July has always been my favorite month for many reasons and this July proved to be no different. Why is July my favorite, you ask? Well, for starters, it’s my birthday month and it so happens to also be my co-intern’s and another coworker’s birthday month all within days of each other. So, as you can imagine we had a LOT of sweets this month. July came with many other reasons to celebrate though, including finishing our first seed collection, completing a project we’d been talking about since I got here, friends and family coming to visit, the fourth of July and so many other things. 

July Seed Work

We started the month off strong collecting Hedyserum boreale and finished our collection with a grand total of over 300,000 seeds. I have since been finding those seeds in every nook and cranny of my house and car. 

Once done with Hedyserum boreale we began scouting for our next species, Heterotheca villosa. Our last species was found in a location that had been burned a few years back, so it was bare, dry and extremely hot. Much to my excitement, Heterotheca villosa was found in beautifully forested areas or on mountain tops where the temperatures were much cooler and the views unlike anything I had seen before. We found this species higher in elevation so the seeds were not yet ready and wouldn’t be for a week or two, so we left them to mature and began work on other projects.

Medicine Lake Project

The hydrology crew had been talking about the Medicine Lake project since I had started, and it had finally come time to start work on it. The project was to build a fence around Medicine Lake and the surrounding wetland to protect the water and riparian vegetation from cattle. 

In preparation for the fence, we had to move large amounts of lumber, t-posts and barbed wire to the project site, which was exhausting work, but we were in one of the most breathtaking spots I have ever worked. We began work on the fence with the help of the Grand Canyon Trust volunteers and the forest service’s range crew. After about 4 long days of hard world, a few rips in my clothes (from barb wire), and 6 Oreo pop tarts (the only thing that kept me going) the fence was complete. 

Now that the cows could no longer get into the wetland, we were able to put in some beaver dam analogs (BDA’s) to help restore the wetland to its natural state. This was one of my favorite parts of the project because it felt more like arts and crafts than anything. We would place aspen poles vertically across the stream channel and then weave willows between the poles to trap sediment. With enough of these placed the stream begins to flood the meadow surrounding it, turning it back into a wetland. 

July flew by in a flash and brought with it so much hard work but so much joy and left behind so many happy memories. Hopefully august is as sweet!

Cheers! -MS