POTBR Blog 6, Day 6

 Day 6- Monday is finally here and I'm ready to get this day over with. Definitely going to be a hot one today. We are kind of just rolling with whatever comes our way for today's schedule it seems. It was a productive day I would say, we met with Ray Entz the director of Wildlife and water resources this morning and he gave us the scoop on everything that is going on. The most important natural resource they have is the White Pine as it is a part of their cultural where they carve out bark canoes with them. They have a Nature Plant Nursery program where we are camped, and we went and contributed to it by pulling the weeds that are trying to compete with the native species for water. Good little workout I would say. The water here has apex predator fish and non-native species in Pend Orielle River. Which is the second biggest tributary to the Columbia River. Their programs also have, recovering projects on the Grizzly bears as they were once a food source for the people, a cougar behavior study that will allow them to learn more about the cougars and find a way to prevent them from going after farm animals. they believe that the recovery of wolves is bringing back cougars toward towns and homes. Some of the ways that they are studying the cougars is by hazing them with yelling, paint balls, and dog stimuli. Another program that they have is the Forest Carnivore Project where they are changing what carnivores are around in the area and relocating them. There is a too many trees program, while they are also having a loss in Grant Fir because of the increase in precipitation and dry hot summers. They are seeing more Spruce Bud Worm, beetles, and root rot. Last, they are finding 10 different ways to thin the surrounding areas. Our next event was we went out to the rock quarry and learned about Morraines from glacial flooding and the different types of rock that we saw there. We had our lunches and came back to camp where we then went for a hike just behind our camp. It was about a quarter mile long where it gave small descriptions of the trees and plants around the area and ending with a beautiful view before looping around back towards camp. Afterwards we were able to convince Jessica to go ahead and let us go swim since were frying in the heat. We went for a swim right there at the river Pend Orielle next to the Usk powwow grounds. Which I might add is a beautiful place as we saw Buffalo as we were coming in. To end our night tonight we had Tofu Stir Fry and it was so delicious considering my first experience with tofu was not great. So, I'm officially a tofu person so huge thanks to our chef Monette Becenti for a great dinner once again. 


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