Technician Tales | July 2024

        The month of July was a great one for me at UPRC&D, I was able to mix things up quite a bit and not spend as much time planting grass plugs in the Hiawatha National Forest. Instead I was able to do more work with our partners like Three Shores CISMA, and the MDNR.

        My first new project I did was travel to Grand Marais, MI with Three Shores CISMA to assist Lake to Lake CISMA, Alger Conservation District, and the National Park Service remove spotted knapweed and Baby’s Breath from the Lake Superior Sand Dunes. I had never been to Grand Marais so this was an amazing experience. The weather was perfect too: Sunny, 68 degrees, and a nice Lake Superior wind to keep us cool. By the end of the day, we had filled 33 contractor bags with Spotted Knapweed and Baby’s Breath. Pictured above is all those who helped and pictured below is spotted knapweed and the view we got to enjoy all day.

The highlight of July was being able to spend 3 days working on Drummond Island! Day one was removing European Frog-bit with Sault Tribe, Three Shores CISMA, and The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service at Harbor Island National Wildlife Refuge. It was a hot day but Harbor Island provided unique untouched natural scenery that is few and far between nowadays. Pictured below, you can see Lizzy, with Three Shores, and I removing Frog-bit.

The coolest part of the trip by far was the two day long surveying we did for invasive species on the Alvar Maxton Plains. Alvar is a unique ecosystem that has a layer of limestone bedrock with little to no soil on top. The Alvar on Drummond Island is actually the biggest Alvar ecosystem in the world! This project was actually a MDNR/Three Shores CISMA project so Nick Cassel and I represented UPRC&D as assisting partners; The Nature Conservancy assisted with the efforts as well. For two days, we broke up into groups of 4-5 people and walked and recorded all invasive species we found. Many of the invasives found were St. John’s Worts, Spotted Knapweed, and Grand Mullein. Pictured below are those who helped survey, and me with a massive Mullein plant.

The next big project I worked on was planting 1000 native wildflowers in the west Hiawatha National Forest. This was a big task because I only had 3 days but I had to travel for half the day on day 1 and day 2 so it was more like 2 days. However, I was able to get it all done before noon on day 3, so I was rolling! It was gloomy weather mostly the whole time, except on the drive home which can be seen below.

      

        Last thing I did for the month of July was wrap up the grass plantings at the Rifle Range for the season. For July, I was able to establish 2000+ grasses, the hardest part was doing 1800 in one week but thanks to Three Shores CISMA for coming to help me out and really pulled through!

July has been an exciting month of new experiences and new opportunities. I am grateful for the people I have met, the places I’ve gotten to see, and the work I was able to do. Next month will be my last month with UPRC&D but I am confident that it will be as fulfilling and exciting as the others.