LAST POST

Well guys, we did it! we were finally able to present! I am so glad that we ended the year on a good note! I am happy that we all accomplished so much and were able to show Allyn our data. I just wish we could have shown it to more of the TAC committee. I am so proud that we did research that will be very influential and be implemented and utilized for an entire city.

Good luck to everyone with their future endeavors! I enjoyed this class so much and learned so much working with you all this semester.

Have a wonderful summer, and a wonderful rest of your lives! Hope to see you all around!

Ali

Entrekin final post for Spring 2014

You all did a nice job this semester. Everyone clearly made an effort in this class and it made it a lot more fun! Although, I wish some of you would have posted more blogs :)

Best of luck to all of  you in the future. Please consider using this final report when you are applying to jobs, add this experience to  your resume, and let me know if you need a recommendation.

Have a great summer and keep me updated!

Sally

Here's my take on use of technology: Please post your comments!!!
 Dropbox was a success, but google drive might have been better for students working together
 Group texting helped, but we were not using it correctly so some of us incurred expense and lots of   texts to group that were not necessary created exasperation. 
 Facebook and twitter never took hold at all.
 No media were contacted...probably too much effort to seek those folks out.
 Blog was good for me, but probably only half the class really used it. Consider getting rid of blog and going back to formal field journals next time. 

Presentations....or lack of

Well, we were supposed to head on down to Maumelle today so that we could present our data to the steering committee. But mother nature had other plans. Last night around 8pm an F3/4 tornado passed through right between Maumelle and Conway. It threw a lot of cars off the highway and destroyed some mobile homes. We attempted the drive to Maumelle this morning regardless. However, it was apparent that the presentations were not going to occur when I ended up turning off my car and sat on the interstate for 15 minutes. We will try to reconvene at a later date and present to at least some of the steering committee, but today it was not plausible. Round trip took 2.5hrs. I hope they will get the roads cleared up soon so that we can all get out of Conway, and people can come here for graduation!


I had a wonderful last semester and enjoyed all of you in this class. I hope we can stay in touch via some sort of social media. Enjoy your summer everyone!

Final Blog Post

We were supposed to present our presentations today but due to the tornado that happened last night that did not happen. We tried to present but sat in traffic for 2 hours and only moved 6 miles so we had to cancel. I am sad that we did not get a chance to present but hope that we are able to reschedule and still present our projects. I hope that everyone still gets the chance to present and show their hard work. This semester has flown by I can't believe that it is over. I have learned so much through this project and I am excited for the future. I would like to thank Dr. Entrekin for helping us and all of her advice this semester as well as my group as we have all become good friends through this process. 

Vilonia

In class on Wednesday we ran through the presentations one last time and wrapped everything up. We present our projects on Monday. On Friday even though it was dead day I met with Dr. Entrekin to get some last minute suggestions and make sure that everything looked okay. She gave me some great advice and the poster for Monday! A few weeks ago I was approached by someone I worked with and they asked me I would be interested in talking to their 5^th graders. I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity so I asked Dr. Entrekin if it would be okay. Once we got the go ahead I extended the offer to my fellow class mates and got some interest. So on Friday Ali, Kell and I went and talked to them. We asked them what they knew about wetlands, had them watch a Bill Nye video, did a short activity and then ran through our presentations which was great practice for Monday. It was a really great experience and I think the kids really enjoyed it! Now just to finish everything up and present on Monday. 

Vilonia MS

Friday morning Alyson, Kell, and I went to VMS to practice our research presentations a little more. I really enjoyed how intrigued all the kids were in what we were doing. They really seemed to like the Bill Nye video on wetlands, and I feel like that was a great way to give them some background knowledge before we just dove into our projects. The kids had a lot of questions for us after we were done, mostly scientific and a little about college life in general. We emphasized a lot that science isn't about getting the hypothesis RIGHT but getting your data as uniform and void of bias as possible. The teachers seemed to enjoy our presentation as well. We originally were only going to present to two classes, but due to a staff meeting taking too long, we took all four classes at once. They were very well behaved and I kind of understand why teachers find joy in teaching. Seeing all these kids so interested in our projects was heartwarming. Not to mention good practice for when we present to the steering committee!

Week of 04/21

Everything is coming together! This week we went back over our powerpoints in class and got our edits from Dr. Entrekin regarding both our slides and our presentation as a whole. We also printed off the big poster that Alyson and I designed (but mostly Alyson). It looks pretty good!

Ali, Alyson and I are meeting this afternoon to go over our presentation again and do a practice run-through. We all need to focus on not saying "incredible" or "huge" and instead replace those qualitative words with some quantitative words.

I'm working on our final report this weekend along with working on my finals and papers and everything for all of my other classes. It's crazy that the semester is almost over.

Vilonia Outreach

After meeting with Maumelle Middle School students several times throughout the semester, I jumped at the chance to go and present to Vilonia's 5th graders. Being from Vilonia, having gone there K-12, I felt it was a good way to give a little back. And I am certainly glad I did. Aside from seeing a few familiar faces, I was very proud of how well the kids were behaved, how interested they seemed in the project, how hard they tried to answer our questions and the variety of questions they asked us afterwards. Having worked with 5th graders in Vilonia before, I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. I feel like our simplified presentations went over pretty well, and both sides took a lot away from this. If only the audience on Monday would be that easy. I don't think I can open my presentation with "Who likes frogs?" I mean I can, but I'll probably get some blank stares and some points off my score. I'm not too worried though. When I sleep and review a bit, I'm pretty good at public speaking. Normally.

Last day working with Maumelle Middle School

Today Kell and I went to Maumelle Middle school and they gave us mock presentations. Overall I have to say that they went really well. They know their material, but they had not broken up the slides so they were just winging it. Kell and I helped them to organize their presentation in a way that they all will talk about the same amount. Now they just need to spend time really getting to know their slides and what they really mean. The girls did a really good job interpreting their graphs and explaining the concepts that we had taught them on a prior visit. We also gave them ideas to make the presentation more theirs. I feel like they have a wonderful base presentation they just need to learn to love it and explain why they are really doing it.

