Endings and Beginnings

This is to be my last blog entry from the Florida Keys for this season. It is never easy for me to leave behind new friends and new experiences, but I'm also always anxious to explore and enjoy find something different. Part of me wishes I could remain here to build on friendships and keep exploring the islands and life around me, as just today I had another first life-experience: my first sighting of the rare white-crowned pigeon.

Tonight, my boss had our farewell dinner for our group in Marathon at a nice pub overlooking the water. She was just finishing up with several conferences and we just had our last day sweeping public lands for invasive plants. An Americorps crew from Boston U. were there to, so we thanked them for their hard work on the lower keys and Crane Point, and wished them well on their next venture in Mississippi working on hurricane rehab projects. Alison shared some really bad jokes, and we told stories of coon bear, zombie-pythons, and other Keys-ish topics.

This past weekend was a blur, as my parents came in for a visit. We did 5 dives off Marathon on Saturday, visiting Flagler's Barge, Sombrero Gardens, and Sombrero Reef. We saw lots of lobsters, moray eels, and the bewildering variety of reef fishes. Some highlights were seeing tight clusters of basket stars napping in the daylight on purple gorgonians, a tiny baby filefish hiding on a rope sponge, and a rock beauty that would only swim upside down on the bottom of Flagler's Deck. The night dive is always fun, and we fed the coral by shining our light over the coral head to draw the plankton into the coral's tentacles. The next day, we woke up early for another 3 dives at Looe Key. We saw lots of midnight-blue parrotfish, a dolphin, sea turtles, and a reef shark.
Tomorrow is our last day at work: the morning I will present our year-in-review report, and in the afternoon, the director is taking us out on a boat trip! After that, it will be a night of packing and partying. It's hard to believe that this time last year, I had just made the decision to change careers.

I'll try to update this blog again next week, after I'm home and hopefully with some news about my next adventure. I have applied to many new job opportunities, so who knows where I'll end up next? I could be in Yellowstone chasing after river otters, or flying over the Oregon coastline observing terns and cormorants, or killing invasive plants in Washington, or studying fire ecology in Utah... among other dreams.

I look forward to being home again and catching up with old friends and family, and I wish all my friends from the Keys a farewell until we meet again!

Of Rabbitats & Red Cards

The Nature Conservancy receives grant money to treat both public and private lands, and some owners of private lands are very appreciative of our work. We've met a few hospitable owners who have treated us to frosty sodas, but what was really amazing was when the owner of Sundance cruise invited the Strike Force and two Americorps crew aboard their huge catamaran for an exciting sail out from Key West to Sand Key. The wind was really blowing, and we reached 14 knots! Move, zig! There was some 2-4' swells, so a few folks began turning green while snorkeling at the reef. Visibility was also reduced, and the shallow reef did not have much living coral. There were large schools of yellowtail snapper, and lots of parrotfish.

This week began our basic wildland fire training. It is a week long course for the S-130/S-190 certification, which is called a "red card". A lot of the course is reviewing real scenarios that ended in tragedy and understanding how to avoid them. What I found interesting are two misconceptions I had about dangerous fire situations: huge burns are safer because the fire behavior is more predicable, and more wildland fire fighter fatalities occur from falling trees and aircraft crashes than from the fire directly.

The folks being trained were from the Key Deer National Wildlife refuge, local fire department, and the Nature Conservancy. Wildfires on the keys are very rare, so the training is more to build up a strong force to assist with the upcoming prescribed burns that the refuge biologists will conduct to restore habitat for the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit... what they like to call "rabbitat".

After studying up on concepts, we prepared our tools and Fire Line Packs for a field day of practice, which was conducted at a real wildfire burn area on Big Pine Key called Thunderstruck 2. I was selected to be Squad Boss , which meant lugging around this radio harness in addition to the line pack and tool. We established a control line around a simulated burn, and even had our lunch of MRE's rudely interrupted by a radio call to chase after spotfires that had crossed our perimeter. Then we had to make way for a simulated tanker drop, and then roll out hose to mop up the burned areas.

Also during the week, my friends threw me a nice birthday party; excellent food and wonderful companionship made for a very fun and memorable evening. I can't believe my time here is running out! Just one more week and then I'm gone, so there's much to do until then. Tomorrow, I'm meeting my folks in marathon for a fun day of scuba diving.

I See a Manatee!

