Bringing AmeriCorps into the Field

Hillary and I have been working long, hot days in the field for seven weeks, but we weren’t always alone this season. For several days we had an AmeriCorps member join us in the prairie fens, learning about plants and wetlands.

Pictured from left to right: Hillary Karbowski, Patrick Bower, Rachel Hackett, Alan Richardson, and Molly Gorman. 

AmeriCorps is a national service program founded in 1994. AmeriCorps members volunteer their time to prove a service to a local community in exchange for training, networking, an education award for further education and student loans, and the feeling of impact and accomplishment that stays with you for a lifetime. I was an AmeriCorps member from 2006 to 2008 in a State program sponsored by the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

These AmeriCorps members were from an AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) team. AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based program where members from across the country commit one year to travel to 4 different locations, meeting a different service need in each community. Hillary and I met the team at The Nature Conservancy’s Nancy E. Hand Field Station. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) was their second service commitment. Their main duty was to manage invasive species, but they also joined eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) surveys, TNC community service days, local habitat for humanity, and the local humane society among other organizations.

When Hillary and I arrived, we explained our project to the team and three members were interested in joining us when we were sampling on TNC managed properties. They were able to put down their backpack sprayers and brush cutters and donned their rain gear. We shared with them the basics of plant identification, major plant families of prairie fens, and the ins and outs of specimen collection. We even set them down with a few flowering plants and a dichotomous key.

Larix larcina: correctly identified using a dichotomous key by AmeriCorps member Molly  Gorman. 

We did have a few adventures. With Patrick Bower we finished up surveying the diverse Ives Road Fen in Tecumseh, MI. This was one of the properties the AmeriCorps had been managing for glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus) and reed canary grass (Phalaris arundacea)

A panoramic view of Ives Road Fen in Tecumseh, Michigan. 

With Molly Gorman we got an up and close look at a recent burn on a privately owned prairie fen, and flowering pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea), and valerian (Valeriana uliginosa).

The aftermath of a previously burned prairie fen.

A closer look at a flowering  Sarracenia purpurea (pitcher plant). 

An up close view of a flowering Valeriana uliginosa (valerian). 

And with Alan Richardson we set our transect next to a 6 -7 year old eastern massasauga rattlesnake, Sphagnum spp. mounds covered in round-leaf sundews (Drosera rotundifolia), and bladderworts on deer trails (Utricularia spp.).

An eastern massasauga rattlesnake. Photo credit to:  Joseph Sage.

Spagnum spp. mounds with a population of Drosera rotundifolia (round-leaved sundews)  atop of it. 

Utricularia spp. (bladderworts)  found on a deer trail.

It was a great to have extra enthusiastic minds with us in the field. Hillary and I wish all of our new AmeriCorps friends the best at their new assignment at a youth camp in Minnesota.

-Rachel