This week in practicum we have been working on making our presentations better and learning to love our data. I think it is going well tomorrow we are going to give another mock presentation and then determine how we want to conclude our project.

On Friday Ali, Kell and I are going to visit a school in Vilonia and teach them about wetlands. Hopefully that goes well and the kids are able to learn something from our presentations. 

Week of 04/14

This week we got our report drafts back and realized that everybody has a lot of work to do on their introductions, abstracts, and especially discussions. My group had difficulty getting a good discussion or analysis of our data because some of the stats for some response variables had not been run correctly or completely and so we had to wait for that information before we could start a discussion. I tried to find some good research articles for all of us to use and posted them in our group's folder on Blackboard. Unfortunately, only about half of the few that I posted will be worth much. It is difficult to find literature that looks at hydrology, vegetation, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. I found a lot of articles (or at least it felt like I did) on birds and vegetation in wetlands and connecting those two together. It was frustrating, but also interesting to see the direct connections between the projects of all of us in the class. This was later reinforced on Friday when we worked on our diagram.

Class Wednesday was very productive. Although I had heard some of the information before, it was really good for me to hear it again and have it reinforced and I also learned a few new things about abstracts. Our final report has a lot of work left on it before we will be in good shape. Dr. Entrekin mentioned several times the importance of the topic sentence and I couldn't agree more. After working with Dr. Larson on my thesis, I really had that ingrained in me. If I learned anything from that thesis, it was how to write a topic sentence. It's how I write everything now. I start with the topic sentences of paragraphs where I want to discuss various aspects of a topic. After I have my topic sentences, I find my collected literature and put the sources under the topic sentences and then go back to those sources and fill in the paragraphs. Finding sources is the most time-consuming part of that process and the most difficult part is writing the topic sentence. It's definitely a valuable tool.

Wednesday and Thursday we worked more on our presentation using Google drive again. Alyson worked with me in the GIS lab to put it together and Ali worked from home on it. I think overall it wasn't a bad first draft, but we realized that we definitely have some parts to work on (discussion!). Presenting and critiquing our own and each other's presentations on Friday was also highly productive. I know I definitely have direction on where to go not only on our presentation, but on the paper to improve it. Alyson worked on the presentation some last night. I aim to work on the paper this weekend and next week and then add Monday/Tuesday add in my slides so that I have time to practice them and edit them before we present again on Wednesday. Overall, it was another highly productive week!

Wrapping Things Up

This semester has flown by. I have learned so much this semester not only about macroinvertebrates but about myself. This week started by going and helping the MMS work on their presentations. I think that Kell and I were able to help them understand how to better make a presentation and actually understand their data. We will go on Tuesday and watch them give a mock presentation to help them to get ready to present in front of Scott. On class on Wednesday we got the comments from our first drafts back. We also did an in class exercise to try and improve our discussions. Today in class we did practice presentations in order to get ready for the big day. I think it was helpful and as a class we were able to work on how to present our presentations in a cohesive way. I think that it will all turn out great and we have some good ideas to really get our points across! 

Week of 04/07

Nobody went out in the field this week, and everybody has finished collecting their samples (or they should be...). We focused on our final report first draft and finishing up any statistics and graphs that did not get finished or perfected last week.

I helped Alyson run some of her stats in JMP and make some graphs because she was sick last week when I spent a lot of time working on mine in the lab with Dr. Entrekin and Ali. Our group worked on our report draft using google docs and it was fantastic. We can comment for each other and when we do work we don't do something that somebody else has already done because we can see the updated version on Google docs. There were some controversies over a few parts of our draft but it all worked out. I know that both Alyson and I have our Trimble points on an Arc map. two of my points are missing, and one of them is way off north where I definitely did not go to sample. At first I thought it was accurate, but I would have had to have walked through the water to get to the location that is recorded. I'm not sure why it is so inaccurate because it has tree information that I recorded in it. We will still need to go back in and add Ali's sample points and correct mine. I also have a duplicate point.

Alyson and I worked in the GIS lab to make locator maps and maps showing our points so that we would be able to put our own work into the report and not have to use a map that somebody else made.

I think our first draft of our report is farily good. There are still things that I want to add for the discussion, and I think our discussion at this point is a little weak. We also need a paragraph or something to conclude the entire document. At this point it kind of just stops.

I volunteered this morning for Girls of Power in STEM (GPS) from 7:30 to about 9:45. I helped with registration of the teams, team leaders, and students. It was exciting and I think I would have enjoyed fully participating for the entire time. Unfortunately I have other things I had to do today so I was unable to stay longer than just for registration. I got a T-shirt and a goody bag out of it though! I think the GPS program is a really good idea and I hope the students get a lot out of it for the remaining time they have left.

Alyson and I worked on the beginnings of our presentation, which we are also doing through Google because it worked so well last time. Ali had a prior commitment in NLR this morning and couldn't join us. We will be working on the presentation and polishing our report for the final version throughout the week.

Late Review of Night Sampling

It only just occurred to me that I hadn't posted about the night spider data collection that took place nearly a week ago. Though many had been asked to go, and several gave a "strong maybe" response, in the end, only 4 of us showed up. Myself, my lab partner Gray, and the Entrekins. Despite lower than expected participation, the search went wonderfully. Professor Entrekin taught us a method for scanning an area for spiders using flashlights reflecting off of spider eyes. While at first I had trouble seeing things, I quickly found it was a matter of location. In the tall grass areas, there was too much interference. In the short grass area, there didn't appear to be much to see. But in the leaf litter under the trees, the effects of this method became clear. The further you walked into the trees, the more little sparkles you saw reflecting back at you. It became a little startling just how many spiders had been under my feet that whole time. Later, Gray and I took a moment in the control site to just stand in silence with the lights turned off. Once your eyes adjust to the low levels of light, the bayou becomes quite a beautiful and peaceful place. Before I left, I encountered a large frog (where was he when I was looking for frogs?!?), and heard something rustling in the leaves near the edge of the control site. I assume it was a herd of deer, but my spotlight had died, and I had no way to pursue them. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable experience.

