Elk Zone - 5/19

Last night I had this dream that the Emergency Response Team was an elite fighting force.  The Fellows were the generals or masterminds behind our tactics and guided our actions from HQ while the second years served as their eyes, ears, and voice out in the field.  On this particular day the whole team was sent on a suicide mission… and my group was the only one that survived.  Our squad consisted of four first years and a second year, Zoe was one of the first years but I cannot recall the other two.  Anyways, we scrambled to our evac site and set up a perimeter while Chelsea Catalano, our leader, made contact with HQ.  The tension was shattered by a couple of gun shots.  I turned around to locate the threat only to find Chelsea with a remorseful look on her face.  Hesitating for a moment, she turned the barrel of her gun toward me and fired.  I could hear the following shot that doomed Zoe, but I was too crippled by the shock to do anything about it.  After an agonizing couple of minutes everything went black.   

I don’t know how I collected this bit of information, but in my dream the ERT had some means of reincarnating its members.  That’s why the lights are always flickering in the warehouse of a basement we have; the power is being diverted to another chamber.  When we were brought back we had no memory of our previous mission—except this time when I came to I remembered everything.  Chelsea was there and I got the vibe that she was the one who allowed me to retain my thoughts.  For the rest of my dream I was inconsolable.  I was approached and debriefed about our next mission but I was being uncooperative when I actually woke up. 

Fun stuff!  Anyways, we’re back in the Elk Zone this week to continue where we left off.  Today was a little tricky as the nozzle on my sprayer was missing.  This malfunction resulted in the faulty piece of equipment shooting in the 4 directions of the compass.  It was kind of like a water sprinkler kids would love to play in… only, you know, potentially poisonous.  So I spent our shortened day dodging myself while attacking an infestation of Sericea.  I surprisingly came back to our housing without a drop on me.  Now to go enjoy some brinner.  Later all!

Elk Zone - 5/15

Alayna and I were spraying along Highway D when we came across a pair of very yappy dogs.  We thought nothing of it until one of them jumped through the wiring of its fence and charged at us.  I raised my free hand at the dog and yelled, “NO,” and it jumped back—silent.  The two of us stayed this way for a moment as each of us tried to get a read on the other, then we simultaneously eased our stances and it trotted over to us.  I’m not exactly sure what type of canine it was, but it did have the tip of its left ear bent, just like my dog over in Chicago.  She was a very friendly dog, but I think I heard that it is frowned upon for us to play with animals when serving as the tools we use and the places we go could put them at risk.  Well, Alayna acted during my inner conflict and gave her a couple of good scratches and you could tell by her eyes that she loved every second of it.   

Anyways, we called it early due to a thunderstorm that snuck up on us.  Once we returned to our housing we found that the “birders” had moved it.  Now we have a crew of mammal technicians, HERPS (the reptile crew), botanists, birders, and ourselves.  One of the researchers made the remark that I look like someone from North Carolina and that she figured I was from around the Ashville area.  Not a bad guess for someone I just met!  But yeah, things have gotten pretty crazy around here.  Surprisingly most of the groups stick to their clicks, but now that we helped out the mammal and reptile crews we are beginning to mingle a bit.  Tonight, for instance, we sat down and watched an episode of Firefly with a couple of them. 

We’ll see how things go in the weeks to come as I believe everybody is going to be here the next 2 weeks.  I’m excited as I heard a couple of the birders making comments about the gaming systems.  Anyone who likes a good game or Firefly gets pretty high marks in my book.  Night all.  Until next week!

Elk Zone - 5/14

I kind of got lost in the woods today.  I was in charge of traps C12 to C1 and when I made it to the latter I realized I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next.  I looked around and when I didn’t see anyone I decided to follow my ears instead of my eyes.  The voices were coming from up the hill so I headed in that direction.  Not a person in sight.  I listened again and this time the voices were coming from my right, so I adjusted my path accordingly and picked up my pace as they were barely audible.  After a couple of minutes the forest was silent and I realized two things.  First, that the area I now stood in was completely unfamiliar and second, that I had neglected to note any landmarks on the way.  Trying to utilize my resources I picked up my phone to call one of my teammates.  No service.  Instead, I yelled out and waited for a response.  No such luck.  After a brief moment of panic, I settled down and recalled what I could of how I got to where I was.  I started off going up a hill (the same hill I was currently on) and then took various turns to the right.  Logically, if I headed left I should hit the grid. It was a longshot as my colorblindness made locating the flagging difficult, but it was my best chance.  I’d say I trekked back a good 10 minutes, yelling as I did so until I made contact with my crew.  Crisis averted!  I wonder whose or what’s voice I was following… it is like something out of one of those Grimm fairy-tales.  Things to ponder I suppose!

We did one more grid after my little debacle and found three mice!  I found the first one in A5, which was a big deal since yesterday we found nadda.  The other two were found shortly thereafter.  Mandy, our mammal technician, tagged them and got the notes she needed for her report about their general well-being before sending the mice on their way.  It was a good day.  Afterward we returned to our housing and helped her make more bait since a dastardly raccoon was eating most of what we had left out the night before.    

