A Summer At Grove

Raystown Wildlife  Northern Box Turtle: Currently In Nesting Season, super active on roads and in nesting areas Black Rat Snake: Super Chill, Eats Dead animals, keeps copperheads away Walleye: lots of eggs found in the project that Autumn and Andrew Garman did on fish structures recently put in by the Corps Due to the drought that lasted about 2 weeks long, there has been an increase in snake sightings as well as other wildlife being spotted around campsites. There have been a lot of campers and visitors that call in saying that there is a copperhead at their site and they try to kill it. All of the snake calls we have responded to have been black rat snakes, and Northern water snakes. Both are harmless and non venomous. I want to take a second to educate those on the difference between copperheads and Northern water snakes.  Water snakes light patches have a slight Hershey kiss shaped skin. Fully grown water snakes are bigger/thicker than a fully grown copperhead. Pictur...

Water Safety Training During this week, I continued to identify phytoplankton, my chlorophyll a concentrations did not come out how I wanted them to, so now I have to go back out and recollect. It has been quite difficult to find someone to come out on the boat with me since I am not allowed to go out by myself. Now we are allowed to patrol by ourselves now and I was put on Tatman Run and Nancy's Camp for the week days. I took that opportunity to teach some of the beach users about water safety. It is really important that we educate the younger generation and have these constructive conversations. Not only does it teach them how important being safe while swimming, but it teaches them to have a good relationship with law enforcement officers.  After sampling on Tuesday with Autumn, we went to find a black snake for the Fish and Boat Commission education programs. 

 Identifying and Protecting the Project  While all of my identification and data collection is going on, I am working at the Army Corps of Engineers as a Park Ranger. Around this time, we have completed all of our training and are starting to go out and patrol in groups of two. Though most of my job is law enforcement, my favorite part of the job is being able to have meaningful connections with regular campers and learning about the history of the lake. This job feels like everything I've always wanted to do rolled up into one position, education, safety, research, and great superiors who are supportive and patient with all of us new-timers.  I am continuing to identify plankton from our first round of sampling. 

  First Day Out Autumn and I went out on the boat on Tuesday and were able to, surprisingly get all 10 samples within a day's time. This is a huge accomplishment and now we can spend the rest of our weekend identifying.  In the Lab I greatly underestimated the amount of phytoplankton that there is in the lake. I spent about 4 hours identifying and recording around 54 different kinds of phytoplankton. It was immensely exciting to finally see my project under a microscope. In the upper half of the circle (photo above), you can see the larger shadow figures, those are zooplankton. I was ecstatic to finally see my phytoplankton and be able to start this project I have been planning for months. 

              First Day Experiments Dr. Merovich, Autumn Holdsworth and I went out on the boat and went to a couple of our sample sites to go over methods and proper ways of setting up our project for the Summer and the rest of the year. We decided to do sampling for the seasons; during the late Spring, early Summer, late Summer, early fall, and late fall. I reviewed how to work all of the equipment and ensured that I had all of the necessary materials needed for our first sampling day that next week.  In the Lab I was very excited to organize my space, label, and make sure I have a list of everything that is needed to complete this project this summer.