We are almost at the end of our journey! Checking our traps for the final time, we realize once again that out of the five that are closed, all are empty. A few other teams were still catching new red-backed voles, mostly in the clear-cut area.
Chris and Christina inform us that there will be no Deer Pellet Inventories today (oh, shucks!) but I will learn how to do a "Botanical Survey" under the direction of Christina and five other team members who are already experts. Cheryl scribed the results as the rest of us identified and counted the trees in 1o meter x 10 meter areas (just like in the DPIs.) The types of trees we found are birch, maple, service berry, various spruce species and white pine. It was enjoyable activity and we returned to base camp after surveying seven areas in the same woods in which we had been trapping.
When we got back to base, the gazebo was gone! The other members of the team had broken down the camp as we were completing the surveys. So we enjoyed our last picnic lunch and admired the work of other team members (like Bob and Carol) who were up in the trees installing bat boxes constructed by the team that had worked this site before us.
The final activity was Survival Training, taught by Chris (Dr. Newman) as Christina (Dr. Buesching) secured the rest of the site. During this training we learned about the four main survival points called PLAN: 1. Protection, moving way from danger and guarding yourself from the elements, 2. Location, figuring out where you are and where you can find help, 3. Acquisition, finding water and food sources you need for survival, and 4. Navigation, moving towards civilization with the sun as your guide.
After Chris demonstrated how to build a tree trap (very cool!) he showed us a device that can be used to make a fire. Several of us took a turn at it to see if we could create the smoke needed to make a fire. It seems I need a bit more practice, but it was certainly fun trying!
Another full day's work, and a very productive one at that. It was time to pack up the pickup and the Earthwatch bus for the drive back to Cherry Hill--but not before Jen took a team photograph--it took awhile but was well worth it!
3 comments:
Hey Ms. Andrews,
I'm one of the 8F people, I just read through ALL of your blog posts and saw the pictures. It is really amazing to think that you are actually doing all of this and still finding time to post... and sleep.
So my main question is, when you come back to Lincoln, besides not being with us kids... What do you think you will miss most?
Finally, what do you think is something you learned that is so amazing you know you will never forget it... the entire experience is too broad of an answer.
Melissa
aaaaa
my sentiments exactly. But I'm not quite done yet. Check back on Monday.
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