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A Grand American Adventure


Return to Weasel Spring 2010


Note the OCV T-Shirt!

Over a year ago, Gary Hillier, our former Task Programmer, left the rolling Oxfordshire countryside to take up an internship with the National Park Service in America, during which he encountered more rugged terrain, including run-ins with bears, rapids and redwoods. Before he left, Gary told the Weasel how his experience with OCV contributed to him gaining the placement, and what he was looking forward to about his trip. Now he has returned to the UK, Gary recalls his amazing adventure and the valuable conservation work he did in stunning locations like the Grand Canyon!

Through my senior committee role as Task Programmer for Oxford Conservation Volunteers in the UK, I developed relationships with landowner clients to arrange the group’s schedule of work at local nature reserves, residential trips to UK National Parks and training projects. Through this work I gained insight into how habitat management plans are devised and implemented, and led teams of up to 20 volunteers in the field. Eventually I became so interested in this type of work that I sought the challenge of an overseas volunteer placement, and found that an internship with the National Park Service (NPS) International Volunteers-In-Parks program offered an excellent opportunity to learn more about natural resource management by working alongside federal experts. It took several months of research and perseverance in contacting various Parks, and applying for the relevant visa, with ongoing support from the IVIP Co-ordinator and contacts at my prospective Parks, before I was successful in securing placements at Grand Canyon, AZ, and Redwood, CA, to assist the Vegetation Program at both parks.


Conducting plant surveys for the Vegetation Program

My 6 month Nursery Restoration placement at Grand Canyon focussed on the propagation and care of some 20,000 native plants to be used in the Vegetation Program's restoration of impacted/developed areas. Arriving in December, just in time for the winter storms, the daily short hike to work in crampons through deep snow, with elk and deer to negotiate, was certainly a contrast to rush-hour traffic back home!

The Grand Canyon's Horticulturist supervises a native seedbank which is carefully catalogued to ensure the genetic integrity of replanting areas is maintained, and over winter, thousands of native plant seeds (including pines, grasses, succulents, shrubs and forbs) were cleaned and subjected to various treatments which mimicked natural germination conditions. Native plant seed is notoriously difficult to germinate, so the precious seedlings that emerged in the Spring were carefully nurtured and transplanted over coming months. In the absence of a functioning database, I developed a spreadsheet for tracking propagation, with the aim of giving managers an overview on seed viability and seedling mortality, and a live stock figure for each species, and each restoration site.

The nursery also cares for thousands of mature plants that have been salvaged from sites prior to development, and so presented logistical challenges in terms of caring for so many living things, with varying water, temperature and light needs, in a relatively small facility which was largely dependant on volunteer labour. Calling on my prior volunteer leadership experience, I was proud to supervise volunteers of diverse ages and backgrounds; from individuals who came to help for a few hours, or few days, to large groups like The Student Conservation Association, American Conservation Experience and Grand Canyon Trust. This was a valuable opportunity to give volunteers from the US and abroad an insight into the work NPS does to protect the natural resources that are under impact by the 5 million visitors to Grand Canyon each year, as well as promoting the NPS Volunteers-In-Parks program itself.


Amazing scenery on the Colorado River

I was invited to participate in 2 NPS river trips - rafting the Colorado River 200+ miles through the Grand Canyon. On the first trip I helped Wildlife biologists survey abandoned mines for bat habitat - hiking to remote side canyons to explore the haunts of legendary Canyon pioneers like Hance, Boucher and Bass. From the remote wildernesses of Nankoweap Creek and Copper Canyon to the hidden slot canyons of Havasu and Matkatamiba, it was on these trips that I really 'got' the real Grand Canyon; my NPS colleagues explained the geological, historical and natural history of this Wonder of the World, and the pressures the precious ecosystem is under from conflicting usages such as tourism and water.

The second trip was on the Vegetation Program's tamarisk removal project. This provided me with great experience of an exotic plant management project; I am usually very sceptical of these type of projects! Often I see such projects as an expensive battle that can't be won, but I saw that regrowth of tamarisk in previously treated areas was minimal. The pristine habitats in the side canyons we visited are not only very much worth protecting from this highly invasive plant, but management of it also appears to be realistic, even if eradication is unlikely to ever be achieved.

