Legacy Part Two

As Lin-Manuel Miranda famously sang in Hamilton, “What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you’ll never get to see.”  Well, here’s the garden I helped plant, but won’t ever see.  Using the findings of my research, the resources crew and I collected seeds from plants I found to be popular amongst hummingbirds, Castilleja, Lupinus, and Penstemon. We also added a variety of other wildflowers and native grasses to beautify this particular median.

And with that, I am to bid Capulin Volcano adieu.  I’ve really enjoyed my time here.  My coworkers were really great (shoutout to Isaac and Rachel) , the land and park were beautiful, and the birds were humming.  Over the course of my ~three months here, we caught and measured over 100 birds, I analyzed about 300 slides of pollen, we planted some 4000 sod trays, we had three potlucks and I’ve learned a lot about working in the National Park Service.  I also leave behind a plan to treat a fungal infection of the namesake chokecherry trees of Capulin Volcano.  I hope I was able to impact the park as much as it impacted me, but I doubt that is the case.  It seems to me that the world of the NPS is a small one, so I sincerely hope I run into any of my coworkers again.  I firmly believe any job is only as good as its coworkers, and the staff at CAVO NPS is a great one.

I’m looking forward to my few days in DC and to meeting my fellow MIS interns.