"I will be listing different species of ferns....." An internship experience post by Keith Ladwig

Keith Ladwig, Ecological Data Collection intern with the College of Menominee Nation, shares his internship duties and experience in the blog post below:

Keith Ladwig, Sustainable Development Intern, works to identify ferns and forest plants.

Starting June 10th, 2013 through the 13th of June I attended the ITC symposium. One thing I thought was important was traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and scientific ecological knowledge (SEK)-- the different type of knowledge like being passed down from family or experiences. Then, the scientific things we might learn and then us being able to compare the two. There were other things that we did as well like listening to presentations, workshops, and tours.

                After the summer institute we began work on ecological data collection. We set up a one-hector plot behind the culture building on the CMN campus. We collect data on trees that are in our plots. Some of the data we collected includes diameter at breast height, the species identity, and any notes about the tree. Sosaeh, Brennan, and I worked together measuring and collecting data while working in each individual quad; which is a twenty by twenty meter area.

                Now we are making a virtual herbarium. In the herbarium we will include pictures of plants and tree species and identify them. We will use taxon code meaning using the scientific name. For white pine it would be Pinus Strobis which, would then be PINSTR. For the pictures we will rename and put them in photo files. They will be named in taxon, photographer, date, and the photo number. The herbarium will include trees that are in our plot and plants that we have not collected data on. We are going to set up an online list of species that we have in this area.

In the botany aspect I will be focusing on ferns and allies. I will be listing different species of ferns and other types of allies that are in this area. Earlier this summer each intern chose a tree species to do a bio about. Some of us had the same tree, but I chose the Red Pine. I wrote up basic information about it and how a person can tell it apart from other trees like the white pine.