A typical day on a river trip entails coffee and breakfast at sunrise, loading up the boats and rowing to the next worksite; running dangerous rapids such as the notorious Crystal, Upset and Horn Creek and perhaps spotting Anasazi ruins or Bighorn Sheep in the Canyon walls above. By night we would tie up the 18ft oar rafts and pitch camp on a sandy beach or rocky ledge; everyone helping to cook and wash up by headtorch, telling tales by the campfire before falling asleep beside the rushing River. The climax of such a trip; not to be missed and not for the faint-hearted, is running the fearsome 'Lava Falls'. The largest navigable rapid in the US, this wall of water hungers to 'break the boats in half' and consume any who fall into its boiling chaos. Living constantly on the move, in an everchanging and inherently dangerous environment, the team on the Grand Canyon River Trip bonds and lives as one; co-dependant for survival, health, safety and positivity during what is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most challenging expeditions a human can undertake on this planet.


The biggest tree Gary has ever seen!

Arriving at Redwood in early June, I joined the invasive plant control team; GIS mapping and treating invasive plants in the sunkissed Bald Hills prairies high above misty Redwood Creek. I also helped to collect treatment effectiveness monitoring data, and thus I could see the ongoing, careful research and assessment NPS puts into evaluating whether their management practices are achieving the desired goals. My supervisor, the Plant Ecologist, introduced me to the other teams within natural resource management, so I had the freedom to organise my own schedule and gain experience on a wide range of projects in every corner of the Parks. I assisted with monitoring threatened wildlife (including the northern spotted owl and salmonids), long-term vegetation plots and rare plants; seeing how NPS uses such baseline monitoring as indicators of the success of the landscape-scale restoration and management projects underway. I spent several weeks with the Redwood foresters; installing monitoring plots and collecting data within a large-scale, second-growth forest restoration project.

Having explored the primeval diversity of the few remaining pockets of old-growth Redwood forest, the contrast to the dark, overcrowded monoculture of the previously clearcut and artificially replanted second-growth forest is stark. Occurring concurrently with a road-removal project, whereby the natural watersheds of the area are being restored by the removal of old logging roads and culverts, the forest restoration project aims to set the area back on an old-growth trajectory by the selective thinning of overcrowded areas to allow more light through the canopy. Although the end results of this project won't be seen in our lifetime, with the removal of human infrastructure and interferance, and a push in the right direction, hopefully nature will work its own way to repair some of the severe and widespread ecological damage that was done in the past. I was pleased to see that local contractors were being used to carry out this work, and as such a similarity to the UK's National Park Authority's remit to support local economies and communities, as well as the protected land they inhabit.


Gary about to survey Salmonids

Working every day, sometimes alone, in potentially dangerous backcountry locations, I had to be alert to many hazards and risks; be it extreme weather, steep, disorientating or unstable terrain, poison oak, bears, ticks, elk, mountain lions or logging traffic! I spent my last month working with the Plant Ecologist, developing invasive plant control and restoration assessments. I located several invasive plant infestations and researched information on treatment options and constraints, eventually producing official project proposals. I contributed to the development of a larger restoration plan for a coastal area, researching treatment options and offering analysis on restoration goals and methods for the site. I was asked to give a presentation to NPS Redwood staff, showing slides and explaining the type of conservation work I had done in the UK. My colleagues' interest in resource management and volunteering in the UK typified the enthusiastic, inclusive, positive attitude that I experienced throughout NPS.


Imagine doing conservation in this landscape!

My experiences in the USA expanded the boundaries of my imagination, capability and knowledge; seeing and being in places that are 'other-worldly' in size, scope and beauty, and appreciating the importance and conflicts of managing natural areas for multiple usage. I feel privileged to have met and worked with amazing people - from wildlife biologists to volunteer co-ordinators, LE to IT, museum curators to trail crew, interp, shuttle bus drivers, river runners, environmental educators, maintenance, dispatch, foresters, fire crew, hydrologists, archaeologists, geologists, plant ecologists and botanists.... one thing all these had in common was a passion and enthusiasm for their environment and work, and the openness and positivity with which they welcomed me to share it. This internship has provided invaluable, wide-ranging experience of natural resource management, and has given me the inspiration, encouragement and confidence to pursue a career in this area – my next goal is to build on my field experience by studying a university degree course in conservation!

Gary Hillier

Return to Weasel Spring 2010