The Return and Start of the 2016 Oil Pad Research

Orchard Grass

What a blessing it is to be back at AuSable for another summer of Research.  Upon arriving, Wednesday afternoon I was introduced to the 2016 Oil Pad Research and Kirtland's Warbler Team.  What a dedicated group of students.  They have been work very hard to establish the Kirkland's project, and therefore the Oil team began their work Thursday morning.  We left campus at 6AM and were to our site in Ostego County by 645AM ~ here we laid out our transects and quickly got to work collecting survivorship data in the cool of the day.

Back when I was in graduate school I remember fearing that the study would reveal no results.  Likewise heading into Thursday I was a bit concerned the trees would all be dead.  To no great surprise this was not so. Many of the trees are doing quite well in the non fertilized treatments.   What a joy it was to see that they had not all died.

Growing Tree - Surrounded by Poa grass species

After a year away it was wonderful and a great relief how the plant and grass species names flooded back to memory.  The students are very proficient in their identification skills.  We worked steadily finding trees and determining plant coverage.  There is a real sense of community in the work!

At our second site (Shell Oil Road) we found a vesper sparrow nesting right in the midst of a study plot.  She flew off her nest and we were able to mark the nest to ensure we would not step on her eggs.  We worked carefully and she returned to her nest.  As the afternoon wore on we also spotted a Black Billed Cuckoo and Baltimore Oriole.

Badger Hole

Upon finishing our second site, we celebrated with a snickers bar and drove onto our last site of the day(Sand Lake).  Here we ate a quick dinner, and with a little sugar in our system we efficiently set out to complete the site.  This site had a new badger hole and we were surprised to find one of our trees buried in the newly dug dirt ~ We were thankful for our metal detector.  This is a new record of completing three sites in one day! The team arrived home right at 9PM.  Off to bed it was for the tired team.

Goat's Beard

Friday was another early morning ~ this time we headed for the Crooked Lake site.  This one requires a lovely walk from the road through a rolling landscape of bracken ferns, popular stand, and final a northern hardwood forest before being dump into the sandy site.  Here the greatest challenge was finding trees which were alive.  In a survivorship study, things will die, however, this site seems to be struggling the most.

After finishing up two sites near Campus, we headed back in time for dinner and preparing for Monday's work in the Boardman River area.

Lessons in 26.2 Miles

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the thrown of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" Hebrews 12:1-3

Running a marathon provides a great insight to the journey of life described by the writer of Hebrews.  The beginning of a race is full of palpable energy, as each runner is eager to start off.  So much so that many runners start out to fast and sooner or later start to fall back.  If you're blessed to have a running partner, you can help each other pace and protect one another from future turmoil and pain.  Isn't that similar to life?

If you are a runner and have been part of a race maybe you know what it is like to go by a crowd of people making tons of noise.  Cow bells ringing, people cheering, signs.... so forth... you cannot help but pick up your pace.  Maybe it is the idea that someone out there wants you to do well, to be encouraged.  Isn't that what the writer of Hebrews is saying?  There are people who have gone before us in the heavenly realm cheering for us to be strong, to live lives of integrity, to honor the Lord.  The hard part is we don't necessarily see or sense this cheering.  What if we lived like we were being cheered on? Would it change our mentality and the way we spend our time?

Running with perseverance requires planning, discipline, purpose, and joy.  Without these traits, one would easily give up when the pain or aches begin. Last week, a group of students asked "what would motivate you to run a marathon".  The answer was "you, and others like you".  They were a bit perplexed and at first thought I was afraid of them.  Quickly, I assured them that was not what I meant, but from an eternal perspective running for the Jesse Remington scholarship fund was a way to impact the Kingdom of God.  That reason alone, provides great motivation to run and to run strong.  

Compared to life lived in one direction focused on things above, a single marathon is but a small picture of the long term endurance needed.  Consider, when running 26.2 miles, you must keep track of: am I taking in enough carbohydrates, sugars, proteins, water, electrolytes, what muscles are hurting and how can I alleviate the stress?  Over the long haul of life, we have to ask similar questions: Am I taking in the word of God? Am I responding to the challenges the Lord is placing in front of me through His Word and Godly mentors/teachers? What about worship? Motivation? Purpose? When we lose sight of the Goal we easily forget to focus on the will help us finish strong.  Sometimes, no most of the time we need brothers and sisters to come along side us and encourage is in Love.

May we each live today and each day with the end in mind ~ To God be the Glory

"This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ ~ to the glory and praise of God!" Philippians 1:9-11

Scholarship Run - Will you Partner with us?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith” Hebrews 12:1-2

October 20, 2015

Family and Friends,

Recently, while attending the Association of Christian School International Nexus conference we were challenged to consider if the school we serve is meeting our mission statement.  The speaker suggested we should look at how our graduates of 15, 10, and even just 5 years are doing. Are they the product you claim to be producing?