Tooling for citizen science

While you guys were at UCA slogging through your data, I was in Springfield Mass attending a conference. I learned some things that I wanted to share with you all. I know that some of  you are familiar with some of these resources, but probably not all of them. They can be used in multiple different ways and are a good way to keep your foot in ecology if you move out of the field when you graduate. Hope you find this helpful. ~Sally


*Applications for Iphone and Android smartphones*
*Ebird*‑id and document birds found in the field
*iNaturalist*‑enter notes and images that are shared with others and
automatically puts gps point
*BAMONA* (Butterflies and Moths of North America)

*Natures Notebook*
*itree*‑assessing and managing community forests
*mytreetracker*

*Big data collected and transmitted in real time*. Students can use
these
data for labs. Some colleges have written proposals to fund the
development
of a course centered around the Serengeti dataset.

https://www.zooniverse.org/
http://www.snapshotserengeti.org/

Samples

 I finished identifying my samples except for a few things that I want Dr. Entrekin to check for me. I am very sad that we had to cut the wood samples but I hope to be able to finish them next semester since I will still be at UCA. Now I am excited to sit down and actually see the results and see how similar the sites are. I think that as a group we still have a few decisions to make but everything is coming along well. Now we will analyze the data and work on our final reports. We also need to take another look at our Trimble data and figure out why some of our points are not showing up after the transfer. 

Week of 3/31

This week I worked with my data. For me, personally, I think this was a highly productive week in that regard. I learned how to make a data matrix, and I downloaded JMP and learned how to use it to run the stats that we needed to look at, and I learned a few new things about excel. Ali and I worked with our data on Friday with Dr. Entrekin helping and guiding. The three of us had a really good discussion about Ali's hydrology and the variation within the wetland. There is pooling near the middle school and in the degraded site, but there is not pooling near the main channel and pre-impact site 1. Why is there a difference? We decided that some of it could be due to foot and vehicle traffic, and the lack of trees.

I think I have finished working with my data and making graphs, but I'm not 100% confident that I did everything correctly. I got a lot done this week. I have four graphs, one of which is a stacked graph. I had never made a stacked graph before and I had problems understanding how it worked in regards to setting up my matrix to get it to display what I wanted, but it is finished and looks pretty!

Catching Up

So as some have noticed, I am awful about not making these posts as often as I should. I'm not much of a blogger (I generally don't have much more interaction with technology than I have to when it comes to social media). That being said, I also haven't had much to say. The short summary is that collecting amphibian data was not going well at all. Though I could see frogs (and took a number of photographs that will eventually make their way onto this page, as soon as I can sort and edit them from my phone and camera), almost no frogs actually showed up in any of my samples. I have actually felt pretty bad about that, since it seems that most if not all of my classmates have completed sampling and are well into their analysis of their data, and yet I haven't even collected any usable data. I have been going out at least once or twice a week, spending 5 or 6 hours at a time in the field trying to catch anything I can use, but it just didn't pan out. In response to that, my topic has changed from amphibians to spiders (a last minute switch that has left me scrambling to restart and do a lot of things in a short amount of time). Last night I went out with my lab partner and we were able to sample two transects each at the P2 and Control site. The P2 site had an exceptional number of spiders, and I was relieved to finally have some data. The Control site had significantly less data, with only 3 spiders turning up between the two transects. This isn't such a bad thing, though it is a curious result as one might expect there to be more spiders in the Control site than in the other sites. I still need to do a lot of research on spiders, sampling methods, and things of that sort, but again, I am quite pressed for time (between this course and several tests and papers coming up in the next two weeks, I probably won't sleep much more than I did last week, averaging about an hour and a half per night). Last night I finally received an email to download the JMP program for statistics, though I had sent the request for it Wednesday, and everyone else got their email within a few minutes, an hour tops. I don't know why mine didn't come until last night, but I ended up passing out before I had time to play with my data. That is on the agenda for today, as well as the research for spider sampling methods.

Tonight however, I have different plans. I am attempting to organize a group spider sampling event, in which anybody that shows up will help us search for spiders for a given time at each site within a given location. I need any help that I can get, so if you are reading this and have some spare time tonight around 7, please send me an email at ksullins@email.com. I'm ironing out some details for that this afternoon, but after yesterday's success at P2, I am hopeful that this is going to be equally as effective. A quick note, if you have a flashlight or two, the brighter the better, bring it. We will be using them to try and reflect light off of spider webs and spider silk threads along the ground and trees. I wish I had more information at this time, but I will release more information as it becomes available.

Field Post 1 (P1 and Degraded sites)

Completed dip netting of P1 and the Degraded site. Results: P1 had very few visible amphibians, with only 2 frogs seen and 1 large tadpole captured on the 7th of 10 attempts (an attempt being 4 sweeps of 1 meter each). A few crayfish were captured in the process. The Degraded site had frogs everywhere, constantly jumping off the banks as I walked. There was no sign of tadpoles nor were any caught, however one frog was captured on the 8th of 10 attempts, and crayfish were captured in abundance in every attempt. Several other fish and insects were captured and seen as well. Spiders were nearly as common as frogs. In the distance, large white birds are constantly visible in the more secluded wetlands. Of the frogs in the ruts of the degraded site, there appear to be between 3-5 species, varying in size and color. None larger than an inch or smaller than a half inch.

A few photos were acquired and will be loaded later.

