After eight months with Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG) in Effingham, New Hampshire, I’ve gotten used to the highs and lows of New England weather. When the first snow fell in mid-November, I marveled at the winter wonderland and experienced some winter firsts including: skiing, snowshoeing, and – my favorite – shoveling. Effingham clung to winter longer than some nearby towns, and when the last snow fell on the muddy, barren ground in late April, I was desperate for spring.
Throughout the long winter I saw the landscape as white, quiet, uncluttered. Now that spring has given way to summer, I have to relearn my surroundings. Landmarks I once knew like large granite outcrops or tall, bare trees are now nearly completely obscured by leaves and ferns and weeds vying for the sunlight. This is an added challenge to field sampling for GMCG when the sampling sites look vastly different every month.
In addition to the changes to the landscape, I’ve had my fair share of field days in all weather conditions as GMCG’s Water Quality Resources Assistant. For my first couple months here, I sampled water from streams where water temps hovered just above freezing. Where my workouts came from post-holing up to my hips to get to a site. Now, I’ve traded my snowshoes for sandals. Plunging my hands into a stream nowadays is refreshing rather than painful. And I have gotten pretty good at guessing how cold the water is – these hands of mine can tell the difference between 5 °C, 10 °C and 15 °C water. Pretty soon, I’ll learn how to detect 20 °C water!
I was born and raised in Florida, a state with two distinct seasons – hot and less hot. So, I knew I could handle the warm season. Now, I feel like the Avatar – master of all four seasons. LRCC gave me the opportunity to serve in a new environment. To make a difference in the conservation of a place I didn’t yet know. Today, I am intimately familiar with New Hampshire’s many climatic ups and downs. And I am grateful for every season I spent here.
Victoria is a graduate of Duke University with a degree in Earth and Ocean Sciences. You can read more about Victoria here.