The aftermath of yesterday’s storm. Trees were down everywhere, and huge patches of corn in all of the fields were just flattened.

 
  Pygmy goats!

The coolest caterpillar I have ever seen. Sorry for the crappy photo, I don’t know how to or if I can take close-ups on my camera. It had a red spike on its butt. And the extra weird thing was that it was eating leafy spurge, which is toxic to most things that eat it. Curious.  Cows passing through our plot as we were working. The first few in line sniffed our flags, then the next ones started to get more and more scared of the flags until they were running and jumping over them. Silly cows.

I arrived last night in Sioux City, Iowa, not to be confused with Sioux Falls, SD, which we did, resulting in a 30-40 mile detour. Today was our first day of field work at the first of four sites we will be working in, Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve.

The project we are working on is looking at the effects of a biological control for leafy spurge. Leafy spurge is a non-native invasive species in tall grass prairies, very bad for many reasons. Herbicide used to be the main way of combating leafy spurge, but those chemicals have some pretty serious environmental ramifications. Many places are now using beetles that eat leafy spurge as a control method. This project is trying to find out how effective the beetles have been in reducing the amounts of leafy spurge, and how the rest of the plant community is responding.

In a nutshell, we have to locate the plots, measure out 6 radii from the center point at 60 degree intervals, and then find 3 rectangular quadrats along each one. Then I count all the leafy spurge plants in each quadrat, and Lane, the super smart botanist heading up this project, identifies all of the plants in each quadrat.

I had been told how it was going to be unbelievably hot and dry the entire time, and most likely even worse than usual because the whole region is in a serious drought. So imagine our surprise when we had sporadic rain showers this morning! It did get a little toasty after that, but then the clouds started to return. Lane finished her part of the last plot of the day, and I was trying hard to finish my part when I noticed a pretty big, pretty dark, and pretty weird looking cloud mass approaching. I kept pressing on, but Lane suddenly called to me and said we should probably head for the car. No sooner had she finished her sentence than rain started coming down.

We got everything loaded and got in, debating whether we should wait it out. And then the wind, thunder and lightning started. We decided that being on top of a ridge was probably not the best place to be, so we headed for lower ground. The wind got crazier and crazier, trees were getting whipped around, and we were afraid we were either going to get hit by one or that the van we were in would get blown over. There was no good place for us to be in the van, and all signs were pointing to tornado, so we bailed and ran for the ditch. Rain was pelting down and the wind was whipping from all directions. We crawled sideways through the ditch until we got to a position that was further from both the van and the trees, laid flat and held on to whatever grass and shrubs we could. It. was. crazy. We could just barely hear a siren going off somewhere in the distance. We waited there, shivering hard in the pouring rain, for what seemed like a long freaking time. Finally the lightning seemed to be getting a little further away and the wind died down a little, so we crawled out of the ditch and were sooo happy to see the van still there!

We got back to our hotel and tried to turn the heat on, but it smelled like burning and set the fire alarm off. Luckily, hot showers and pizza did the trick. Now we just finished watching "Storm Stories" on the Weather Channel, and we suddenly feel like maybe our little adventure wasn’t so bad. Still, as far as first days go it was kind of a doozy!

So I thought I would share a little bit about what I’ve been up to at work. For anyone who doesn’t know, I am working at a company that does ecological restoration as a field crew member. We go out to all of the sites and actually do the work that the company has been contracted to do. There are sites in various stages of restoration – some are brand spankin new, so we are tilling, seeding, mulching, planting, etc. Others are established and we are doing maintenance, like mowing, burning, or managing invasive species. And some sites require some kind of repair or improvement, like ravine repair to prevent gully formation or erosion control.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve worked mostly at a site we call Empire (because it is in Empire Township). It’s a parcel of land that was restored from a farm field to a wet/mesic prairie, wet meadow and wetland as a water quality improvement measure. It is in it’s third year, and it is absolutely gorgeous. There are some amazing plants that are mature and well-established. However, as I’ve come to realize is the case everywhere, even though the plants we have put there are native, site-appropriate, hardy plants, they are fighting a tough battle against the bajillions of invasive species. The list of ones we’ve got out there includes canada thistle, bull thistle, red clover, sweet clover, common vetch, reed canary grass, and – dun dun dun… my own personal enemy – RAGWEED!

On a side note, I’ve known for a few years that I am massively allergic to ragweed pollen. Most people who suffer from allergies during late August are. But I’ve only recently learned what it looks like. And now that I know, I’ve made it my own personal mission to leave a trail of ragweed carnage everywhere I go. But I’ve discovered to my horror that it is really truly EVERYWHERE!!! When I walk Bruno around my very own neighborhood, I have to suppress panic attacks from all of the ragweed I see! And I’m not just talking little guys – we’ve got some knee-high stuff only two blocks away! So, as a service to the suffering masses, if you see either of the following plants, common ragweed or giant ragweed, pull it out, break it off, burn it, just kill it. Do it. 

Now. Moving on. So our tasks at Empire were to mow ragweed (some of which is as tall as me – ahhhhh!!!), cut and remove sweet clover, and herbicide canada thistle, bull thistle and red clover. I’m not big on chemicals in general, so I wasn’t very psyched about that part, but I do get that that is the best control method right now, and that it ensures the success and survival of the native species.

Anyway, when you herbicide you have to wear this attractive get-up: My coworker Andy and I are rocking a Tyvek suit, rubber gloves, rubber boots, and protective eyewear. So fashionable, and so comfortable on a blazing hot 90+ degree day like today. Sweat literally pours out of your gloves when you are done. Pours. Then you strap on a chemical pack that has a wand/gun thingy and go to town, spot spraying the bad guys. Sweet. This work allowed for plenty of quality alone time, during which I sang songs, day-dreamed about the north shore and about ice water, and best of all, learned a ton about plants. Check it out:

Ok, so the picture totally doesn’t do it justice, but there is the wet prairie in all its mid-summer glory. There’s tons of swamp milkweed, false sunflower, cup plants, blue vervain, canada wild rye, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, and a million more things that I still have to learn. I’ve been trying to learn two new plants a day. Oh wait, hold the phone, what’s that big thing front and center next to the pretty swamp milkweed? GIANT RAGWEED! DESTROY!!!