Spring Break Week

The week of spring break was mostly relaxing. I mainly just looked at my camera pictures and made sure that most were legible. I believe that I do need to let my cameras sit and collect more data in the field. For some reason during my second SD card collection, pre-impact 2 did not collect a single picture. I checked in field during collection day if the camera was working, and the camera and SD card both worked when I manually made it collect a photo. I have no idea why it did not work. It may be something with the auto feature. I would like to go out sometime this weekend and make sure all my cameras are still operating and the battery life is good. The battery percent in Pre-impact 2 was significantly lower compared to other sites (64% i to 88%) when I checked over spring break. So far the only problems with my camera data are: Control first round SD only collected one photo, and Pre-impact 2 second round SD collected zero.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Kyle Sliger/Joshua Hines 

3/30/14

7:00am-10:00am

Today, Josh and I finished up our point count surveys for birds. We found a few more species than we did last time we went out. However, there still seems to be more diversity/abundance (as expected) within the control and pre-impacted sites 1 &2 when compared to the degraded site of the bayou. It was a little chilly and foggy this morning but as soon as the sun came up, the fog cleared as the morning was very nice for bird activity. Also, to all those who thought there to be no fish in the White Oak Bayou wetlands; Josh and I saw a 30 pound Drum swimming through in only 8-10 inches of water at the control site. We also saw a beaver while we were at the pre-impact site #2 and a few deer grazing at the degraded site. Sadly, we also found at pre-impact #2 that someone had shot one of our cameras for studying hydrology. I guess that's the risk you have to take when you have to leave them out there. All in all, it was a fantastic day to spend in the White Oak Bayou

Week of 03/17

Grace Kellner
On Wednesday this week, we met to look over our data and prepare our spreadsheets so that we can start analyzing our data. I always forget how much more difficult this is than I think it will be. I have mine set up and half of my data entered. Alyson and I also worked with Pathfinder to try and transfer our points into ArcMap. She got all but three of her points, which is good, but also a little worrisome because it could cause problems if everybody is missing a few points.  I had intended to transfer my points in the GIS lab in Burdick on Thursday, but it turns out that Pathfinder hasn't been re installed on the master computer in there yet this semester, so I will try to do it when we get back from spring break.

On Friday, Ali and I went out to transfer her SD cards in the cameras. It was a wonderful day to be outside, although a touch warm. Alyson let us use her camera to make sure the pictures all worked. Unfortunately, the Sample 2 site had no pictures at all on the SD card. This could definitely be a problem for Ali. We were out there from 1:45 to about 3:45 and we visited all sites. When we got back, we helped Alyson pick through some of her macroinvertebrate samples. I vaguely remember doing this in Ecology many semesters ago, but it was fun for me to relearn how to do it and get some practice doing it. We also got to help Kyle and Josh with their samples, although there were a few unfortunate technical difficulties. It was really interesting to me to know what everyone else was doing and get experience in a variety of activities.

6 Week Summer Opportunity VT

I'm applying to the Middlebury School of the Environment six week summer program which is in Vermont. I found out about this at my conference. The deadline for applications has already passed but they have open spots and funding available, so admission is rolling. Information on the program, the course, and applications can be found at www.middlebury.edu/environment.

I know some of you have families or summer plans already, but it's a great opportunity, and if I get accepted I'm going to do it. I think the dates are June 20-August 1. You have to mail in a transcript and you need two letters of recommendation that have to be signed by yourself the applicant and mailed in as well. And then the financial aid application has to be mailed in. If you're considering applying, don't consider long because when the spots are gone, they're gone. 

-Grace

Productive Week

On Friday Dr. Entrekin sat down with me in the lab and taught me how to identify my samples. It was so helpful and I am so appreciative for her help. Even though I still have a lot of samples left it seems way more manageable. She was able to give me helpful hints and had me look at the bigger picture which really helped me to grasp what I was doing. I was really worried about my topic but after working on it I now love it and I am absolutely in love with this project. A special thanks you Ali and Kyle for helping pick samples. Y’all are lifesavers!

Pics from Friday

Busy Busy Bee(s)

Trying to keep this post short and simple because a lot has happened in the last six days.

Friday- I went out in the field with Gray and Grace, I felt kind of useless at first, all I could really do was mark trees for plots. Like Grace said, I did enjoy learning about trees though! I was surprised how easy it is to identify some trees just by the bark, branches, and what's laying on the ground near the tree. I took some good candid pictures while the other two were being productive with data collection.

Sunday- After I got off work, Alyson and I went to the lab and picked through some of her samples. It was like I was back in the saddle again from when I did that for Mandy Bates. I always enjoy picking samples, it's like a puzzle! I think Alyson needs everyone to help when they can, even if they can only do one/two samples. She's doing a great job but she still has to ID and analyze in order to get her data!

Tuesday- Steve Polaskey helped Josh and I with NH4 sampling. We realized that NH4 is a butt. Not only are the reagents used for the analytical techniques SUPER toxic, but after all the samples are prepped, we have to let them sit in the dark for a minimum of SIX HOURS! So after everything was prepped and set up, we decided we were done for the day.

Wednesday- So we ran our samples, and we realized that we are going to have to run them all over again. You know you messed something up when all 7 of your standards read the same value. We assumed that we would need to dilute our samples down to 10% of the original because our spec only reads to 84 ug/L and according to Allyn's results, ammonium averages were in a range from 100-650 ug/L. Now we know that was a silly idea, and we also know somewhere along the lines we really messed up our standards and we need to re-make our stock solution. I don't know if I believe the instructions' metrics so i'll be double checking that before we make more. Anywho, it was a great learning experience.

Wednesday Night- The Steering Committee met today. From what I was able to attend, I feel like they are really happy with where they have gotten. They have identified areas based on their necessity to be conserved. They also want to focus on the wetland areas that are heavily forested because apparently the CORP doesn't have any regulations on timber harvesting in wetlands. One thing I did notice in the meeting is that there is an education gap between the residents and the scientists. One resident north of Maumelle was the prime example of that. He kept voicing his concern about flooding in his town, and how he thought the best action would be to dig a ditch within the white oak creek to alleviate some of this backup. We all tried to educate him that managing the wetland and preserving other parts would solve his flooding problem somewhat, but as long as development continues, the flooding in his neighborhood will worsen. He still didn't understand. We need to figure out a simple way to communicate to the residents that digging ditches is counterproductive.

Update about class

Well, things are going swimmingly. Please take advantage of some of the posted volunteer opportunities. There is a tire pick up event on Saturday in Arkadelphia. A good cause and also a way to interact with professionals at the Arkansas Heritage Commission.

I went to Maumelle Middle School yesterday and viewed the students poster with data and pictures along with their summary and project goal (to organize a clean up). I want to say that Kell, Alyson, and Ali have done an excellent job helping them with their project! Really well done and they appreciate the help a lot.  They will be heading to their conference next week, so we won't be visiting until after spring break. We would like to help them with their camera, help organize the trash clean up, and go out and sample with them using your tools - especially the bugs, birds, and amphibians. They are at a great site and I think doing some biotic sampling would be great.

