The end of June was peaceful and beautiful. I celebrated the summer solstice with a gorgeous view!

~Happy Solstice~

This month has so far been a whirlwind – I am out doing field work in the back country pretty much every day of work this month. Two weeks ago I went on a backpacking excursion on a nearby trail to survey for invasive plants. I mapped invasive species that I observed on the trail (which were mostly dandelions), while singing a lot of middle school throwbacks with my field partner to keep the bears away (There might have been some R. Kelly and Dixie Chicks in the mix). Along the trail I saw some pretty cool plants, including this super beautiful orchid, Cypripedium passerinum, otherwise known as Sparrow-egg lady’s-slipper.

Cypripedium passerinum

Last week, along with my fellow CLM intern, Jacob, I traveled to a different branch within the Wrangell-St. Elias park to a town called McCarthy. For the Fourth of July, we set up a booth in the town center. Our objective was to increase awareness of invasive species and educate people about specific plants that they should watch out for. It was a super positive experience – people were genuinely interested in learning about invasive species. We had a lot of people come up to us asking about plants on their property or garden. I met a lot of fascinating people from all over the world (who knew McCarthy, AK was such a destination for July 4th??) including the U.K. and Austria! There was even a parade that came through town, as well as a rather intense egg toss competition, which I participated in, but sadly, did not win.

Our booth on Fourth of July!

The rest of last week consisted of surveying for Elodea spp. Elodea is an invasive aquatic plant that our team has been monitoring in bodies of water throughout the park. Jacob and I traveled to 3 different lakes on our way back from McCarthy. At each lake we used a double headed rake attached to a line which we tossed into the water and ran along the bottom of the lake, which is where the Elodea has been known to grow. Additionally, we took eDNA samples, as well as collected specimens to identify and keep for park records. We didn’t find any Elodea (yay!) but found some cool specimens, including a pond lily, Nuphar lutea.

Girl vs. Chara: pulling up Chara spp. from a lake survey at Strelna Lake.

View of Silver Lake, featuring Nuphar lutea. Photo by Jacob Dekraai

I am looking forward to the trips we have planned for the rest of this month. We are sure to keep busy! The work never stops in the war against invasive plants!

-Natalie