CLIP Week 9: Montoring Bees, Planting Trees
On Monday we brush sawed the ditches at the Woodstock Fairgrounds, trying our best to beat the incoming rain while clearing all the tall, unwanted plants. After we finished clearing the brush, we had a quick lunch before heading to Boloria and Hennen to monitor bumblebees.
On Tuesday morning we finished planting a pollinator garden with SmallWaters at Petersen Park. In the afternoon we went to the McHenry County Administration building to watch a presentation on green infrastructure from Scott Kuykendall, County Water Resources Specialist. We learned a lot about the industry, how our own infrastructure in McHenry County works, and the history of the systems we now have in place. We also learned about the water crisis that McHenry County and surrounding areas will be facing in the not-so-distant future, which gives us a stepping stone into learning more about the topic to be able to educate others.
On Wednesday morning we went to Crowley Oaks to help our amazing volunteers during a workday! After successfully clearing out a good
chunk of brush with our team, we monitored bumblebees at Crowley for the last time and had some tough luck. After a quick lunch break we moved onto Irish Oaks to monitor more bees, but dealt with the same bad luck. While monitoring the bumblebees, Daniel and Kevin noticed a lot of wild parsnip while heading toward “the island,” so we got some brushsaws and parsnip predators and got to work! After we got back to Hennen and ended the day, us three interns spent some quality time together going thrifting, getting coffee, and going to see our work mom Kathryn perform some beautiful pieces in the Woodstock City Band with her community.
On Thursday we spent the morning with Ders Anderson, TLC Board Member, driving around McHenry County, learning about glaciers and their impact on the county. This took up most of our morning, while stopping at a couple places like the Boger Bog, which was a small but beautiful area. After being treated by Ders to some lunch, we made our way back to the office and did some blog writing in the afternoon. To finish the day, we went to the MainStay Therapeutic Farm to monitor their easement.
On Friday we spent the whole day with Gretchen, working at TLC’s Food Forest, planting trees. You got to give more credit to tree planters – it took us the entire day to plant three trees each! The sun was scorching and the soil was stubborn, but we managed! Our contributions were worth it in the end, though. The Earth now has 12 more trees that will benefit ecosystems for many years to come.