Serendipity comes in many forms. Originally, we had been prepared to go on a snorkel trip with the marine team last Thursday to monitor Staghorn coral "plantings" off Key Largo, but high winds can stir up the sediments, reducing the visibility such that the trip was canceled. I was dissappointed. Not to be deterred by Nature, we tried again on Friday with a fun cruise on the Bahia Honda Park's boat. Right before boarding the boat, we saw this huge manatee poking her head up in the canal. This was my first time to see one, and I was excited. At first, it was a game of hide and seek, since mats of seagrass and the boat were hiding her. Then she came out in the open, and we gave her a drink of fresh water, which she greatly appreciated. It's always a great day when you can check off an endangered species of charismatic megafauna from your lifelist!

After that, luck changed once again. The boat was late leaving the dock because they replaced one of the propellers, but shortly after passing under the old bridge, the prop flew off. The boat took us back ashore, so I just went to the edge of the beach, put on my gear and swam out till I was content. Nearshore, there are little meadows of seagrass beds. On the edges are lots of juvenile fish trying to take shelter along them. About 200 yards offshore, the seagrass turns into an expansive gorgonian flat that makes the swim worth it. Lots of octocorals, with many common reef fish swimming about, such as a scrawled cowfish and a large balloonfish. Also notable were many Rock-boring urchins hiding in the nooks n' crannies.

Hungry from a long afternoon, we had a tasty beer and sandwich at Rob's, and then returned to the house to visit with some friends who just returned from a fishing trip. We shared stories, caught some more fish, and then Topher and I stayed up late into the wee hours, going back to Rob's for some Red-headed drinks, and then back home for fishing in the canal... just not ready to let the fun end.

Ugh... I was desperate to get on a boat ride to a reef, so I struggled out of bed and Toto and I went off to Looe Key for a dive/snorkel trip. The water was cold, but helped keep me alert! Some reef sharks were there, and the biggest highlights were another Hawksbill Turtle let me swim along side him for a spell, and I saw a large school of midnight-blue parrotfish, which are an uncommon fish to see, and even more uncommon to see 17 in a school around the large coral heads. That evening was a trip to Key West for some evening entertainment. No rest for the weary!!!

This past week, we hooked up with the hardworking Americorps team again for another tough week of chainsaws & chippers. Volleyball monday night was really hard, since I was sleepy, tired, achy, and hungry. Tuesday night, we hit up Boondocks, a local tiki bar, for their qualifying rounds of karaoke. I got things started with an amazing rendition of "Times Like These", my first ever public singing performance. I think their mic was broke, since it didnt sound right. ;-p

Toto really lit up the floor with some amazing Billy Jean moves, and Lucky Charms sang some beautiful songs. Our group cheered them on from the tables, and then things got even more fun with group singing of Bohemian Rhapsody, Love Me Do, and Summer Nights. We returned the next night for the finals. Steve qualified as a wildcard entry, and all three of them ended up sweeping the prizes! Lucky won a trip to Jamaica, Steve a $50 coupon, and Toto a salon treatment. Very fun! Unfortunately, Topher became ill from a round of heat-exhaustion, so he's been recovering slowly.

Thurs night, we stayed up late to watch a film I wanted to see, "Into the Wild", which was very good. I was soooooo tired, but couldn't sleep after watching the movie that I went to nearby Spooky House (an unoccupied house that has an excellent view of the bay) and watched the stars, storms, and a shooting star as I let my thoughts ratchet down.

Last night was our going away celebration. The theme was to dress as an invasive species, so I was Coco Nuts. Also present was a bottle of Technu, the Humpback of Notre Dame, a couple of Tourons, a zebra-muscle, and a very invasive W. Bush... among other costumes. We floated a keg, jumped in the canal, and partied till 4am. There was awesome guitar playing by Randy, Bob, and Toto, and fun singing. Most of us jumped in the canal, one of my favorite passtimes here. We also saw a film-show of Lauren and Alison's Bahamian boarding attempt on a sunken vessel. My Strike Force was presented with certificates and a personalized photo montage, which was a really nice thought. The certificate reads: "The above named has successfully: assessed and treated over 1700 acres of pine rocklands, hardwood hammocks, refuge and private lands; mercilessly slaughtered over 150,000 exotic plants; held side jobs as mechanics, plumbers, chemists, GIS techs, foresters, garbage men, fire fighters, and teachers; travelled "several hundred feet without touching the ground"; endured inhumane hot temperatures and humidity; obscene amounts of walking and crawling, incessant oozing of poisonwood rashes, chaotic project logistics, ridiculously cool coworkers; a paucity of adequate hygienics, daunting exposure to ultraviolet radiation, and an inordinate preponderance of latin terminology. -- and for this, we are truly grateful."


So now it's another weekend... just one more weekend after this and I'm gone... there's no time for sleep! Party on, d00des!

