Am I getting what I wanted?

Wolf Scat

So no news yet on Adrian returning possibly to TWA. Part of me is really open to this idea that I can put on my resume that I ran a non-profit as an interim coordinator, but the other half of me is really struggling with this. I know its a great opportunity to learn and will help me grow in some of the administrative duties of a job. Do I feel like I am learning? Yes. However, it was really difficult for me to give up my career and go back to graduate school. The reason why I went back to school was to focus more on the science behind the environment rather than non-profit management.

Tiled Grey Wolf in Ashland

With Adrian not in the office, I have to trust my instincts of what I know about wolves when I am editing lessons plans. At this point, I am mostly updating the lessons, so content should be fairly accurate from previous science. Yet, as we learned in my graduate career, science is continually changing. There was a point that WI biologists predicted that a good management goal for wolves would be 350. Now there is over 900! As much as I know, I am not an expert and with Adrian out of the picture, I have to trust what is written is up to date as possible. For population data, that is simple for me to update, because its quantitative and easy to research. Everything else... not so much. I already had a very "social science" based project and now without Adrian I am not growing in what I wanted to, the hard sciences.

Curious Bear by the House

Next week I am going to meet with one of the Northland  deans to discuss this matter. I am doing a lot of work for TWA in areas that I didn't want to develop. Yes, they will be helpful for later on but they do not help me reach for career and learning goals I wanted to achieve. Also, I am not getting compensated for this work.... actually no one is. This is truly unfair to TWA as an organization. They deserve a coordinator who is an expert in wolves and that can represent the organization with professionalism and knowledge. At this time, I am not this person. Also it is very awkward telling people he was let go, but I am working there? This is confusing to donors, sponsors and the board. No announcements have been made from Northland to these stakeholders to inform them that TWA has no one now. My prediction is that they will not hire Adrian back until I leave, because it saves them 3 months of paying someone to do the TWA job. There is no evidence of this, but they know I am doing the work and they know it has to get done.... but Adrian has not been hired back. Also the director of the institute, TWA is housed in, retires on the 30th but Northland pushed his replacement to not start until September. The director has been so helpful in everything that has gone on so far for my project and he will be gone soon and there will be no one in his spot to support TWA. Unfortunately this organization is being treated very unfairly. No matter what, even despite the facts I say above, I care and I will not let TWA suffer because of some of the actions the college is taking. So to the best of my ability I will coordinate and run things as smooth as possible.

The moment before we were
disappointed for finding
nothing in the closed trap. 

Pitcher Plant in the Sugar
 Bush Fen

On side news, no captured small mammals in our traps last week. I did get the opportunity to walk through a fen though! Part of me realized I may not be cut out for field work. At least if I have to just search for insects because after we check the traps, we began our journey into the fen to do just that. It was quite the experience. We saw the Pitcher Plant, which its leaves attract insects with a nectar. The insects travel into the tube like leaves and die. Other organisms help break down the insect to have the plant absorb the nutrients! I definitely didn't know we have native carnivorous plants! Other than that, we looked for insects. I didn't get a net or anything, so I was quite unsuccessful at doing this identification and capture. So my mom and I didn't stay too much longer after a quick walk in the fen and checking the mammal traps. Another cool thing about the fen was that we mostly walked on sphagnum moss and with every step we could hear the running water underneath us. It was like walking on a giant sponge, which is what a wetland does mimic quite well.

My mom and me after exploring the fen.