2 Week Detail

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Hey all!

Sorry, yet again, for the long space gap between entries. This got even more hectic shortly after my last post. I moved again, for the final time, so I am now back on the refuge, living in the new bunk house. It is quite nice! 😊

For a while, I had been hoping to have the opportunity to do something to help with this whole oil spill disaster going on in the gulf. I was given the chance in early June. My boss called me on Sunday June 6th and asked if I would be interested in doing a 2 week detail for the oil spill, walking transects on beaches, and conducting bird surveys. I said yes. Monday was spent doing lots of online training and then Tuesday was my first day.

Normally, a detail means you fly or drive somewhere, stay in a hotel, and work for 2 weeks straight. My experience was slightly different, in that they were able to put me on the Biloxi field crew, which meant that I could commute every day from the refuge. I was really grateful for that, because I wasn't really looking forward to moving (yet again) and living out of a hotel for 2 weeks. So anyway, I worked from the 8th through the 22nd, so I actually ended up working 15 days in a row. I was partnered with one other person, and we did transects on 3 of the barrier islands. Each day we did a different island, and so it was just a 3 day circuit. We did Cat Island, then Ship Island, and then Horn Island. Then we would go back to Cat.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. Most importantly, it enabled me to be able to be doing SOMETHING to help with all the efforts related to the spill. It also provided me with my first experience working on an incident, as part of the Incident Command System. I think I was really lucky, because it is my personal belief that the islands are probably the nicest places to have transects. Each morning we took a 30-45minute boat ride to get out to the island. Ya'll know I love boats, so that was great. Then, it gave me the opportunity to go out to these islands, most of which I probably would never have gone to.

The job wasn't as draining as it could have been, because while I was working, Mississippi hadn't been hit quite yet. During my 2 weeks, we never had oil on either Cat or Ship island, so that was a relief. Never saw birds with oil on them on either of those islands either. However, Horn was a different story. My 2nd time going there, a lot of the beach had tar patties on it. Even that though, was not nearly as bad as I know it was on other beaches. Throughout my time, I did have a few dead birds, but only one had oil on it so I was blessed to not have to see terribly oiled or dead birds. Did have a few other dead animals, but we could not be sure if their deaths were oil related. That is for others to determine. We would just call and report them to the wildlife hotline.

Basically, I had two weeks where I was able to gain even more experience, get lots of exercising (walking a few miles (up to 6miles) a day on the beach), and be helpful. There is so much ground to cover (the entire gulf coast) and so they definitely need all the help they can get.

Ingrid was my replacement and so now she is out doing what I was doing. Things have taken a turn for the worse since we switched. More oil is hitting those islands, which isn't a good sign. 😞 I still don't know whether or not I will go out to help again... it is up to my bosses at the refuge. Because obviously, they still need our help with work at the refuge. So they have to figure out if they can manage to spare one of us so that we do another rotation for the oil spill. As I learn that things are starting to get worse, I am sort of hoping more and more that I will be able to help again. But even if that doesn't come to pass, at least I was able to do a little something to help.

This whole ordeal is just so terrible on so many levels. It is horrible to think of all the people who may, and probably will, loose not just jobs, but livelihoods. Then, there is the obviously terrible effect on wildlife, as seen in those animals that have already been covered in oil and/or died from oil. But then what I also think about is the fact that there is probably tons of damage being done that we may never see, particularly for wildlife, and for the gulf ecosystem as a whole. The oil and possibly even the dispersant, may have countless harmful impacts on wildlife that we may never be able to completely identify. Who knows what it may be doing to deep-sea life, and through that, the food chain as a whole. It is really frightening to think about. And I fear that we could continue to see negative impacts for months and possibly even years to come.

Through all of this, there is hope though. I have seen first hand how much the people around here want to help the people whose lives are being affected and the wildlife that is being affected. It is really nice to see. I also really truly hope that this terrible tragedy helps us as a country to move away from our unhealthy (and rapidly becoming unrealistic) dependence on oil as a source of energy, and toward more clean energy options. I think one of the saddest things about this tragedy is that it shouldn't have happened. I mean this on multiple levels. First, if the appropriate safety measures had been taken, the spill could have probably been prevented. But even more importantly, I believe that we shouldn't even be drilling for oil any more. We have known for a while that not only is it dangerous, but the oil supplies are rapidly being depleted. We now know of multiple viable clean energy options that would help us to break our dependence on oil, both at home and abroad. I guess my biggest hope is that after this terrible incident more people will agree with me and we will begin to move, as a country, toward clean energy options, like many other countries have already done.

Ok, my preaching is over, promise. Sorry. I know my blog usually isn't full of stuff like that. It's just that an event like this oil spill really hits close to home for me.

Anyway, moving on, things are mostly going quite well. I was able to help with the spill so that was a blessing, and I am still having a blast with everyone down here. I missed the refuge a lot during my two weeks on detail and so I look forward to being back on the refuge this week (I had two rest days after my detail so I didn't work at the refuge til friday). We have two new keeds with us.. they are part of the STEP student program. One is a grad student at IU actually (small world, eh?) and the other is an undergrad at UT. They both seem to be very nice, so that is good. 😊

I cannot believe that I only have 2 months left. The time really has flown by. Hopefully I'll have a few more exciting things to tell ya'll about in my time that is left here. 😊

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Photos

Ship Island
gorgeous

dead trees on Ship
many osprey nests

Osprey
in mid-flight on Ship Island

Osprey on nest
on ship island

Cat Island
alligator tracks!!

Comments

[Barbara Dearborn]

Proud Parent
Hey Jackie, I'm so glad that you were able to be a part of the help that this old world needs. You go girl!! :-) Love you, miss you and am looking forward to seeing you very soon! Mom