Jesse Remington High School is a Christian Community of Students and Faculty pursuing wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and is committed to raising this generation to be effective leaders for Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to be starting my 11^th year of teaching at JRHS.  Over the years it has been a joy to watch students grow, mature, graduate, move onto higher education and vocations, and many start families. They are involved in local churches, working hard, living lives of integrity in a broken world.  Vocationally they are working in a wide variety of fields from forestry, nursing, to culinary arts, military service, veterinary science, to engineering bringing the hope of Christ.   

Why am I willing to train and run 26.2 miles to help fundraise for the JRHS scholarship fund? Simply, I believe the Lord is using JRHS to raise up a generation of youth who will be effective leaders for Jesus Christ.  Not only will they be leaders, but they are critical thinkers, people who can consider the facts and make a choice weighing the pros and cons.  These are the ones who will help pass the mantle of truth and Biblical faith to the next generation!  

Will you help us reach our goal of raising $8,000 for our scholarship fund? All funds will go directly to help support students who other wise could not attend our school.  This is an opportunity to sow into the lives of desiring students. 

If you are able to support us financially you can do so online through our secure giving resource: http://www.jrhs.org/support-jrhs/support-gifts/ and use the Scholarship Fund option. 

Blessings,

Susan Wilderman

Ps. This years Training Runs included: 500 miles of training in Three States (New Hampshire, Maine, and Michigan).  The most exciting Run was through Grafton Notch State Park in the fine state of Maine. Thank-you to all who have encouragement to keep pushing for the goal!

Photo from a Michigan Training Run

On The Homefront

Two wonderful packed weeks have been spent at home in New Hampshire!  The time was spent gardening, assisting with the school renovation, and restoring one of the large sanctuary window.

The first week was spent facilitating our Wilderness Camp low ropes course.  This year there were approximately 280 campers and 80 little campers, about 50 counselors and 50 adult helpers.  What a great ministry that brings many people together.  Surely camp has many different purposes for discipleship and fellowship ~ such a good chance for all to practice unity.  

Being home in mid July allowed me to experience the tastes of fresh raspberries, blueberries, sugar snap peas, swiss chard, kale, and the first green bean of the season.  If you cannot tell, gardening and food preservation for the winter is an important part of the summer.  I’m very thankful for the generosity of wonderful friends who share the bounty of their good land - Two weeks of being home and some industrious effort my small freezer is 3/4th full for the winter!  

The second week was packed between the school renovation and window restoration at the church.  Jesse Remington High School now has a GREAT ROOM!  When I arrived home the room was all framed, the roof complete and the wiring done.  During the two weeks home I saw much progress because of the volunteer efforts of many people.  For those of you familiar with the school, there is now a nice step up into the building and the room is very well insulated.  We shall see how this helps in the winter and with sound movement through out the building.  It was a joy to work with many different people for the common goal of a new and better classroom experience for our new students. 

With all this work there was also some time for fun!  I enjoyed a lovely trip to the Sea Coast to see the tall ship in Portsmouth Harbor.  The afternoon was peaceful and a good time to catch up with some good friends. 

Any one who lives in an old home knows the joys and challenges of old windows.  Our church was built in the late 1700’s and I’m not sure when the windows of the church were made, but I do know that occasionally windows need to be loved.  Each of the 6 large window  in our church have 30 panes of glass in the lower section and 30 pains in the upper section.  My challenge was to scrape, putty, and paint one of these windows.  Carefully four men of the church removed the window for me and then started the work. With a small chisel the loose putty was removed and any loose paint was scraped away.  Two pieces of glass had to be removed and replaced due to cracking.  This can be quite challenging as it requires removing all the old putty.  A heat gun was used to loosen the putty and help find the small metal piece which hold the window in place.  To put in a new piece of glass takes some patience and practice.  Putty is placed along the wooden frame and the piece of glass is carefully pressed into the putty creating a seal, then with an angled piece of steal and a hammer the metal triangles are carefully hammered along the glass into the wooden frame.  Now it is time to putty the window.  

This job has special significance.  All my life I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy relationship with people who are older than myself.  Therefore, I have learned many skills that are being lost in my generation.  These skills of faming, gardening, and home care are a large part of my life.  Each time I work on these kind of projects many memories flood my mind of the hours of mentorship!  

Unexpected Adventure

One wonderful aspect of being part of the Au Sable community is the commonality shared between current and past Au Sable alumni.  Several visitors were on campus this Holiday weekend.  On Friday a group of past Interns and myself went for an adventure up the coast along Lake Michigan.  We had no real agenda other than to enjoy one another and the landscape.

Cherry season has just begun and our first stop was a farms market where we found local cherries, sugar snap peas and homemade soap!  From the farmers market we continued our journey up through Charlevoix, Petoskey, to Harbor Springs. In Charlevoix we walked along the shore of Lake Charlevoix and the canal linking this lake to Lake Michigan.  There were several large sailboats in the harbor area.  One the half hour the bridge through Charlevoix opens to allow these very large vessels to travel through to the large lake.  All along Lake Michigan there were the shells of zebra mussels  a reminder of the risk with connecting waterways.  These invasive little creatures made it to the great lakes via the ballast of a ship from Asia.

