This’ll be my first and last blog post, as I’m filling in the month and a half of time left over from last summer’s CLM intern, who had to leave early.

Here at the C&O Canal National Park, things are busy, and many projects abound to keep a botanically inclined intern occupied. RTE surveys, Environmental Assessment vegetation inventories, and even a wetland delineation have been crammed into this month, increasing my botanical skills further. Perhaps the most import thing, however, was the search for Emerald Ash borer in the park. This European insect has killed millions of ash already in the Midwest, and has been increasingly spotted on the east coast. For an ash-heavy park such as the C&O canal, such an insect could be devastating.

Though my time here was short, the variety and importance of my tasks made the month and a half here invaluable, experience-wise, as well as providing further a way into the National Park Service.

I leave you with a photo of the wonderful Dwarf Larkspur, a State watchlist species for the state of Maryland.