Hi everyone! Time is flying. I have been doing lots of random projects, which suits me just fine. One thing I have been working on lately is a sign for a pollinator garden at First Step, a school for children and adults with developmental disabilities. This garden was a collaboration between the USFS and the Arkansas Native Plant Society. My goals were to explain this complex concept in simple terms and to help dispel the myth that bees and butterflies are the only pollinators. Through this project, I learned that some bees feed pollen to their larvae, and that within the U.S., bats only pollinate plants in the Southwestern states (not in Arkansas). Here is the sign:

My mentor Susan took me and the two Pathways interns at our office out on a tour of the Ouachitas on Tuesday. Jesi and Malcolm are focused on filing and rarely get to leave the office. Sadly, today is their last day before they go back to school. I’m jealous… I love learning! I’ll just have to learn harder on my own. Here is a picture of me, Jesi and Malcolm on the little Missouri river.

One of the coolest things we saw on our tour was a luna moth that had just emerged from its chrysalis, its wings still crinkled!

Yesterday, Susan and I worked on cleaning up the pollinator garden outside of the Jessieville district office, releasing young milkweeds from all the invasive sericea lespedeeza. I have also been tediously processing all the seeds I collected, since it seems that we will not be sending any seeds to Bend, Oregon. I have a feeling that there are much better ways of doing it than what I am doing, but I am just doing my best!

Take care you guys.