Today, March 12, many students will be attending the Steering Committee meeting to inform the group of their projects. I will be in class to help anyone with data. Friday, I need you all to let me know what you need help with. I can go in the field or be in lab to help with data entry. Please let me know.

So glad that you are all on track with your data collection. Enjoy the lovely spring weather!

Opportunity for trail walk

As many of you already know, we are planning two wetland field trips this
month. Our first wetland walk will be THIS SATURDAY, March 15th at 10 a.m.
We'll meet at the end of Vestal Boulevard. Our next trip will be Saturday,
March 29th at 10 a.m.at the Maumelle Wetland Trail. I've attached more
information and location maps for each event.

These tours are a wonderful (free!) way to enjoy and learn more about the
wetlands found right in the local watershed. If you need any additional
information or have questions, please feel free to contact me at either of
the numbers listed below..

I'd also just like to remind any of you who may be interested that we are
holding a Steering Committee meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the South Room
at the Jess Odom Community Center at 1100 Edgewood Drive. We hope to have
as much community involvement as possible in the White Oak Bayou Wetland
Management project!

We hope to see you at one of our upcoming meetings or trips!

Allyn Fuell

Week of 03/03

Grace Kellner

On Wednesday we had current biology graduate student guest speakers come talk to applying to graduate school, what graduate school is like in biology, and what to expect.

On Friday, most of us were out in the field. Myself, Ali, and Gray worked together in the control site from 1:45 to around 4:00. We got all three of our points finished at the site and I am now completely finished collecting data. Turns out Dr. Entrekin was right and I didn't need to freak out about not having enough time in the field. Allyn and my dad were good teachers.

It was really wet in the area, but it was actually pretty interesting because if we stood still we could see an obvious flow of the water receding. Walking back after taking our samples we all noticed that the path had less standing water in it than it did when we walked in a few hours before. As far as identifying trees, I have definitely learned a how to identify the dominant species in this area: white oak, overcup oak, willow oak, shagbark hickory, post oak, and green ash. Although there were very few shagbarks, I can tell if the tree is a hickory or not depending on the size of the terminal buds. I think Ali liked helping and learning too and she even identified an ash! We definitely had fun taking our samples and we also helped Gray do some of his HGM assessment. Now we have to analyze our data and continue to work on our proposal and begin work on our final report and presentation.

Alyson, was not in the field with us because she already has all of her samples and it would be a poor use of her time to be out with us when she needed to be identifying her samples, so she stayed in the lab to do that.

I'm impressed with how quickly everything has come together. Two weeks ago I was convinced it would take everybody at least four to six weeks to get all of our samples, but I am finished, Alyson is finished (collecting, not identifying), and Josh has finished collecting his samples. We got some pictures in the field as well. I have an image of a tree that I was not sure of, and Ali took pictures of us working.

I will not be in class this coming week and will also miss the Steering Committee meeting because I'll be out of town for a conference.

Meeting the kiddos:

Alyson and I were able to go help with the Maumelle Middle School EAST kids today. We are currently helping them on a poster/video presentation for the EAST conference in two weeks as well as a powerpoint presentation for the city of Maumelle (I believe). In the beginning we hashed out what things needed to be done now, and what needed to be put off until after the conference. The kids know what they are doing data wise, but are unclear as to WHY they are doing these things. I was able to talk to the kids about the importance of bar graphs, standard error, and why dissolved oxygen is so important in a wetland. Looking at their raw data, I felt that it would be best if we went out once or twice more with the kids and collected readings with them. It is very skewed in some places, and then uniform in others. We talked to Candy about splitting the kids up when we go back on Tuesday and taking a few out to sample while the rest work on the project.

Below is what we sketched out for the kids.

• My (VERY ROUGH) explanation of DO
• Poster setup for conference
• What they need to work on for next time/ data analysis 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Getting things done:

Today Ali and I went to talk to the 8^th graders at Maumelle Middle. I think we made some good progress but there is still a lot to do before their conference. We started the day by giving each of the kids a topic that they will be responsible for. The boys are going to look at 4 weeks of camera data which includes 5 pictures per-day (9-3). The three girls are going to split dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, and temperature. Then I took two sheets of paper and one for the conference, and one for their meeting and we broke down what needed to be done for both. For the conference they need to establish a goal/objective, write a 6 sentence summary, and change their movie trailer to a video so they can slow it down and add more substance. They are supposed to have an objective and rough draft of their paper ready for us next Tuesday. For the meeting they are each going to cover their topic in a power point. As a group they will talk about their goal and what their hopes are.  After we nailed this stuff down the boys started looking at the pictures, Ali helped scout with excel and graphs and I sat with the other two girls and we talked about their data and things they had questions about. I think we got a lot accomplished today but there is still so much to do. They are hoping that we will go out to their sample site and collect another turbidity and DO with them, also they want to get some picture of us working with them. Next week since there are more of us going I feel like it might be a good idea for us to divide and concur but I am willing to do what Dr. Entrekin thinks is best. I was thinking a group could go out with them and take the samples and a group can help them with going over their summary for the conference.  

Steering committee meeting March 12th from 3 to 4:30

See email below from Allyn: 
 
Steering committee meeting is Wednesday, March 12^th from 3 to 4:30 in the same place as the TAC meeting. It would be so wonderful if the students could come talk about their projects.

Fieldwork Friday 02/28 and Saturday 03/01

Grace Kellner
We did not have class on Wednesday of this week, but I went to the meeting on Tuesday. On Friday, everybody was out in the field either collecting samples or collecting data from about 2:00 to 5:00. Allyn Fuell was there to help myself and Gray with our HGM plots and to help me get a handle on tree identification. The first plot took about an hour to complete once we got it set up. There were only a few dominant species in that plot. Then we set up a second plot in a more bottomland area and that one only took about 45 minutes to do. The rest of the groups had moved on to different locations, so we went to see when they were and when they were leaving. We had just enough time to set up a plot in the degraded area. Gray's HGM assessment only took a few seconds because most of his data was 0 and mine was a lot faster as well because Allyn helped identify the number of different grass and forb species in a square meter plot.

