Pictures!!

As a special holiday treat, I've decided to include some pictures I took at work over the summer. Here's one of my favorite pictures of a honeybee gathering pollen from swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata).

The next is Meadowsweet (Spiraea sp.). This one caused me a lot of trouble to identify, because for the first few weeks after I found, I only had the leaves with which to identify. It went into my logbook as "unknown species X" until I was able to ID it from the flowers.

Special thanks to my sister for helping me edit.

End of the year reflections, part 2 - Religion

In my previous post, I talk about reconciling my complex political conditions. Similarly, I have tried this year to reach some sort of closure about my religious beliefs. For the 2007-2008 school year, I served as social coordinator for the Catholic student group on campus. I came into the position somewhat by accident, and I ended up being in charge of some very large events with attendance that was far higher than we expected. Of course, there was a purpose to having social events as part of campus ministry, since the process of gathering as a Catholic community (or any religious community) helps to promote interaction, and hopefully, a stimulation of faith. Everyone knows that food brings people together, and this fact became even more apparent to me in my role.

However, something just wasn't right. For the past few years, I have known that I have had disagreements with Catholic teaching. Some of them stem from my political views. However, I find political differences to be quite minor compared to some of the other problems I encountered:

• Is it really necessary to pray to the saints?
  
• If God loves us so much, why is there evil in the world?
  
• What exactly is transubstantiation? Do the bread and wine 1) physically become body and blood, 2) take on the spirit of body and blood, thus still tasting like bread and wine, 3) coexist as body and blood and bread and wine, 4) exist as both body and blood and not-body and not-blood are the same time, like a Schroedinger's bread-and-wine-in-a-box?
• The ultimate question: If I don't believe everything I'm supposed to about the faith I identify myself with, does that mean I'm going to hell?

I'm not going to state everything I've learned about all of these questions. However, I will say that, after months of deliberation, I still take pride in calling myself a Christian. I believe in the life of Jesus Christ and that belief and following in him will lead to eternal salvation. That said, I also identify with the Roman Catholic tradition. Do I believe everything that Catholics believe in? No. But there's definitely a type of relationship between God and human that I've found in Catholicism that I haven't found in other faith traditions. It's not a simple one, and it's one that has taken me several years to understand, but I know that I like it.

End of the year reflections, part 1 - politics

The first time I had a blog three years ago, I wrote a series of reflections at the end of the year. Since I'm going to be on vacation in a few days and will not have guaranteed internet access for over a week, I will attempt to bombard you guys with articles about some of the things I've come to a conclusion about in the past year, inspired by the spirit of Christmas.

Conclusions about Politics

Those of you who have known me for a very long time know that in the past four years, I have gone from a diehard conservative to an activist for Democratic candidates to a Ron Paul libertarian cheerleader to someone who seriously considered registering as a socialist. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I voted for a "major party" candidate in the presidential election this year. Since that fact alone probably comes as a surprise to many of you, I am of course not going to tell you who that candidate was. But I finally came to realize the fact that there was not a single candidate whom I could trust with carrying out everything I believed in. Although some of the lesser-known candidates came pretty close, I found myself having to prioritize certain issues over others - and that was what I was missing all along. So, even though I care deeply about, say, repealing the farm bill that requires all livestock and some fish to have a bar code implanted in them, I had to recognize that that law really isn't a priority right now. Being able to prioritize issues is something I'm really proud of, because although I have always considered myself an informed citizen, I have had to struggle with the fact that I'm a political anomaly. So, this really was a great development for me this year.

As any blogger should be, I am obliged to comment about the onset of Mr. Obama's presidency. As most people are, I am excited for the new ideas that he will bring to the White House, and his election was definitely a step in the right direction. However, although I am not a political analyst by any means, I do have some words of caution about his presidency. I feel as though all this fanfare has caused many people to believe that Mr. Obama will enter office with this gust of sweeping change that everyone will love and enjoy. We'll get out of this economic recession quickly, his exciting new vision will swiftly motivate congress to work towards new heights in American progress, and Europe will love us again.

I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen. When change happens in America, it doesn't come easily. It just doesn't. In fact, I predict that whatever Obama does, people are still going to lose jobs as a result of his actions. People are going to be angry at him, and people are going to wish that McCain was president. The unfortunate thing is that when this does happen, or when the Obama administration does suffer a failure, the "agent of change" image is going to come and bite him in the butt. I'm not saying that Obama isn't going to do great things. He will, and I am pretty sure of that. However, what I am saying is that so many people have such high hopes set for him that when anything slows him down, people will either start saying that 1) he's not living up to expectations and is thus a failure or 2) cranky Republicans, predatory capitatlists, and Catholic bishops still don't like him and are putting all their efforts into subverting his message of wondrous change. Like I said before, Obama has the potential to do great things, but let's not label him just yet.

A return to blogging

I apologize to my readers (all four of you) for not updating my blog for over a month and a half. In order to make up for that, I am going to begin posting some of my pictures from the last two years on this website. I am doing this for a few purposes:

1) I want to see if anyone actually appreciates my photography

2) I owe you guys

3) I would like people to be exposed to nature and especially to that of the Swamp.

The following pictures are of Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), also known as Touch-me-not. It is said to cure Poison Ivy, but I don't know if that's true.

"We've just walked into a little bit of paradise..."

So last week, I met with Karl Anderson, a semi-retired botanist, and various volunteers in order to take up a daunting task: identify as many plants as possible in a 15-acre area in a day. I was absolutely stunned at Mr. Anderson's ability to pretty name every plant we came across except about a dozen, most of which were grasses. Of course, I tagged along and tried to keep up as much as I could. We started by the new Visitors' Center and walked across an open field onto a future trail in a wooded area. I left for about half an hour, and we continued to walk through the woods and back into the field on the northeastern side. After lunch, we went into an adjacent field and zigzagged across, stopping to notice anything particularly outstanding.

