Team building???

Okay, so it's been awhile since I posted. There's a very good reason for that. We went through the most stressful, demanding, and challenging team building exercise I have experienced. 

We had to build a pergola. 

It we prefabricated so all we had to do was put it together like a giant set of Lincoln Logs right? Easy! Well... when all your wood has sat outside for months in the rain and snow, it kind of warps and things don't fit like they should. We were also fighting the wind and snow every step of the way. I'm not even going to get into the least helpful directions I have ever seen that came with it.

So, we had to chisel every hole and notch so they fit together like they were supposed to in the first place.... We got it together.... upside down. 

And after a lot of work, right-side up!!!!

From there on it was smooth sailing! Well, until we realized that the last team poured the back footers too short. But we decided that was an issue for when it gets warmer! So we just built the rest of the roof, secured the front two posts, and called it good!

(The one on the right is ours.)

Also, shout out to Leo and the team because the skills I learned with you all were invaluable here!

Week Two: Ash Tree Surveying

     We spent five days running around different state parks finding ash trees that are candidates for treatment against emerald ash borer. All while in snowshoes with temperatures no higher than 13 degrees! 

Westcott Beach State Park

     Now what is emerald ash borer? It's a small beetle native to Asia that feeds on ash trees and kills a tree within 10 years. It has been found in over 20 states and threatens to destroy all ash trees in North America. While emerald ash borer hasn't been found in this region yet, it has been found further south in New York. 

Long Point State Park

     Our task has been to go to state parks in the region and identify ash trees that may be worth saving. The preventative treatment is expensive and the tree has to be strong and healthy to get through it so we had to be selective! Once a tree was identified we marked the location with a GPS. When it gets warmer we will be going back out to make sure the trees we marked are still good candidates and to make sure we didn't miss any! 

Robert Wehle State Park

     We snowshoed about two to three miles a day no matter the weather! There was plenty of fun though, including snowball fights. Below is Lake Ontario. Every part of the lake we have seen is frozen as far as we can see. Onward to week three!

Robert Wehle State Park

Week One: Orientation

     Bananagrams, Code Names, Cards Against Humanity, and many other games were played this week as all 21 New York Parks Corps members met up for orientation at Onanda Park. All of us are spread out through upstate New York doing both conservation and environmental education work! There isn't much to say as we spent quite a bit of our time learning about driving safety, making incident reports, weekly reports, the danger of ticks, and many other not very exciting but also important topics. 

     

It might look pretty nice out, but here was our drive home...




   




     Here is the Conservation Stewards crew! Left to right, Carley, Me, Taylor, and Sam. We live and work together! We are the Conservation Stewards crew of the New York Parks Corps program and that is ran by the Student Conservation Association andddddddd our positions are funded by Americorps. Phew, we are part of a ton of different organizations! 

That's it for Orientation! Now it's time to start work!