Saturday morning a group went out early to collect data. I went out later with my father (a biologist at ATU) and Allyn. Everything went a lot faster because I knew how to set up the plots and could identify the species more easily. My dad and I did the last plot in the Sample 1 location, the last two in the degraded, and all three in the sample 2 location. Allyn was only able to come out for the latter part of our trip, but helped us identify two tree species that I of course didn't know and my dad was unsure about. She also took samples of some of the grasses back with her so she could identify the species for me. I feel like I can do the rest of the points on my own as long as I have a guidebook to help me with the difficult species. It might also be interesting to come back once the trees have leaves on them at the end of the semester to sample again to see if our identifications without leaves were accurate. In total, on Saturday I was in the field from 2:00 to 5:30.

Crazy week!

Alyson Stepina
week of Feb 24-28

This was a very busy week. It started out Tuesday morning when Dr. Entrekin, Kell and I went to Maumelle Middle school. We were able to meet with the middle school kids for the first time. We were able to talk to them and try and figure out their ultimate goal and teach them some things about the data they were collecting. We spent a lot of time talking about turbidity and the importance of it. We were also able to talk to them about our project which was exciting. After our visit the three of us decided that it would be good to come up with some back ground questions for them to answer before we went back again. Our plan is to go back this Thursday and go over those questions and start to work on their presentation boards.

Tuesday night I went to the Conway watershed meeting Josh and Grace were also there. During the meeting the official name was decided, Lake Conway Point Removed Watershed Alliance. They started the meeting with a recap so we were able to understand where they were. The UA representative went over a 9-element plan and what it was. Then we were numbered off and did group activity. Each group was supposed to decide what they wanted the watershed to look like in 15 years and what some of their concerns were. Somehow because I was the youngest they made me be the person to write and speak for the group. The five things my group came up with were: water depth, flood control, vegetation removal/ balance, recreation, renewed interest (game and fish commission, public, and other organizations). Next we went over the different types of exec boards that the group could have. A committee was made to construct a mission statement and potentially come up with some bi-laws to go over at the next meeting. The next meeting will occur on March 25^th at 6pm at the nature resource center. It was very interesting to see the steps that you have to go through to start up an organization like this.

Friday the whole class went out to collect samples. Allyn came out to help Grace and Grey with HGM and Dr. Entrekin helped Josh, Ali and I with collecting our samples. Friday went well we were able to collect samples from the degraded site and pre-impact 1. Since Kyle could not collect his bird data he helped me collect my data since it takes a lot of hands! At the degraded site we ran into problems finding the different categories we were using so we ended up omitting a category.

Saturday morning Josh and I met on campus at 6:30 and gathered all of our supplies. Then we met Kyle at the end of the road to collect the bird data. We went to all four sites and did 10 minute counts for the birds. It was interesting that even though all of our sites are relatively close they each had a different species that was predominate. Then at the control and the pre-impact 2 we changed the cameras for Ali. Kyle stayed and helped us collect samples t the control which was nice because Josh and I both need two sets of hands. After the control we went back to pre-impact 2 and collected samples there. We did the water quality first and then my macroinvertebrates. Josh and I helping each other help to make sure that we did not muck up each other’s water since we both need the water to not be disturbed before we take our samples. Collecting was a really good experience other than when I fell in the water. It was nice to actually go out and experience collecting after we have talked about the processes for so long. All together it was a very busy week but I think it was very successful.

This next week we will go back to the middle school as well as start to analyze our data in the lab and see what we actually have. 

Lake Conway Point Remove Watershed Alliance Meeting

02/26
Grace Kellner

Last night I attended the Lake Conway Point Remove Watershed Alliance (now their official name) meeting. The meeting was not what I expected. I thought The organization was already established and I was just attending a meeting to go over what had been accomplished over the past month and what was on the agenda for the next month. This was instead, a group of citizens from the Conway area, guided by people from Metroplan and the University of Arkansas in the organizational process of forming an official group.

We got some background information on the 9-element plan which is what UA is instructed to create for this watershed. Everyone at the meeting then split into four groups and discussed concerns and goals for Lake Conway for the next 15 years. The major concerns voiced by every group included improving  the recreational area, addressing sewage and pollution, improving water quality, reducing sedimentation, establishing sustainable fisheries, and getting more of the public involved in the improvement of Lake Conway.

As a new organization that was not named until the end of the meeting, we also discussed mission statements and bylaws, which are necessary for the group to grow. There was some confusion among the members about how to get people from Russellville and Dardanelle involved when they are not at these organizational meetings, but I think the issue is one of a lack of communication. The drive is only 45 minutes to an hour and people in that area would likely have no problem making the drive to Conway for meetings once a month. However, to get people from other areas involved it is easier to have a strong foundation. The foundation comes from the mission statement and the bylaws which give the group an identity.

We drafted words and phrases that we wanted to see in the goal portion of the mission statement these were: restore, enhance, natural resources, collaborative, integrity. To achieve this group members said they wanted to work towards developing education programs, policies, water monitoring, and action projects to address present and future issues.

At the very end of the meeting, a handful of local people volunteered to be part of a committee that would work to create the final mission statement and draft the bylaws. The bylaws will include the group structure. So, they could have a steering committee and a TAC like the White Oak Bayou does, but then they have to decide how many people will be on those committees and if they will be from different areas like business, agriculture, education, etc.

While this was not a meeting I expected to participate in, I enjoyed it and thought it was pretty fascinating to watch the beginning formation of a group that could make a big difference in this community and surrounding areas within the watershed.

Questions for the Maumelle Middle School 8th Graders

After meeting with the 8th grade class that will be working in the White Oak Bayou, several things became clear. First of all, they already have a lot of data after collecting once a week every week for the past several weeks (I think they said 5 or 6 weeks). They also have tons of photos from one of Scott's cameras (almost all of which have deer in them, all of which seemed to have some visible animals). They also have a video that was amusing regarding their project.

