Invasive Plants

 Hello ya'll, 

I do not know who will be visiting this post so I will simplify everything, so, even if you are not a biologist you will know what I am meaning when I mention these terms.  So I mentioned that there are native and invasive plants. Native plants are plants that were always in the area and were never introduced, and is the plants that animals have used as food. Invasive plants are plants that were brought to the area from ship, vehicle, or humans. They choke out the native plants and are detrimental to the environment. Animals can't eat them, and sometimes the invasive plants can be dangerous if ingested or touched. 

Job responsibilities includes managing invasive plants. Ways to accomplish this is by using the weed management. Which includes chemical, physical, mechanical, cultural, and biological control.  Chemical control is the use of herbicides. Physical control for example is weed pulling by hand or cutting with shears. Mechanical control for example is mowing or weed whacking,  Cultural control for example is prescribed burns. Lastly biological control is releasing a bio agent that will control a specific plant and not harm native plants. 

As you can imagine using chemical control is the main usage of controlling invasive. I was terrified because I didn't want to use to much chemical and be fined for over usage or use too little chemical and not make a difference in maintaining weeds. I was very careful when using the chemicals because you have to apply the herbicide in the right temperature and wind conditions so you do not cause a drift issue. If the temperature was too hot or too cold the plants would be stressed and wouldn't absorb the chemical through their pores. Wind speed had to be between 2 and 10 miles per hour anything higher or lower could also cause a drift issue. I had to purchase a portable wind gauge as shown below with link.

https://amzn.to/3XFv4aV

So once conditions are favorable then we choose the herbicide by which invasive plant we are trying to target. For example I would use milestone to target scotch thistle. The label gives information on how much to disperse based on acreage. I mainly learned all this information by preparing for my pesticide license. All this information was dropped on me this first month I was employed.  I felt like my brain had overflowed with soo much information.  Just by reading this I feel like I might have placed too much info for just the regular joe. I must say the first time spraying was a success. My field that I managed had little invasive plants and I didn't over spray. Even my manager complimented me on field when he saw.  It was the best wheat field he saw during the first year planting. So Whoot!!!

Until next time, 

Jessica

I am BACK!!!!

 Hi all!!!

So last time I was here writing, it was for an English class that was focused on biology. It was the best class I had taken as an undergraduate that wasn't in my major. It actually allowed me to enjoy an English class for the first time ever. I love science and math courses over English, and I am sorry if I offend anyone who loves English. To each their own, I suppose.  

Now I have since graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Science from University of Memphis as well as my Master's degree in Science. I focused my degree in Animal Behavior and Mammology. Even though I focused all my studies on animal studies, I get a job that is focused in mainly plants. You should have seen my surprise when my employer informed me that I would be focusing on habitat restoration which includes plant biology. I was like so lost, but since this was the first job that was permanent and full-time in field biology, I made it my mission to understand my job duties. I studied different plants, and understanding what plants were native and what were invasive. 

I am now in my second year at this job and I feel like I have come a long way.  The only obstacles that I still have to improve and tackle is improving my supervising skills. Let me tell you being around a bunch of males you would think there would be less drama. WRONG!!! I feel like that initiate all the drama. So I will like to share my stories and equipment that I have found that has helped me the most this past year and as I continue this year and more. Since I don't have friends in this new area this will become a great outlet for all my frustrations with staff and obstacles. If anyone has suggestions along the way I would greatly appreciate any advice that you have to give especially with staff issues or with any habitat conservation. 

Until later 

Jessica 

Blog 15

What if there were aliens? If there were aliens it would prove so many unexplained phenomenon that people can’t find an answer to why that happened. Like crop circles I’m a dead believer that those are really maps for the aliens just like they are in the movies Signs. After that movie it really got me thinking about what would ever happened if aliens ever came down to Earth would they be hostile and kill human kind, or would they study our behavior and they way we do things like we do with animals and things we don’t ever understand. I have always questioned if there were aliens and to come to think of it there has to be other living species out in space because if Earth has oxygen and water that helps sustain life than other planets have to be able to sustain life just like Earth does. If the aliens were hostile how would we survive that? Would we be smarter than to know how to defeat them if they ever become a major threat to us? Hopefully if aliens do exist and decide to come to Earth and fight and kill us I would like to be able to hide myself and be able to survive during the whole catastrophe. I do sort a have a feeling that if there were aliens maybe they are smarter than us and are willing to be peaceful and not hurt us just like in the move E.T. In that movie even though the alien didn’t come off to be really smart at least it was nice and willing to be peaceful and be our friends. That is what I think aliens should be like if they should ever come to visit our planet if they exist.

