July 15, 2019


This morning we woke up by six-thirty in the morning and started with our morning routine. The entire crew broke into two groups. The first group was the non “environmental science and studies” and the second one was the environmental science people. I was a part of the first group who left campsite. And when I read the itinerary, I realized that our group was on service day. We were scheduled to work an eight-hour day into two section. We first started with the pulling of the weeds in the man-made meadow. The man that was the first to meet us was Tom Walker, he was in charge of the Riparim Restoration. These weeds were planted by the Deschutes National Forestry and it ended up back firing for them. The weeds were supposed to attract the wild animals and it did, but it also started to kill the possibility for native flowers to bloom in that area once more. We spent about three and a half hours pulling weeds. I will say that the team did most of the work because when I fell into the water, I ended up not wanting to continue it. I felt pretty gross for a good thirty minutes and then I jumped back in. Once it was a time for lunch Tom and Trent (an intern with the forestry) drove us to the side of the river. Once we finished our lunch, we moved into the next section of our service day. We met up with Pete Powers, the man who was in charge of the Aspin Restoration. Upon our arrival to the lot where we were going to work, Pete gave us the tools that we were going to need to get our job done. When I first saw the clippers, I was a little worried as to what we were going to do but it was actually my favorite part of the day. When we got to the lot where we were restoring Aspin trees, he showed us what plants we needed to cut off. Grayson and I went crazy on our section of the forest. We had this huge pile of pine trees that were cut off in hopes of the Aspin trees life.
After our day of work, we were tasked to go to the city and pick up ice. So, of course we (the students) took advantage of the deli and the Starbucks at that Safeway. Our road trip back to our campsite was full of karaoke and jamming out sessions. When we returned, I was very happy to share how my day went with the friends that went with the other group.
The night ended with us sharing our days around the fire pit and getting mentally, physically, and emotionally ready for the next day. This site has been one of my favorites out of the few that we have had the privilege to visit. Tonight, will be our last night here at the Deschutes National Forest and its bittersweet. The take away of these five days and six nights was that new adventures are needed for a great life and it’s good to look into other things that don’t pertain to your major or profession.
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Life lesson:
You get to control how you react to crappy situations.

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