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<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0However, before I tell you what I\u2019ve been up to, hearing a brief history of the park makes all our hard work more rewarding.\u00a0\u00a0 This park has one of the greatest diversity of plant species in America.\u00a0 Because of this, the area has always attracted the best scientists, including the famous Henry Cowles.\u00a0 During the late 1890\u2019s, Henry Cowles studied vegetation succession on the Lake Michigan sand dunes and is still considered a main influence in our ecological studies today.\u00a0 There is now a wetland named after Henry called Cowles Bog, in which we do a lot of our restoration work.\u00a0 Yet, because this park is fairly new (It was authorized by Congress in 1966), it has a HUGE problem with invasive species crowding out these wonderful and diverse native plant populations.\u00a0 Our job is to protect and prevent the invasive species from winning and keep the necessary native habitats sheltered from human destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a>Working on identifying plants in the bog<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0Like I said before, I\u2019ve been a part of the wetland restoration project, specifically focused on restoring Cowles bog.\u00a0 Currently, this once diverse area is covered in cat-tail (the invasive version) and phragmites which shade out any beneficial sedges, grasses and forbs.\u00a0 To began, we apply herbicide to the invasive plants.\u00a0 Then by pushing the dead cat-tail down, we can suppress the seed bank until replanting the area.\u00a0 The whole processes of getting these native plants into the ground requires time spent seed collecting, seed cleaning, propagation and finally transplanting them in our greenhouse and then planting them in our recently cleared sites.\u00a0 It is quite labor intensive (walking through very mucky areas with heavy equipment and often hot weather in the summer) but our group tends to make jokes out of the situations and we laugh a lot.\u00a0 And seeing the results after planting a cleared area, either with brush cutters or herbicide, is rewarding.\u00a0 Immediate results are not always visible, however, and this was something I struggled with at the beginning.\u00a0 Now I understand how important each little advance is and that restoration work takes time.\u00a0 A lot of time!\u00a0 This restoration plan for Cowles bog is scheduled to take anywhere from 10-15 years and even then it will still need to be monitored.\u00a0 One of the biggest challenges for this park is the amount of invasive species that are encroaching along the park\u2019s many boundaries and it has been rewarding to help restore the park\u2019s original flora. Pictured Rocks<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0Overall it has been a great experience working for the National Park Service, not only because I get to live in a beautiful area with freshwater beaches! But also to learn about how this organization operates and the difficulties they face with the public and with funding to continue to preserve the magnificent population of plants and animals.\u00a0 I get to live in a National Park house not far from work, and recently just got two roommates from the SCA program that are going to take the place of the seasonal employees who sadly just ended their part last week.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited for the new adventures and slightly different tasks that we will be concentrating on.\u00a0<\/p>\n The seasonals<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Checking some water depths<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Good Luck Everyone!<\/p>\n Christy Goff, NPS, Indiana Dunes, IN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore!\u00a0 About 50 miles southeast of Chicago, the Lakeshore runs 25 miles along Lake Michigan.\u00a0 I started my internship in July and right away started working with five seasonal staff on wetland restoration.\u00a0 \u00a0However, … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>