That almost sums up our day!  The last tidbit is that I think I have acquired a fan.  Our crew and another AmeriCorps Team met up for dinner at a local pizza place and I got to conversing with a teen there.  He was extremely interested in our program and the disaster relief aspect of our work.  When it was time for us to go he rushed out and thanked us for all that we do and Andy gave him the web address to our site in case he wanted to look up more information about our program

When we returned to our housing I felt like a hero—more importantly, I felt like what I am doing matters.  Even if we are doing Nature Conservation presently we are constantly on alert and prepared to head out to respond to disasters at a moment’s notice.  I admit I slacked a bit this week unintentionally in terms of packing supplies, but my conversation with the youth has reinvigorated me to stay on my A game.

Good night for now friends.

Elk Zone - 5/13

There was far too much rain for us to go about spraying chemicals; lucky for us some of the researchers we’re housed with needed a hand.  They are studying the effects of logging on small mammals and have set up a number of traps in different forests to catch them for observation.  I’m not exactly sure what they will do once we catch them as today my group went through over 200 traps and didn’t find a single mammal, but we will hopefully find out tomorrow!  Forecasts are saying we have another rainy day in store for us so in all likelihood we will be helping our new friends again.  I just have to say I am excited about all this rain because it has kept away all the ticks and other nagging insects.  To give you an idea of how bad they are here I was outside a grand total of 20 minutes (on a dirt road) and I somehow acquired a carry-on.  Our fellow residents are saying that on a good day they come back with a parasite number in the low teens, sooo you won’t hear me complaining if the weather continues its present course!   

Despite having a shorter day of service I am beat.  We sat down and watched that Guardian movie with the researchers we helped once we got back—it’s the one that involves owls.  That was fun.  They are all very caring and energetic folk.  I think we are going to all get along splendidly.  Talk to you all later!

Elk Zone - 5/12

Another week, another team; this time I am a member of Team Purple and we are being sent to the Elk Zone!  We’re picking up where we had left off last week only instead of combating invasives along Interstate 55 we are doing so near the town of Ellington.  Knapweed and a couple of new threats are creeping in on Peck Ranch and we have been sent over to halt their progress.  The idea is to create a huge ring around the conservation area using the roadways and then buffering the protected area as time permits.  This will require hundreds of miles of effort so it is unlikely we will be finishing this project any time soon, but it is exciting that MDC has recognized our efforts and is utilizing us for this important mission.

Our current location is over 3 hours away from HQ so aside from a couple of meetings with our new contacts we had little time to begin our operations.  As for our housing, it is another research facility similar to the one they had us staying at in Peck Ranch.  No laundry here, but there is internet and even a bit of cell phone service.  Oh, and there is a large collection of Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, an awesome movie selection, and more space—so overall I think we got the better deal! 

Hope you are all doing well, I’m going to call it as we have a crazy early start tomorrow.  Good night!

St. Genevieve - 5/9

There was a fire fight!  I was working on a UTV crew when we were running low on chemical.  So, rather than using the boom sprayers on the back we utilized the gun to more selectively hit our targets.  It was like being thrown into a battalion of storm troopers and having to shoot my way out.  Thanks to some timely warnings from my teammates in the vehicle, I was able to successfully take out all of our opponents without suffering so much as a scratch. 

With a thunderstorm coming out of nowhere we had to high tail it out of there.  The rest of the day consisted of packing out and heading back to St. Louis.  Going to go get cleaned up and see what the weekend has in store.  Later all!

St. Genevieve - 5/8

I am going to have the worst farmer’s tan ever.  Ordinarily we are supposed to be covered from head to toe to protect ourselves from the chemicals, but the heat has been complicating things.  So, some of us have decided to risk some exposure in order to ventilate.  Herbicide scares me, but I figure wearing a T-shirt lowers the chance of me experiencing heat exhaustion and slightly elevates the odds of me getting some blue on me, so it is a fair trade.  My arms are already feeling a bit tender and it has only been 1 day!  Maybe they will put me on another project next week—one where I can go around shirtless.  Wishful thinking, I know.  That goes against all sorts of safety protocols. 

Anyways, we encountered some gigantic infestations of Teasel today!  We depleted our 50 gallon tank on our UTV and then some.  While we didn’t complete a portion of the interstate that we were hoping to, our team has done 14 miles of Teasel eradication along the highway in this week alone—28 if you count both sides of the road separately.  Taking into account the width of the right-of-ways (up to 80 yards), the difficult terrain, and the wildlife we have to mess with (live and dead), I’d say we’re doing pretty well!

I fell asleep on the ride back to Creole Housing and I have not been able to shake the tiredness from my bones since.  Maybe I do need sleep.  Huh.  Well off to bed I go.  Until next time friends!