During one of the transects, we had stopped to examine some Mountain Mint and were surveying the rest of the field when Karl exclaimed "It looks like we've just walked into a little bit of paradise!" It sounds cheesy, especially when talking about a field, but I, too, was excited about what we had stumbled upon. This field was full of so many classic native wildflowers: three milkweeds (common, swamp, and purple), Blue Eyed Grasses, Swamp Loosestrife, and even Blue Vervain (the first I had seen this summer), as well as a plethora of native grasses and similar plants.

I can't begin to tell you how much this relatively short experience will affect the rest of my time here and the rest of my career studying plants (professional or amateur). I have to admit that before this experience, and especially before I started working at the swamp last summer, I would look at an open field and see a bunch of monotonous green stuff. Now, I look at a field and see sedges, rushes, and grasses; native bunchgrasses and invasive roses; and a complex ecosystem reflected in the plants, the base of the biosphere. I could babble on and on about this, but I'd rather not bore you. Instead, I invite you to ask me any more question you have and will entertain you with various pictures:

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

GEESE!!! This was taken at a goose roundup run by the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, with the help of Middlesex County Parks, University of Georgia veterinarians, and of course, the swamp crew.

Halfway through the summer

So this time, I have an excuse for not posting for a while. I was on vacation for the past five days or so and didn't check email or update my blog during that time because I was giving myself a break from the computer.

Last week, the refuge was buzzing with activity as I helped with data collection in a study to see the effects of deer browse (eating) on plant populations. Basically, I spent two days bushwhacking through dense woods and observing whether or not deer ate seedlings that had been planted in December. Also, we measured canopy density (using a densiometer) and shrub coverage (using a big grid that was placed 10 meters away).

Today marked the first day of the last half of my summer here. I'm getting ready to pick up the pace on a project of my own. I've become very interested in how management techniques affect plant diversity on the refuge. Specifically, some brushlands are cut by a giant machine called a Hydro-Ax (think a lawn mower for trees). I will be comparing the plant diversity in different age classes of fields to get a good idea of what species are coming to which fields.

That's all for now. Here's a picture of Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).

In honor of National Pollinator Week...

Since last week was National Pollinator week (no joke), I went crazy with pictures of various pollinators doing their thing. Here's a picture of a honeybee on Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens). The milkweeds are a magnificent group of flowers and are out in full bloom this time of year. My favorite is Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa):

Well, that's all for now. I've been busy designing a survey to measure plant diversity in various brushland areas, and I'll be on vacation for the latter half of the week. In the meantime, enjoy the weather and take time to smell the milkweeds.

The summer continues

I haven't been keeping up with the blogging, but I promise to pick up the pace this week. I have been very busy with work, and I am usually very tired by the end of the day. Also, I seem to be constantly misplacing either my camera or the USB cable for it, but I'll have pictures up as soon as possible.

My work so far has been a lot of the same as last year, with several new projects as well. The wildflower guidebook I started last year is keeping me busy, and I plan to make a few new additions (Yellow Flag Iris, Blue Flag Iris, Two Flowered Cynthia, and more). For some bizarre reason, I seem to be liking trail maintenance more and more, and I've been doing it with some of the other summer interns as well, which makes it much more entertaining.

Today, I helped one of the year-round employees here with some research he is conducting in conjuction with Rutgers and Montclair State on Japanese Barberry. It involved cutting hundreds of leaves off of several bushes, which was terribly tedious. However, I think it will contribute to some very compelling research, which I will elaborate on in a later post. Anyways, I'm going to help with a frog call survey in a few mintues.

A giant mess...

It always amazes me that people seem to ignore the consequences of their actions, especially when it comes to the environment. In the past few years, so much emphasis has been placed on things like climate change and sustainable development that people forget that there are much simpler ways that we affect the environment around us. Here's a story about my experiences this past week that reflects my frustration:

Apparently, several years ago, someone decided it would be a good idea to plant some bamboo along the border of their property with the wildlife refuge I work on. By last year, this plot of bamboo had evolved into a small impenetrable bamboo forest that was slowly but surely encroaching upon the neighboring land. Therefore, steps were taken by refuge management to remove the bamboo: the bamboo was cut down last fall, and it was supposed to be removed last week.

However, it was not that simple. For those of you not familiar with it, bamboo is
1) very sturdy
2) extremely slippery to walk on
3) very fast growing (some species grow several feet in a day)
and 4) VERY densely growing.

Thus, my Friday afternoon was spent hacking at 18-inch tall stumps that were almost impossible to remove and climbing upon piles of dead bamboo to exterminate 5-day old shoots that were taller than I am. Today, I believe that all the dead bamboo was dragged out into a neighboring field. In the future, people will keep having to return to the edge of the bamboo forest to kill new growth and prevent it from spreading. If they do not, then a dense, quickly-growing mass that chokes out all other life forms.

Why am I telling you this? Because it's important to make smart decisions like planting the right things in our backyards. There are people whose entire jobs are devoted to wiping out former garden plants that have choked out native vegetation and screwed up entire ecosystems (ie Barberry - I don't care if it's "deer-proof", it quickly turns into a 10-foot tall thorny nightmare rampaging through a forest). The next time you have to plant a shrub, tree, or perennial in your yard, or you make any sort of decision that could alter your environment, take time to think about the consequences for those around you.

First Post!

Welcome to my online self!

This is my second attempt at blogging. The first ended horribly after just one post, and I shall never speak of it again. I have decided to re-enter the online world after several of my friends were apparently enamored with my stories from last summer.


Here is a picture of turtles on a stump, taken by yours truly.