What a time it’s been. I’ve finally successfully adopted my 6:30 wake-up call, gotten my much-delayed personal identity verification card (which grants access to the park’s data store of years bygone), and gotten into the groove of day-to-day tasks and happenings. All of this just...
This past week my fellow interns and I, along with our Youth Conservation Corps members, went to see Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences. We did the usual rounds and saw dioramas of African, Asian, and North American mammals. We saw skeletal mounts of colossal dinosaurs...
As part of our Summer Challenge series meant to expose park employees to park experiences outside of their day-to-day departmental duties, I recently attended an iron moulding and casting event at our sister park, Hopewell Furnace. It gave a look into the steel-hearted grit of...
Within the last week I’ve begun a series of box turtles surveys. In Pennsylvania, box turtles are threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation, pollution, pesticide application, vehicle strikes, and predation. As box turtles are important omnivores within the park, and are granted a vulnerable status...
Our natural resources team uses pesticides to moderate the spread and propagation of invasive plants. It’s part of our integrated pest management initiative, used to maximize invasive species removal and minimize associated costs. In this regard, “costs” include not only expenditure and labor, but more...
I imagine the patience a photographer must have when lying in wait for a lion to lunge upon an antelope, or a kingfisher to perform a timed dive and snatch a fish from below. Predators need to minimize energy expenditure when foraging, and so, must...
I spent most of this week in park wide training for first season park service staff but at the end of the week I led a hike on the Chilkoot Trail with the goal to reach several sample sites. When I was not in training...
This past week we’ve taken several groups out crayfishing in the park. These jaunts in the creek are run by our very own Crayfish Corps, of which I’m a proud member. Crayfish Corps educates the public about both native and invasive crayfish, and allows those...
Valley Forge National Historical Park holds a rich history in the halls of its timbers and its sprawling fields, memorializing the Continental Army’s grueling stay and transformation into a unified fighting regiment. The Continental army was formed in 1775 to coordinate efforts between the colonies,...
Flanked by waist-high meadow grass that seemed to insulate us from the din of nearby roads, we walked toward a series of vernal pools. This location was a little off the beaten track. When entering Valley Forge, I thought that finding a spot of solitude...