One of my favorite parts of working with FLOW has been the weekend events! This may sound surprising since work on Saturday and Sunday isn’t always appealing, but the volunteer events are a blast every time. This past weekend, we had two great events at Highbanks Metro Park. The first event was MacroFest where dozens of families walked down to the river to see what macro-invertebrates we could pull from the water. Stream quality monitoring experts used nets, ice trays, petri dishes, and other equipment to pull bugs and some crayfish from the river. This was such a fun way to educate locals about the status of our rivers and how to tell if the habitat is healthy. Later, we walked a trail to clean-up litter, but we ended up getting more of an adventure than we planned for! We trudged through thick brush to get down to a creek littered with plastics, and we were surprised by a few snakes! One even coiled around a plastic water bottle. While the volunteers could have been upset that we went a bit off the trail, they were excited and good-sports all the way through. I have no doubt that attending these events will be a regular activity for me even after our fellowship is complete!

I had the opportunity to attend another Science Committee meeting this week. We finally have the details of FLOW’s first ever Milkweed Mania fundraiser planned out. I’m hoping to launch the details on Monday, so follow FLOW on Facebook or Instagram if you want to purchase some milkweed plants to help the butterflies! In addition to talking about the milkweed fundraiser, I was able to present some of the findings from a survey I conducted earlier in the summer. It felt good to be able to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way, when just a couple months ago it was all brand new to me. Based on my findings, FLOW will be able to adapt and make future tree giveaways more accessible and successful. One thing that really gets people excited about FLOW’s mission is trees, so to hear feedback that trees survived after being planted in yard around the watershsed is super encouraging!

This weekend, I will be attending an invasive species removal at Hudson Prairie. We will be removing Canadian Thistle and Purple Crownvetch to make sure the native species have the space and nutrients they need to thrive. Wish me luck in our last week! -Shelly