Day 9 (what? No Beavers?)

 Day 9

I woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed. Missing home really hit hard this morning, I miss my cat ash, I miss my girlfriend, I miss the comfort of being able to play games with my friends. So, I just kind of lied there from 5-6:30 not wanting to get up. I eventually did get up to get my lunch.

Today the plan is to visit Mount Adams, we’re going to be collecting soil samples (respectfully as this is private land that we will be exploring), and checking up on beaver dams/ beaver activity in the area. Last year’s group got to set up a few beaver dams in hope that beavers would return to the area. Now we will go build some of our own and find out if the ones from last year affected the area in some ways. Maybe the Beavers came back, maybe the beavers return invited bears that like bobbing for beavers, maybe the beavers never came back, whatever the results maybe it will be interesting to find out. We made a quick pitstop at Glenwood station while we waited for our tour guides. I filled up on ice while was there because I am anticipating a very physically demanding day which I’m excited for, but it looks like it may be just as hot as yesterday.

We waited for our tour guides for today’s activity at Glenwood and got to meet David Lindley or at least a glimpse of the legend before really meeting him and his team. The drive from Glenwood to Mount Adams wasn’t very long but we did take the road slowly and carefully as this area has so much loose sand and gravel it becomes almost impossible to see anything while driving. We finally approached our destination and wow this was the closest I’ve ever been, I was able to visibly see everything up there it was really breath taking After arriving at the car parking spot, we started unloading all our equipment. Today was going to be a very heavy labor day so we made sure everyone had their water and snacks to keep them going, after our personal essentials, we began unloading all our soil equipment. Anything that was physical we were doing. So, densometer, shovels for soil, 3 bags for samples R1, R2, R3 (wetlands), thermometer, and [special densometer] were all brought with us, along with our weighters that were going to be a big part of today’s activity. We all got put into cars to take us down to our work areas we still had to get deeper in, but our Heritage SUVs are not meant for the intense terrain like the trucks here.

We finally got down to where we needed to be with the trucks but guess what, we still weren’t there yet. We had to now walk downhill while carrying all our gear, which at first seemed fine because we were going downhill with all this extra weight. We finally made it to our creek where we finally got to do proper introductions, we introduced ourselves got to know Janette Burkhardt a Watershed Planner (The big boss), David Lindley a Habitat Biologist, and last but definitely not least Gerard Foley a Habitat Biologist, but he also has a degree in marine Biology. Gerard really resonated with me because he’s doing exactly what I would love to do and he studied the initial major I wanted before settling for second best environment. Not to say that I don’t love the environmental field, this is definitely the field for me, there will never be a subject I care more about than our planet and its ecosystem/environment. Whether it’s on land or sea I just want to what I can.

For today’s activity we were building manmade beaver dams in hope to raise the creek and potentially bring the beavers back to the area. The plan was to restore all the damaged area done during the Cougar Creek Fire back in 2015. We started by sticking willow branches (clean/no leaves) into the mud to give us some structural pillars/ beams for the dams. We then layered young pine trees that were still alive, as the live ones would be heavier and the thick branches would allow other branches and twigs to sit on. After layering and pinning/staking down the pines with willow branches(clean), we then started layering levels of willow branches (Leaves) and settlement (roots and mud we dug up in the same creek). We weaved the willow branches into each other to create a strong hold and cover as much room as possible; we then layered the settlement on top and in the gaps to create a strong hold. We’d repeat these two steps till he had a strong core for this beaver dam. After we had a dam with little leakage as possible, we moved on to the next step. We don’t want to completely cut off the water supply, but we want to hold the water back so that the water levels may rise and fill out more of the area to restore the
drastic difference of about two feet in height.

 

The final step was to now lay the large dead pieces of wood that would become the heavy pieces that hold it down and together. Hopes are that when the creek begins to overflow it will begin flowing outwards reclaiming it original size and water levels rise, hopes are that the loose pieces of wood, settlement and anything else will create a stronger dam. We got to build two and start a third one before running out of time. We then got to look at one of last years group’s dam and got to add onto it and some lumber to the creek that would deflect the opposite direction forcing the water to carve through the mud and create a wider stream, when then the stream does widen up it will be able to carry the lumber we tossed in and will be added to the dam with time.

While we were out here, we also made time to collect a Wetlands soil sample and collected all the data we needed such as soil and air temps with our old school, and nice thermometers. We also collected canopy covers with our densometers and the [new densometer]. We made sure only tribal students were digging while me and Gavin took notes. The hopes are to test these samples and then return them properly since it is borrowed soil from private land.

These dams are very important to environment because they create deeper waters for the beavers to hide and create proper homes. The beavers require at minimum 3 feet of water depth to be able to dive in and hide from predators along with their entrances being underwater. Bringing the beavers back and raising the water levels will also bring back the sandhill cranes that like the large pools of water with dams for them to safely relax, eat and drink water.

I’m super happy with the work we got to do today. Big thank you to Janette, Gerard, and David for not only showing us around and allowing us to help with the creek restoration but thank you for also letting us in, it was so beautiful to get to see Mount Adams that close. None of the work felt like work, it was just such a blast to do something labor inducing that was also helping the environment. If possible and life allows it, this is what I want to do. Theres this quote that I use with my friends and it goes “Never have I need something so bad and not known till I had it” Vegeta DBZA. And that’s exactly how I felt I need to do something like this, the outdoors, the tranquility and knowing that I am making a difference. Also big thank you for the Beaver pins I love them.

After a good day of hard work, we took our well-deserved showers at the hotel we had rented out behind Glenwood Station, shout out Corbin “it's always your fault" Schuster, the showers are so great. We also worked on our blogs while we took shifts taking showers.

After all the guys, Jessica, Monette and Salvador got showered up we headed back to camp.

After arriving at camp, the boys split into two groups dinner and dishes, we kind of all set up and cleaned up together, me and Phabian did the dinner prep and Gavin and Dallas did the dishes. Too be completely honest it didn’t not feel fair that the lady’s got to take almost 2hrs between the 3 of them while we (the male students and our staff members (8 total)) took a combined hour and a half and got no chores for the afternoon. But it is what it is, I understand that the girls need their self-care stuff, and I guess I am the lucky one for being able to shower quickly. But ugh a long shower would’ve been so nice 😭.

For dinner we helped Gordon Ramsey, I mean Monette make spaghetti, and it came out so good. We had pasta, meat sauce, and garlic bread along with toppings like salt, pepper, butter, and parmesan. I also made brownies for everyone as a dessert for later. We were told to get our fill for our hard days work and that we could extra pasta when the girls got here. Gavin is a better man than I am because he waited till they got here for him to get his portion after, he ended up being the only one to not get any, so we cooked extra for him and whoever wanted seconds.

At the dinner table we all talked about what our favorite part of the day were, I loved hearing everyone’s take away from our labors, except that person that mentioned their favorite part was their long shower, you know who you are and I hope you stub your toe and step on a Lego.

After I finished dinner, I went over to fill the dish washing station for Gavin and Dallas, the water takes a little longer here since we don’t have very much water, so the pressure is a little low. It’s been a long day for everyone, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible for my team to get right to it, sequencing is key.

We shared one last night at [insert campsite] told some scary stories (not really everyone was too scared) and called it a night early because we had a very busy morning.