That's Pretty Neat!: April 2018

Monday, April 30, 2018

Building New Trails For Me!

This weekend I had the opportunity to get out and volunteer on a trail building adventure with REI, Idaho Conservation Corps, and the Treasure Valley Land Trust. We built about a quarter mile of new trail in the Boise Foothills and it turned out great! I've been wanting to get trail building and trail maintenance experience for a long time now, so of course I jumped at this opportunity. I had such a fun time and I'll definitely be looking into volunteering with some more similar projects whenever I can!
How Neat Is That?!

Visiting Home For Me!

I recently got back from a trip home to Florida! It was nice to be home and spend time with my family. I got to spend some time at the beach (which I miss terribly), I took my siblings on a fossiling adventure to South Florida and I got to see my little sister compete at her Regional meet!
I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go home for as long as I did. Not too much longer until my AmeriCorps term is up and I'll get to see my family again! :)

How Neat Is That?!

Monday, April 9, 2018

Visiting My Zombie Deer Horde For America! And Also For Me!!

A coyote has been eatin New Deer's butt!

So, it has been about nine weeks since I first started my weekly visits with LaFawnduh to photo document her decomposition. Since the first week, I have accumulated four more deer, two of which are skeletons and have since been claimed by the rising waters of Lake Lowell, leaving me with just three deer friends to visit each week.

Now that spring has finally graced us with its presence, decomposition is really kicking into gear! My weekly visits initially didn't show much change in terms of their appearance, but now its starting to get pretty drastic from week to week!
My primary focus is on LaFawnduh, as she is my main squeeze and we've been in it together the longest, but New Deer has also been an interesting subject in just the short two weeks since she joined the herd. New Deer is hidden away near the water closer to the Visitor Center so that we can take kids to see her when they are here for a field trip! She has changed the most in the shortest time though as a coyote has found her and started chowing down!

How Neat Is That?!

LaFawnduh wk 2

LaFawnduh wk 9

Leading Watershed Detectives For America!

Day 1 at the pond

Day 1 at the lake

Last week we had our first round of field trips for out SEEDS7: Watershed Detectives partnership. The 7th graders from one of the schools we have been working with all year came out to the Refuge for an entire day of fun and learning! I ran the Abiotic station, so I facilitated several water quality tests that the students ran on their own. I explained how to run each test, questioned them as to why each test is important (they learned all of these things during our four visits to their classroom earlier in the year), and then they were able to run the test themselves and record their data for reporting later. They tested turbidity, temperature, pH, phosphate levels, and DO (dissolved oxygen) [being that this test involves breaking glass, I ran the test and they each got the chance to read the results].

While at the refuge, students also got to sample and identify macro-invertebrates, play a macro-invertebrate based game, and participate in a nature scavenger hunt along the trails. Out of around 236 students, I only had one kid drink the water (despite my constantly telling them not to do that), so I'd say that round one of SEEDS7 field trips was a definite success!

How Neat Is That?!