Kegs n' Eggs

The cultural heritage of the Florida Keys is unique, and perhaps nothing underscores that quite as well as the Big Pine Key traditional Easter/Vernal Equinox celebration known as Kegs n' Eggs. The festivities begin on Saturday evening with egg decorating around a nice campfire. Many eggs picture neptunian images of turtles, fish, and dolphins, others have nautical themes of boats and pirates, and others convey important feelings, such as "Jesus loves ducks" and "Godzilla loves Jesus".

The eggs are carefully saved for the following day, which first begins with a wonderful potluck banquet served under the hot and obnoxiously bright sun. Fortunately, local medicinal lore includes a cure for such ailments; a beverage commonly known as the Mimosa. From there, boats (in various degrees of serviceability and seaworthiness, much like their passengers) are loaded up for an awesome cruise to the fabled Picnic Island.

Once at Picnic island, the main goal is to improve the buoyancy of the boats via unloading the cargo . To keep the weather nice, it is considered good luck to quaff Dark & Stormy's, a blend of dark rum and spicy ginger beer. Thence proceeds the celebrations of Dodge This, and the Airing of Joyfulness. Cute girls then begin lobbing decorated eggs into the ocean and the Games Meister calls for the hunt to begin! Snorkleing for eggs is as fun as it sounds, and certainly a time to remember.

Near Picnic island is small Bird island, which has a small colony of roosting juvenile Magnificent Frigate Birds. We also saw the remains of a dead sea turtle and some By-the-Wind Sailors floating past on the currents (which come in left and right handed forms). Festivities officially ended at sunset, but I needed to wait for our Zodiac and kayaker to come into dock, which took much longer than expected. We had our final celebration at Looe Key's Tiki bar, to close out Easter at Big Pine.

Carpe Schinus equestiofolia

Q: what is a pirate's favorite herbicide?

A: Garrrr-lon!


Ok, maybe i haven't found anybody to laugh at that joke yet, but give it time. This past week was spent working alongside Americorps and Alternative Spring Breakers, and we put em to hard work. The first day was mostly a 1-day bootcamp, where we taught them to identify the top 5 most-wanted plants (Mahoe, Pepper, Australian Pine, Colubrina, and Lead Tree) and then how we treat them. That afternoon, we worked together to clear the fireline around a house in the pine rocklands; removing fuel material such as dead palm fronds and deadwood.

The Americorps crew were hard workers; our first day it rained constantly, but we still had 4 chainsaws going all day long, slicing up peppers and then dragging them over to a giant chipper. The next day, we continued the chainsaw blitzkrieg, but instead of rain, it was hot and sunny. We were soon as soaked as if it were pouring rain, and a few folks hit the first stage of heat exhaustion. It was a tough two days, but we finished the job (and thereby rewarded with ice cream). Yeah - the perks in this job are just sublime.

We finished the next two days working on chainsawing + chipping Australian Pine. The spring breakers were very impressed with the powerful diesel chipper, and even named the beast. They invited us over to their camp for a really nice dinner of grilled food, volleyball, and a campfire. We wore out the chipper, the chainsaws, and ourselves. We worked nearly 50 hours that week of intense, hard labor, so it really is nice to have it behind us. You'd think that after such a hard week, we'd take the chance to rest up, but not so. We had a great time exploring Key West and kayaking over the weekend. I was able to get some nice photos Sunday kayaking near Picnic Key of some Magnificent Frigate Birds.

See ya next week!

Playa Grande

This week's title, "Playa Grande", translates to "The Great Beach" in spanish. I chose it because it's been a working metaphor for me lately; it's a powerfully emotional chapter in the book I'm reading (Voyage of the Sea Turtle), it's a beach in Costa Rica near my honeymoon, and by using a play on english words, I'm reminded of the grand play that Shakespeare equates with life. This photo is of my boss, Hau, working on Stirrup Key, where shortly afterwards we stumbled across the large bee-tree pictured below.

We spent several days in Tavernier Key, sweeping through state-managed land. Here we found large stands of Tamarind Trees, which have a dense wood and requires a chainsaw to girdle. The trunks are very straight, so in some ways it is a shame to treat them, but they were slowly spreading through the hammock and shading the understory with their broad canopy.

We also performed more chainsaw and chipping work on Big Pine Key, as a warm-up for this coming week when we host volunteers from Americorps and then Alternative Spring Breakers. This year is a record for how much volunteer help we have, so we want to make the best use of the people-power and take out some heavily infested stands of peppers. It's really excellent there's so much enthusiasm in students that choose to spend their precious free time on environmental projects!

