was nice that Stuart was back and shout out to Anna M. for passing her drivers test today!
Monarch on a Liatris aspera (rough blazing star) at RKW, a small site near Kensington that I did demo at on Friday! Getting to the site involved threading the needle between a pond and a patch of trees but it was worth it for all the cool things I saw back there (including the biggest patch of Schiz I’ve ever seen!).Made me think of the Grass Sea the Dothraki ride in from Game of Thrones 🙂The view from Yellow Orchid Hill on Friday––how about that red hill of Sorgh!
It’s my zen moment of the day, my flog update. This week has been tiring, to be honest. The GPS is back up and running, which has been a huge positive, since it’s important for Sling, demo, and my project. I had a good time starting to train Mia in on demo, she will be a pro in no time. Mia, Anna, and I visited some “obscure” sites for the demo training trip this week, including No Tag/No Pla City aka Randt, and the recruit sites near Kensington. I hope I have enough time to go back to Kensington Recruit-W before I leave––it looks like rainboots and some bushwhacking will be necessary but I relish the idea!
Besides that, I’ve been glad to spend some time on my independent project this week. I have about 20 more sling circles with surviving seedlings to survey this week, and my work will be cut out for me next week to finish data collection on the “seedlings dead” half of my sample. I’m collecting microhabitat data, including plant community composition and flowering plant community, within a 1-m radius of sling circles to see if there are differences in microhabitat between sling circles with living and dead seedlings. I’ve learned a lot of new plants that I’ve seen flowering, which is rewarding to me! Jared introduced me to some asters when he was here a few weeks ago, Symphyotrichum ericoides and laeve. I’ve also worked on learning the ins and outs of a rogue’s gallery of goldenrods, including Solidago rigida, canadensis, nemoralis, and speciosa. It’s great to be adding on to the plant species knowledge I gained last summer!
The Hegg restoration’s tallest compass plant! And its tallest GPSThe trek into Staffanson West unit really took it out of me but it was so worth it! So diverse it looks like photoshopOne of the rogues––Solidago speciosa. I like its upright flower stalksLea’s favorite––silky aster!Downy gentian, Gentiana puberulenta. I was taken aback (in a good way) by its bright color! Thanks for the show, Staffanson
The team is starting to wrap up our season as we say goodbye to more members. We’re sad to see them go, but our remaining group has continued to power through- business as usual!
Emma, Mia and I started the day off with demo in some sites previously untouched by the 2020 team. First, we went to Hegg Lake, where I harvested some Echinacea pallida as well as Echinacea angustifolia, the last field-work step of our hybrid experiment (Stay tuned for an update on that in the coming weeks!). Emma and Mia practiced demo in some smaller sites so that Mia is trained in on Darwin, or “Chucky D”, when Emma and I leave.
Mia and “Chucky D”, or Darwin, as we affectionately call our GPS!
Photo opportunities call for action! I think this one was pretty successful. Thanks Emma for the help with this one!
In the afternoon, Emma headed off to do some more work on sling, while Mia and I harvested heads. Emma not only managed to finish the sites she planned, but also went on to tackle Staffanson! Big sites like that are hard to manage, especially on your own. Go Emma!
Mia and I continued to pick away at P1 harvesting. We got a good portion done, and plan on finishing it in the coming week. I also took some pictures of plants in different stages to improve our protocol, which will help newcomers and oldtimers in the following years.
It’s important to hydrate during field work! (Not sponsored… but Hydro Flask- if you’re looking for someone…)
Overall, our small team turned out to be pretty successful! We were productive, pushed through, and made it out alive. Here’s another success story for the books- or, maybe just the flog.
Today Amy D. came up from the cites to help kick off sling refinds!
I had never done sling before, but I thought it was pretty cool. It’s kind of like if measuring and demo had a kid, because you have to measure all of the seedlings but also still find nearest neighbor. We were able to finish three sites today, East elk lake road, KJ’s, and south of golf course!