Blog 14

What if no one ever studied? If no one ever had to study it would make my life less stressful. Studying is the most stressful thing ever and the most boring thing to do. When students have to study their not really absorbing as much information as they should be because of the fact when a person sits and looks over notes and books they might start thinking about what they could be doing instead of that. I know I do and then after I get done looking over it I’m like wow what did I actually read? I always go into a daze when I’m reading something that isn’t fascinating to me, or if it is something I already learned and got it down. The only downside to not studying is that the people are to fail that subject because studying not their favorite thing to do. Studying takes so much time out of a student’s life. When college student are going for full time it is literally a job to go to class and then having to study. Because I feel like my job is studying except I don’t make money. I think we should make money for all the studying us college students do because half the teachers can’t teach or that students don’t learn from a teachers teaching strategy. I feel lucky that so far my teachers I understand their teaching methods and can learn from them and then what I don’t understand one day I get during my studying. Still if studying never existed I could watch T.V., sleep in, have more of a social life, and more me time. Studying would allow me not to have any zits and loss of sleep because studying takes all my sleep away.

Blog 13

What if you could travel back in time? If we could travel back in time everyone would try and change their regrets they have made, or the things they thought that could change the future for the better mainly for that person. I know I would like to travel back in time to change some of my mistakes that I had have made in the past, but I know that now that those mistakes would have changed the person who I am today. I wouldn’t want to change the person I was just by changing one mistake that I made. For those you are crazy about history and wants to travel back in time to see the way history was made. I know I would like to go back in time and see how the medieval times were like and to see how they lived. A lot of people would use the time travel to their advantage and use it wrong because maybe just stepping on a flower could destroy the future you originally had? Or just talking to a person because it is true that just being kind or speaking to someone even if it is a compliment or something rude could maybe change everything you had in the life you had. I know if I could ever time travel I would be extra paranoid just in case I stepped on anything or talked to anyone that could change my future. Even though I don’t have the perfect life I like it just the way it is, and I would be devastated if I messed it up by just stepping on a stupid flower that didn’t mean anything. So sometimes I believe that traveling back in time shouldn’t be thought, but it does have its benefits.

Blog 12

What if sports were dropped in schools? If sports were dropped in school kids will be doing things they shouldn’t like drugs or getting into trouble. Sports help develop teamwork and sportsmanship in kids. Team work is really important not just in sports but in jobs too and without learning how to work as a team could hurt the person in the future when they are getting a job. It is better to learn teamwork in a sport as kids because it is easy to learn then to try and learn as an adult. Sports also give children a boost in character building and preparing the children for student leadership. Having leadership skills is very important because it helps in everyday life and when it comes into getting a job. In sports the players use leadership skills into helping their team to win and the way that they do this by stepping up and telling their team how the best way to do things help achieve a goal or a score that brings them that much closer into winning the game. Learning these skills at an early age helps children take the skills with them as they get older. Learning leadership is a hard skill to master at an older age mainly everything is harder to learn as an adult because adults have their personality that allows them not to learn new skills just like you can’t teach an old dog a new trick. The love of sports developed in children will remain with them when they get older. With them having a love for sports will allow them to be more fit as they get older and also help them as teenagers to help them tone the muscles that they develop the playing the sport they are in. Sports is also a good way to get kids involved and to make new friends.

Blog 11

Maybe homework is a good thing even when students dread the very word. When I was in elementary school I use to do my homework as soon as I got home from school, and in high school I used to do it at the bus stop, on the bus, and before class started. Then when I had math class my teacher would assign us homework, but wouldn’t check until after we had finished a chapter and I would save all my homework till then and do it all. I found out that doing the homework actually helps you get ready for tests and actually allows more practice for you to do before the test. Even though I still leave my homework till the last minute I have gotten better at doing the homework a couple days before the homework is do instead of doing it five minutes to an hour before class.
I think the reason many of us hate homework is because we would rather watch T.V., play video games, play outside, or hang with our friends and have a good time from going to school and listening to teachers and actually using a brain to do mental work. Who wants to use their brain after class is over, I know I don’t, but I have to learn how to do the school work in order to go on to a different class or to graduate. I know in the end it will be worth doing the homework even though it can be nerve racking, but I’m going to have to master if I want to have a job that I like and that pays me good money. Since I have now realized how awesome homework really helps me to pass my classes, I just have to pass down this great wisdom to my brother since he doesn’t want to do his homework or understands why he has to do it.