Week 6 of my internship was a short week due to the Independence Day holiday, however I was able to get a lot done for the Virginia Department of Forestry. I finalized the QR code trail for the Conway Robinson and all the information that goes into codes. We also spent a day doing maintenance at the Conway Robinson State Forest to clear the entrance of the forest of dead Ash trees. Ash trees are particularly dangerous because of how quickly that they decay and fall. To get these trees down, the Virginia Department of Forestry provided a bulldozer that was used to push the tree enough to tip it over from it's root ball. Its a very tedious process as every tree is different and requires different methods of removal.
I spent week 7 at the Manassas National Battlefield. We worked on planting a pollinator garden in front of the park headquarters. We planted species such as Mountain Mist, Black Eyed Susan, Christmas Fern, and Blazing Star. Planting with the Youth Conservation Corps crew went well, however we ran into an issue when we tried to spread mulch. The mulch was infested with termites. We had to clear the mulch and then spread an insecticide to hopefully stop any termites from getting to the building.
We spent some time mixing herbicides to spray weeds and invasive species. The chemical we were using was Rodeo, which is a non-selective, systemic herbicide.
I spent week 7 at the Manassas National Battlefield. We worked on planting a pollinator garden in front of the park headquarters. We planted species such as Mountain Mist, Black Eyed Susan, Christmas Fern, and Blazing Star. Planting with the Youth Conservation Corps crew went well, however we ran into an issue when we tried to spread mulch. The mulch was infested with termites. We had to clear the mulch and then spread an insecticide to hopefully stop any termites from getting to the building.
We spent some time mixing herbicides to spray weeds and invasive species. The chemical we were using was Rodeo, which is a non-selective, systemic herbicide.
I had the opportunity to attend the NOVA Urban Forestry Quarterly Roundtable. The topic of discussion was "reclaiming urban wood," so what do you do with the wood once the tree has fallen or is cut down. This is a really important topic of discussion, especially in our local area of Northern Virginia. Since more wood is removed from urban areas than in national forests, there is a large amount of urban forest waste removed, and not many current uses. There were people there from all different sectors of the industry such as wood turners, arborists, state foresters, tree stewards, municipal workers and academics. I learned so many interesting things and it really opened my eyes to how many different people are involved in the process of removing and moving trees.