So now comes our first interaction: we need to ask them questions. Not just what we want to know, but what do we think they need to know. It became clear that while they have all of this data, they don't seem to know why. They don't seem to know what purpose it will serve. They also don't seem to know what it is that they are measuring (they were checking the turbidity, but they didn't seem to know what that meant, why it was important, or what the units meant).

So, we need questions for them ASAP (coming from the great procrastinator, that must sound funny), because the sooner they get the questions, the sooner they can start looking for the answers and get back to us for the next step in the process. I believe we hope to check in on them Tuesday of next week to see what they have come up with. So comment your questions, please.

Week of February 17

Last week we worked on our data libraries for out Trimble units using Pathfinder. This was the first time for any of us to use the software, but everyone spent some time with it and almost everyone got their data libraries on their Trimble units. Creating a library for species was difficult because I would ideally need to create an attribute row for each species and within the row for each location, list the number of each species identified within the plot. However, that would require me to make many rows which would make it difficult to enter my data for each location. As a compromise I created fields for the dominant species we expect to find as well as five "other" fields to list other species identified. Hopefully there are no more than five "other" species. If there are then I can adjust my library at a later date.

On Friday we had guest speakers from the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in North Little Rock. It was really great to hear about potential jobs after graduation. Although I intend to go to graduate school in the fall, I will still at some point need to find a job and hearing tips from recent UCA graduates was really informative.

As a class we also made a list of equipment for field work on Friday February 28 when we go out in the field with Allyn. I have added a densiometer to my list of equipment because Dr. Entrekin wants me to also survey density along with richness.

Volunteer with the Arkansas Heritage Commission-great experience!

Why? remannt prairie and savannah has  lot of dumped tires
What? pick up tires, clean them, recycle, and learn about the natural history of the site from Arkansas Heritage professionals
What's in it for you? Satisfy your volunteer requirement for this class. Build resume. Do something for the community
When? March 15th from 9am to 4pm. See map below
Interested? Contact Coleman Little at czlittle@uca.edu
Bring: food, water, gloves, wear grubbies

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/arkansas/placesweprotect/terre-noire.xml

Week of 17Feb14

Wednesday was spent getting an equipment list together and working on Trimble/Pathfinder. MarySue's instructions are extremely helpful, but students still need time to work through the interfaces and often we have glitches  with the units. This exercise requires a full lab period-note for next class. Everyone has a nice data library that should make data collection easier.

Allyn is meeting us in the field next week. Everyone will be collecting some data. Kyle might need to wait till later, but perhaps he could go before the entire crew shows up and get some initial counts?

Kell is going to contact some herpetologists and run his methods by them before he goes out Friday. I think everyone will be up and running after next Friday.

I need to grade the final proposals this coming week and send them to the WOB group.

Message from MMM teacher

Hey guys--With a broken wrist and shoulder, communication by email has been spotty, to say the least...anyway, my students are planning on clearing the trail as much as possible Monday Feb. 24 and Tuesday, Feb. 25 from 3:40-5:30 both days. We have a parent who will help, but we are hoping Sally can bring a couple of students to help and also that Bill might be able to come. I have also invited Jack Stowe from the City of Maumelle to come, too. Maybe if we have enough man power, we can make some progress. Bill's wife said they have a brush cutter, and the parent is bringing a chain saw--my students are bringing rakes and gloves. I think we will need handsaws and chainsaws and some type of brush cutters and gloves if you have them.
I have a work day at school Monday, so will be there as soon as we dismiss.
Please let me know if you can possibly come help us--we really want to get this started before it warms up and critters begin to move around! You can contact me using my cell phone ----501-681-0174----rather than calling the school.

Friday, Feb. 19, 2014 - 1300-1700
White Oak Bayou
Sunny. Rained recently.

Everyone met in the field to establish the four sites. We took handheld GPS units, and collected points at each site. Placing the field cameras and rods was a secondary objective. Finding good, partially inundated locations was easy enough; however, adjusting the camera (once mounted on a tree) to get all of the rod into focus was difficult. We ended up using sticks, and whatever else was available to tilt the units downward. This is probably only a temporary fix.

While in the field, the issue of finite boundaries for each site was raised by myself and others. For several of our projects, data collections must occur within predefined areas, not all of which may be congruent. Dr. Entrekin challenged us to think about how best to situate our plots to accurately quantify the conditions at each site. For me, this means encompassing as much of the gradient between upland and deep water as possible. Kell made a suggestion regarding amphibian collection, proposing that we use a flat board to provide shelter for them, then count whatever crawls underneath.

Field Day- Feb 14th
When 13:30-18:00
Who- Practicum Class and Dr. Entrekin

Friday was our first day as a lab to get out and really get dirty in the wetlands. We took out our GPS trimble units that Mary-Sue Passe-Smith provided, as well as very handy instructions. We were able to plot all of our points on the GPS units, except for me. My unit was finicky and I lost all my point because I had to re-set my device. Thankfully I have 6 other lab mates that took the same points, so data is not lost!

As for hydrology, we were able to successfully set up all four cameras and PVC measuring pipe. I had to get a little clever and figure out how to keep the PVC in view of the camera by shoving pieces of stick between the tree and the camera to get a good downward angle. Hopefully this rigging with zip ties will stay in place and the sticks will stay wedged between the tree and camera.

We went out to our control site for the first time today, and at first I was a little worried we might get shot. There were a lot of private property posting signs, but Dr. Entrekin assured us that Scott Owen cleared it with the land owner we would be out on the land. This area was probably the most interesting habitat type. There were a lot of dead/dying trees. Mostly oak, we realized that this now impounded area was not always this wet. The beavers have impounded this area and now it's suffering. Data in this area will be very interesting to analyze!

Overall, even though we were in the field a lot longer than expected it was a great day, with great weather. I was happy to spend a few hours soaking up some Vit D.