Meanwhile, Topher's knee began giving him trouble this week. (Topher is the guy in the foreground, laughing with me at being totally surrounded by a toxic PencilTtree. Hopefully, it's nothing serious - the doctor just told him to take it easy to see if it'll heal up on it's own. We've been doing lots of crawling and stooping on the job, and all of us have had our shares of aches, cramps, cuts, bruises, and itches. It looks like I'm not immune to Poisonwood, after all, since after swamping up chainsaw debris, I began to have several small rashes appear.

Last week, I reported on how amphibians the world over are having trouble. Well, here's a happy tree frog that is doing quite well here in Florida - unfortunately at the expense of other native frogs he likes to eat. He's the Cuban Tree Frog, an is considered an alien invasive. I wonder if herons can be trained like falcons to hunt them down? They were likely introduced by escaping from irresponsible pet owners/traders, so please remember; Don't Let it Loose!

Time to Play - Name That Bird!

Ya'll are likely exhausted from your Invasive Weed Awareness Week fun, but I hope you still have some partying left in ya, because this year is also dedicated to... Year of the Frog! Amphibians are very sensitive to habitat changes and are being hit hard with wetland destruction, disease, and water pollution. Populations are drastically falling all around the world. So consider signing AARK's petition and getting involved in caring for your local water quality.


Meanwhile, I've been hard at work conducting research from my comfy beach towel. Can anyone help me identify the bird in the above photo? His legs were yellow and he liked to pump his tail as he scampered to n' fro.

This beach was formed on the eroding side of the island, since it did not have a protective flank of mangroves to shield it from the powerful waves. At one time, large Buttonwood trees and a paved road went along the shore, but now the sea has eaten away at both trees and asphalt.

The rocky shore had tidal pools that were full of small Limpets, tons of shells from tiny Augers, and larger Checker Nerites. On a small tidal marsh, i saw a congregation of Hermit Crabs that had taken up residence in colorful Whelk and Tulip shells. I never see such pretty shells on the beach, so I wonder where the hermits find them?

This work week we spent wrapping up transects on Stirrup Key, although we left behind a large amount of lead tree to be chainsawed, chipped, and bagged. We also revisited TNC's Torchwood Hammock Preserve on Little Torch Key. This preserve came very close to being a suburb, when a botanist visited a friend living nearby and noticed a potted cactus on her porch. Realizing it was the Semaphore Cactus, which was thought extinct, the botanist questioned where she found it, and then involved TNC. John Pescatello worked very hard to protect the preserve, and now the cactus is safe... except for encroaching invasive plants and the newly arrived Cactoblastis moth. The preserve is named after the most prevalent plant, the Torchwood Tree. Torchwood is notable for the oily resins, which make branches burn well as torches, as well as for making field workers crawl entire transects on hands and knees since it is such a dense shrub.

Another exciting event this week was the Pine Rockland Conference organized by TNC. My team was invited to attend the local field trips to learn about ecological management issues for the Pine Rocklands. I was able to meet several interesting people, most in this photo. Chris Bergh, standing in the back with a visor, is leading the field trip on TNC's Terrestris Preserve. My boss's boss, Alison Higgins, is in the blue bandanna to his right. The lady dressed in all brown to Chris's left, is Paige Schmidt, an NWR biologist, who carries the fate of the endangered Keys Marsh Rabbit in her hands. Tall men to the far right background are Park Wardens and Foresters from the Bahamas, whom the Conservancy is donating a fire engine too, since fire is such an important tool in maintaining the pine habitats. The big guy with the Night Heron feather stuck in his cap is the botanist for the Turks & Caicos Parks, who had the best quote of the day... replying to an innocent plant-id inquiry with a condescending 'back off, man, I'm a scientist' glare, "I don't do common names." I need to start taking fashion tips from Fire Crews, they always have awesome pictures and slogans.

The Terrestris Preserve is jokingly referred to as the "most frequently burned habitat in Florida". Being privately held land, it's much easier to obtain permit for controlled burns, and the small 20 acre plot was bought by the Conservancy specifically to help the NWR learn exactly how the Pine Rocklands respond to burns. Burning the NWR land is hotly contested on Big Pine Key, since residents fear the flames. Fortunately, nearby military bases have been allowed to burn and show that it does greatly benefit herbivores such as the Marsh Rabbit. Other topics of discussion included rising sea levels, hurricane damage, and other disturbances that must require active management.

One other fun thing I did this week was touring a very quirky historical site, The Perky Bat Tower, which is amazing to me that its wooden structure has survived 80 years of hurricanes. I'll have to make a pilgrimage to one of the other surviving Hygiostatic Bat Roosts in Texas and try to promote modern ones being constructed near Dallas!