Amy D. and I on the hunt for seedlings!
This afternoon we worked on some p1 harvest as a team and Emma went off to work on her independent project.
It was a hot one out here today but we all made it out alive and are ready to get some more stuff done tomorrow!
Sadly today was my last day. We started off the day by moving the goats, which was really fun. Then we keeping going on rechecks in P1, and ending the day with cutting big blue stem.
I had a wonderful summer and I wouldn’t change it at all! I have always said my dream job is where I could wear rain boats and fun hats and in thing job I could. I am so thankful for all the people I met and all the experiences I got to have.
I don’t know what I will miss more, the people or my cone?
My coworkers know that P2 has held a special place for me and that sometimes they may find me staring off into the vastness of it. P2 currently being harvested and most flowering plants were decapitated, but some are still left but not for long. I sometimes daydream in P2 that its a couple hundred years ago and i am just a visitor passing through West Central MN and all i see is acre after acre of prairie. But P10, located at West Central Area Schools with its observation tower where i have spent dark evenings with my Astronomy Class is also special for me. And now P10 with its Echinacea angustifolia plots and plants flourishing in their first full growing season, it may have taken the edge over P2. We’ve been able to check to see how many plants have made it through year one and it’s at about 2/3s. Hopefully those plots can provide many years of students using the plots to collect data and learn to appreciate the prairie.
Abby VK (Echinacea Project alumni from 2015 and 2016 helps 2020 team member John VK measure P10. Abby stated “i was on the A Team for measuring plots and flower phenology back in my days, along with Will and Amy.”
This morning was spent doing P1 rechecks and Emma had 3 search and finds in a row, remarkable. The afternoon had team members help Leah collecting seeds from predetermined plots at Aanenson and East of Town Hall.
Anna, on East of Town Hall balance beam fence, just prior to her double tuck backflip dismount. Incredible.
This is my first weekend Flog—so it’s a good thing I did something kind of interesting this weekend! After work on Friday I drove out of the storm and into the sunny and windy far western Minnesota evening. I camped for the weekend at Big Stone Lake State Park, right on the MN-SD border. The lake makes up part of the curve of that bump that sticks out of the central west edge of the state, and I could see South Dakota from my campsite.
It doesn’t beat the Boundary Waters but it was a nice change of pace for the weekend. I enjoyed spending time by myself, reading, running a little, and exploring the state park some. The park’s north unit, the “Bonanza area” (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, anyone?), has some prairie restorations on dry, gravelly hills, and some treed areas near the lake. Not to sound like late-1700s Quaker explorer and botanist William Bartram, but I saw about 40 leopard frogs on one beach and estimated a frog density of 10 per square meter at some parts in the woods! The best thing I saw in the woods there was a spring/groundwater seep with clear, cold water coming out and running in a little stream to the lake. The spring and streambeds were full of reddish buildup, indicating the presence of iron-oxidizing bacteria, just like I learned about in a paleobiology class a few years ago! Sadly, the clear spring water was too good for the green, nutrient-loaded Big Stone Lake.
Some of the prairie-type areas I saw had lots of native grasses and plants, while others were more weedy, invaded by brome, woody plants, and some thistles—including one plant that towered over my head, yikes! I have always rolled my eyes at the Aldo Leopoldo quote about the ecologist seeing “a world of wounds,” thinking that I still appreciated invaded areas as preferable to concrete, but to my dismay this trip I found myself looking with a disappointed eye at the less healthy and diverse prairie sites I saw. This was probably bound to happen at some point the more time I spend in prairie ecosystems and thinking about their health and vigor, but I did not think I was going to become that person! I guess it’s a good reminder that opinions aren’t set in stone and to make space for yourself and others to learn and change!
I did learn from a knowledgeable woman who worked for the park that the mass of aquatic plant matter by the swimming beach was made up of mostly native species, so that’s something anyway.
Iron spring––note the red buildup!Nice evening at the campsite. I finished my book!