On a side note, it was my task to set up a twitter account for the White Oak Bayou and here it is. I think we need to take some pictures of WOB to make our twitter more pretty!
https://twitter.com/WOBPracticum 

Getting Our Feet Wet

Alyson Stepina
02/14/14
Location: WOB Collection Sites
Time spent: 1:30-5:20
Team members: Practicum Class and Dr. Entrekin

Today we went out to the four sites for the second time. This time we had an idea of the sites and what we were doing so we were able to explore more. The first time we went out we were not able to spend much time at the control site due to a lack of time so this gave us another time as a group to do that. We set up a camera at each of the four sites as well as learned to use the Trimble units. I was especially excited to actually be able to get in the water and explore. Kyle and I spent time at each of the sites walking around and just deciding which areas we thought would be best to collect our samples from. I find it very calming to just walk around in the water and appreciate the natural wonder that is a wetland. Now I am excited to collect and identify all of the different macroinvertebrates! 

What do I need to do?

Great day in the field on February 14th. Students have really thought a lot about their projects. Here is what I need to do to get them rolling:

Wed: We will learn how to set up a data dictionary using the trimble units and students will download their GPS points.

Amphibians: love Kell's idea of adding habitat. Now we need to get  a plan and get materials. Allyn sent an email on a contact, so we need to contact him and set up a time to talk.

Habitat: Gray has a good idea of how to do the HGM. Now we need to just go out and try it out and get him settled in with the methods. We need to ask Allyn to go in the field with us.

Plants: Grace has worked on a nice key and has a good idea of how to set up her transects. Next step is to arrange a time she can meet with Allyn. So, Gray and Grace definately should meet with Allyn. After Grace meets with Allyn then we should schedule a time with Theo Whitsell who has already said he will meet with her. We will shoot for a friday during lab time.

Bugs: Alyson's methods are solid and she has a good handle on her design. I'd say she is ready to hit the ground and I can go out and help her with the first collection.

Birds: I think Kyle has a good idea of what he is doing. Just need to go out and try out his methods and see how they work out.  Still searching for a bird expert.

 Water quality: Josh has a good idea of what he is doing. Now, we need to confirm number of samples and where he needs to sample. It would be good if I went out with Alyson and Josh on the same day.

Hydrology: Ali did a good job in leading the charge to get cameras out-see other posts for interesting details. Now she will work with Josh and figure out methods for sampling and analysis.

Maumelle Middle School: I'm scheduled to meet with Candy on Tuesday of next week during class time. ~10 to 12 . Trail clean up did not happen, so waiting for the reschedule information. Need to talk to practicum students to determine what day of the week they could meet with the students.

Great progress class!

Valentines Day in the WOB

Another day on the ground. We got our hydro monitoring cameras up around the sites. It took some MacGyverizing to get the perfect camera angles, but ingenuity and zip ties won the day.
We also got started with the Trimble GPS units. Those things are pretty cool, though they take some getting used to. It's going to be awesome to get to use them more!

There were lots of birds in the area Friday. The air temps started warming a bit & it was perfect foraging weather. A Northern Flicker got a little too close to a Red-headed Woodpecker's hangout and was promptly scolded & routed out of the tree. Bad for him but good for us as he escaped within better viewing range for us.

I have a good feeling about working here. I am optimistic about this project and eager to get things started. Right now the plan is to go back this weekend and start collecting data.

More to come.

Friday, February 14

Grace Kellner
02/14/14
Location: Data Collection Sites
Time spent: 1:30-5:45
Team members: Everyone

This week in lab we discussed communication and different ways to communicate, not only within our groups, but in our lab class and also the public and middle school children. We made plans to set up a Twitter account and a Facebook page. I am in charge of contacting The Echo to see if they will do a story on our class in order to increase campus awareness regarding our work.

On Friday we went out in the field and set up cameras to monitor hydrology. This was good to begin collecting data. It was difficult to set up the cameras to get both the top and bottom numbers of the notched PVC pipes in the viewer lens so that it can accurately track water level changes. Ali devised a makeshift method of using pieces of wood to wedge between the cameras and the tree in order to angle them downward to get the bottom measurements. We also had to work to strategically place the cameras where they would not be seen by people and potentially vandalized, but also where they could best monitor changes to the hydrology.

I went over my methods with Dr. Entrekin because I was not totally sure how I would set up my plots and where I would decide to set them up. We talked about it and decided that the best way to do it would be to use Google Earth to set up transects numbered by meter that include both upland and bottom land areas. I will then use a random number generator to determine where along the transect to set up my 0.08 ha circle plots. For ares that do not have canopy cover, I will use a square meter plot and determine the number of grass species in the meter. I should do about four of these in the grassy areas to equal the amount of area in proportion to the area used for assessment in my circle plots.

As a class we got to break out the Trimble units to figure out how to work them. A big "thank you" to Mary Sue Passe-Smith for giving us instructions on how to work them. We have all had experience in Cartography, but for most of us it has been at least a year or two since we have used them and her instructions were very handy. It was good to get experience using them now so that when we go out on our own time to collect data we will know how to work them and will not have to figure it out again. Everybody took points of the locations where we set up the cameras.

Lab took about an extra hour out in the field than we had planned. This gives me an idea of how time-consuming data collection will be. The only days I am able to collect data due to my work schedule, are Fridays during our allotted lab time, and the weekends. This could be difficult in collaborating with local professionals for field assistance because those that work during the government work typical 9-5 hours during the week and do not work on the weekends. However, getting help identifying vegetation, learning tips and tricks for vegetation identification, and solidifying my methods with a professional would be extremely helpful and so I hope to be able to successfully collaborate for a meeting time very soon regarding field work.

W.O.B. Second Day in the Field

Date: 2-14-14

Location: White Oak Bayou

Time: 1:30 - 5:00

Name: Kyle Sliger

Friday, our environmental practicum class spent some time in the field for some initial preparations and training. First, we spent some time at the degraded site by the power lines learning to properly use the Tremble GPS units. Although most of us have worked with them before, it's nice to brush up on a useful skill. We then proceeded to set up our outdoor camera at the degraded site in order to monitor water levels. Next we visited the two pre-impacted sites and installed our cameras and discussed the different habitats to be studied and the methods with which to do so. The next site we visited to install our final camera was the control site. Here we learned how beavers could alter the hydrology to the extent that trees were rapidly dying off in the area due to too much water. This site was beautiful and I expect to see a lot of birds to study while I am there. 

Lake Conway-Point Remove Watershed meeting