Preliminary Results

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GOOD NEWS!  We are finally done in the greenhouse.  My young Bishop pines have been growing for just under two months now and I can see some patterns.  I haven’t finished running my statistics yet but I noticed that both the mainland and Santa Rosa Island population grow much better with ash cover.  This was to be expected but a more interesting finding was that the island population had more successful germination and higher growth rates than the mainland population under conditions without ash.  There were still very few seeds from the island population that germinated under conditions without ash so I have to run my statistics to be sure that there is a significant difference in the populations.  If my data does turn out to be significant then my hypothesis will be proven correct, the Santa Rosa Island population has adapted to survive under conditions lacking fire, specifically the distribution of nutrients from the ash.

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The top photo shows conditions of high precipitation with ash and the bottom photo shows conditions of high water without ash.  The difference is evident as soon as you walk into the greenhouse.

Learned, Most Shocking, Missed

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Posted from Camarillo, California, United States.

Learned:

           The following are some of the highlighted and interesting aspects of my trip to New Orleans. The Cooking School was really interesting. Using the local markets and talking with the community members really opened my eyes to starting line of people making local food. Visiting and learning about the levee and dam systems also changed my view on New Orleans. When people stated “New Orleans is underwater” you can’t really visualize the water levels and elevation of the city. Learning about their levees and standing on top of them really give you the true understanding of the city being below the water line.

Most Shocking:

To add to the disbelief of water levels, the 9th Ward was an extreme situation of all of these factors. The poverty, low elevation, levy failure, and destruction that took place really changed my perspective on the people’s situation.

Missed:

           There was little missed during this trip; And if we did miss it, I didn’t/wouldn’t have known. The only portion of this trip I would have like to have learned more about would be the Cooking School. I had an amazing experience and learned a lot, but I wish I learned more about the cooking recipes. We learned about the culture and food, but putting the two together were not very insightful. I learned, to cook Cajun, all you need is a ridiculous amount of seasoning salt. Prior to this, I thought there was more to cooking southern food.

 

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What I Wish I Would Have Know About NOLA

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Posted from Camarillo, California, United States.

The Service learning trip to New Orleans was an amazing eye opening experience. For the more part, all of the essential amenities were met by the class but there are a few items of information I learned from attending. My personal experience with New Orleans was strongly swayed by the amount of allergies I had. I became sick with a sinus infection which dragged on through the entirety of the trip. If you are planning on going on this trip, enter the trip well rested and if needed lots of allergy medication. Other aspects of the trip, I was very happy with my rain boots. A good “pro-tip” might be to bring foot insoles to place inside your rain boots. Also having a quiver of power bars and cliff bars were handy. If you don’t get car sick, I would recommend blogging in between stopping points as you drive from stop to stop. You can always take more pictures. At minimum I took a photo at every stop, but it was an easy way for me to document and remember everything that we did in a day.

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