Prior to leaving Au Sable in the morning we were encouraged to enjoy lunch in Petoskey at the Toast and Roast.  The sandwiches and soup were great!  The small town atmosphere was fun to enjoy.  There were several small stores featuring handmade MI items from pottery to policed Petoskey stones.  

From Petoskey we continued north through Harbor Springs and found a small Nature Center along the Lake.  The Center had a nice walking trail through a cedar swamp to the Lake Shore.  As we approached the shore the sound of the waves was very loud.  I encourage you to watch the video clip here and turn your volume all the way up - that may just provide a small glimpse of the sound we experienced.  As beautiful as the view was here, we could not help but notice the smog rising on the horizon.   

This coming week reach out and enjoy the people who are brought across your path.  Community is such a rich and wonderful blessings - which we often forget to embrace!

Plant Identification Week

Goats beard 

Daubenmire Frame work

Each oil pad site we visit has a unique plant community. Surely, the sites share some commonality, but like with people they can be told apart.  For instance there is one site where we find a variety of mint another with milkweed, and yet another is dominated by native Poverty Oak grass.  I share these observations with you since our field work this week was focused on gathering vegetation data of our 10 sites.  

Finding the bearing

Once on location the first task is to lay out the eight transects.  This requires some orienteering and spacial observational skills to realize if you have not found the correct bearing.   Once the transects are laid the team goes to work identifying and estimating the coverage of each species found in the subplots along with estimating a density of trees and shrubs found along the transects. Each site takes somewhere between 2 and 3 hours to complete.  

Grass hopper 

Spotted Knapweed

Reflecting back on the week having a reference point and setting a compass is critical to leading where you want to go.  How often in life do we forget to keep our reference in mind and wonder from the straight and narrow?  In walking just 50 meters it is easy to stray 1 meter to either the left or the right… imagine if the distance is longer or in our case considering our life days, months, and years.  What is your bearing? Is it changing or is it found in the one that does not change? 

Milkweed

Are you Growing?

What kind of soil are you planted in? Are you in fertile soil, full of the necessary nutrients and moisture to grow and develop? Do you find yourself barely seeing above the circumstances of your life?  As I scan the plot for the next sapling these are the kinds of questions that run through my mind.  The quiet solitude of measuring and monitoring the saplings provides plenty of time to think.  

Replanting

Friday began with replanting several Jack Pine and Red Oak.  They had been pulled out most likely by a curious porcupine who thought chewing the metal tags was a good idea.  Given that the trees had died because they were pulled up because of the tags and not just death because of the conditions we made the choice to replant them.  We shall see at the end of July how they are doing.

Our second site nicely illustrated the impact of nutrients on plant growth.  In the area where nutrients were applied the timothy and other grasses were at least 5 to 10 inches taller than the samplings.  In the areas where competition had been reduced by using a tiller the trees were just about as tall as the new weed and grass growth. We were thankful to have a metal detector to help locate the hard to find trees in the thick grass.  

First Tree Mortality

This day was especially nice, with a gentle breeze blowing for most of the morning. As the sun grew in intensity the heat radiating off the primarily sandy soil only served as a reminder of the challenge of new growth on these sites.  Of course we know that growth is not impossible in these areas as we see plenty of grasses growing all around our plots.  Off in the distance we see pine forest and are reminded that the system we stand in is a result of human use.  Even in driving to these sites we are constantly reminded that our research is just as much because of our consumption of oil and gas as anyone else on the Earth. This reality keeps us humble.

Deer Tracks leading to
the dead Red Oak

We observed our first Deer caused mortality.  Tracks led right up to the location of a red oak and the tree had been pulled out of the grown and dropped about 10 feet from its original location.  The top of the sapling had been nibbled off and the rest of the woody material left on the sandy soil.

 Back to the original question of today's post ~ Soil ~ something that can be rejuvenated or depleted ~ cared for or abused.  We each have been planted, into families, communities, and geographically.  One neat thing about being in Northern Michigan is seeing how lush a northern hardwood forest can be, and yet remembering that it has similar soils to the sites where we are working.  The main difference is that over time a forest has developed and leaf liter each year falls to the grown, rots, and provides back needed nutrients to sustain life.  The shade of the taller trees keeps the soil cooler and new life can grow up in the understory.  This provides an analogy to growing up in a community.  Those older than us provide a microclimate hopefully conducive to our growth and development. In time we will become those older ones.  Of course, I don't think trees ever grown to appreciate the services the older more mature vegetation provide them with, however, we as humans can and should be thankful for those people in our lives who have been used to help us mature.  We were never meant to be a singular "tree" planted in a field but "trees" planted in community along streams of living water!

Enjoy a "taste" of our day