USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences

We finally got a chance to meet with Richard Hoops, Wrigley’s Director of Public Communications, who wrote the amazing article about the internship that is now on USC Dornsife College’s main web page (http://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/980/a-trail-blazing-summer-internship/). We lead him up our trail and answered questions for him, along with Charlie and a couple of Conservancy employees. A photographer named Robert also came along and took some pictures in between asking insightful questions. Richard and Robert were actually quite knowledgeable about the ecology of Catalina, and were impressed with the design of our trail. They took their time to get to know what conservation and our internship is all about, which can clearly be seen in the awesomeness of their article.

After a delicious lunch of enchiladas, we brushed the trail and removed fennel in the afternoon with the Conservancy members. As a unit our fennel removal skills are definitely improving by the day and we are taking them out of the ground with increased efficiency. Dan prefers the shovel but my weapon of choice is the pulaski, which is like a fireman’s axe with an axe on one side and an adze on the other. The shovel is quick, efficient, and can pop out smaller fennel easily, but the larger fennel with ridiculously strong roots that go deep into the ground are best taken down by the blades of the pulaski. Sometimes the huge fennel plants have to be taken out in parts to sufficiently expose the root. We worked hard for a few hours and managed to clear a substantial area of fennel, but we still have quite a ways to go in our battle against the invasive fennel population. Great day overall.

For more pictures, check out today’s photo album: Day 26 Day with Richard Hoops