A Hive of Activity

by Lillie and Kamryn

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plan.
- Henry David Thoreau

Purpose

An exploratory study was conducted to better understand the diversity of insects at Conservancy Park Belleview. Research compared the native grass field with the non-native plants on the trail.

Figure 1: Two sites for insect collection – Yellow: non-native, Blue: native

Methods

Two plots were mapped out at Conservancy Park: one was a 15x15 meter square plot randomly placed in a native grass field, and the other plot followed the main trail around the Conservancy Park pond (~0.25 mile).

Insects in the native grass plot were collected by sweeping butterfly nets at random throughout the plot at varying heights for 2 minutes; the native grass averaged 1 meter tall. This plot was surveyed by two people. Insects in the trail plot were also collected by sweeping butterfly nets at random along the ground and across edge vegetation that bordered the trail; there was no specific time limit set for the trail collection, but it took about 10 minutes to survey the whole trail (the trail was split into two sections so the researchers could cover more ground).

At the end of a collection, bugs were dumped into gallon size Ziploc bags from the butterfly nets (This was the hardest part of the whole collection! Eight or more bees were set free before being stored in the Ziploc bags, because they were very angry and eager to sting.). The Ziploc bags were sealed and later stored in a freezer.

Back at the office, the insects were dumped out of the frozen Ziploc bags and organized into 10 major insect orders. The number of individuals representing each order from each plot collection were counted and recorded. A Shannon Diversity Index calculation was then used to compare the diversity of the native grasses versus the trail vegetation.

Results

Conclusion

The native grasses showed more diversity (82.65%) across insect orders compared to the trail diversity (73.11%). Despite the trail collection having at least one individual representing all 10 insect orders compared to the native grasses having all but one order represented (Lepidoptera), the proportion of individuals in each order was more even across the native grass collection.

Project Inspired by the Bug Chicks (https://thebugchicks.com)

Dr. Parker from NKU assisted in project idea and design

August 14, 2023

Conservation Intern

A Summer of Learning

JUNE

Conservation Kids Camp was the June highlight. With a theme focused on Endangered Species, I led the Hellbender group for the week. Planning for this camp was hectic to say the least, but I got great experience in planning nature activities and programs; we made a Bat Trivia game, life cycle cards specific to the three endangered representatives, fact sheets for each group, and more! My favorite part of camp was definitely the costumes the kids made of their endangered animal!

With all these camps and programming days, I decided to create a survey testing the effectiveness of Boone County Conservation District’s camps. The results of this survey indicate that the 9-12 year olds of Boone County are smart and eager to get outside!

More than programming we have been exploring! Lillie’s bat research has taken us to a lot of cool places that aren’t easily accessible to the public, so it’s great seeing the diversity of our ecosystems across Northern Kentucky. All this exploration has been testing my naturalist skills, and I love it!

JULY

New month, next camp! Twelve 13-15 year olds came to LEAF Academy, and it was the best week! This was such a great group, and we took nature exploration to the next level. These students were quick to get their hands dirty, and their creativity flourished (especially in the Leave No Trace skits!). The theme of this camp was based on Aldo Leopold’s famous piece: A Sand County Almanac. This is a great read and, despite the old-timey language, the LEAF kids contributed to intricate discussions. It’s difficult for me to pick my favorite part of LEAF… every day was a new adventure.

Lillie and I also attended two Walk-&-Talk seminars at the NKU Research and Education Field Station where we painted some nature art and built bird feeders! These are both skills that I would be interested in practicing more.

Recently, we rolled up our sleeves and helped the Boone County Parks crew in their process of making a new trail at Middle Creek Park. It was hard work and Parks deserves a HUGE round of applause for the restoration work they are implementing in all of our Boone County Parks.

Wow! This summer has flown by! There’s only a few weeks left, and still so much to finish!

July 21, 2023

Conservation Intern

Bats… Bats… and More Bats!

Bat acoustic monitoring is under way!

Dinsmore has amazing diversity with ten species identified. I enjoyed a lovely nature hike at St. Anne’s Woods and Wetlands with the Thomas More University Interns and set one of our acoustic detectors. During a fun evening, Susan and Kamryn joined me with the walkabout acoustic detector while bats few above! At the Thomas More Biology Field Station, I used all three types of detectors: stationary, walkabout, and Echo Meters. Perin and Giles Conrad were just some of the other sites visits. Next up – a driving route!

Field trips are always a lot of fun!

Visit to the NKU Lab to learn about and see diatoms. Thank you, Dr. Cooper!

What else is happening...

Guest appearance at LEAF for fly fishing, swimming, and snorkeling

Shadowing Boone County Parks to learn about all their exciting jobs

July 20, 2023

Conservation Intern

Into The Woods

We’re about a month into this internship and really hit the ground running. My favorite part about this internship is meeting all the friends along the way - my co-intern - Kamryn, the BCCDKY staff, Boone County Parks, Boone County Extension, students from NKU, SD1, and the TMU biology field station summer interns. I love to learn, and I learn something new every single day. Although I am the Forest Health intern, I love the education aspect I’ve been able to help out with. I believe that you have to teach people about nature before asking for help protecting it. People need to feel connected to care. I love being the one to help make that connection.

What's Happening

This camp was very impactful for me. I loved all 13 of the kids I was placed with, and I felt as if we all made a great team. Being the camp counselor for the Virginia Big Eared bats will forever be in my memories.
Some Camp highlights:
- Took a hike and looked for salamanders
- Kayaked at Camp Ernst
- Made walking sticks
- Sculpted and painted clay monarchs
- Looked for macroinvertebrates in a pond
- The Bug Chicks
- KY Reptile Zoo
- Our end of camp skit!
  - We had 4 bats, a 2 in 1 moth, a mosquito, and hula hoops acting as echolocation. Some kids read facts and adaptations of the VA big eared bat, and others sang the echolocation song!

Bat Acoustic Monitoring for endangered species

Conservancy Park: Indiana bat and Gray bat
Boone Cliffs: Indiana bat, Gray bat, and a Virginia Big Eared bat!

Learning and Researching

We spoke about entomology with Dr. Parker from NKU and learned about pollinator diversity and how to study that.
I learned about GIS and how to incorporate that into my independent study.
I am constantly learning how to ID trees and other plants.
Kamryn and I stop at every mushroom we see to look it up in a field guide.
Herpetology is my favorite subject I’ve learned about this summer. We have caught green frogs, duskies, northern 2-line salamanders, and an eastern milk snake. We heard and saw American bullfrogs as well.

Field Work with SD1

Collecting water samples from various sites in Boone County
Hydromod survey at Dry Creek
A tour of the Dry Creek Treatment Plant Tour
- It was exciting to meet up with some friends from NKU and the TMU Biology Field Station summer interns!

Exciting things are on the way regarding my upcoming research projects…

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks"

-John Muir

June 23, 2023

Conservation Intern

Hi, I’m Kamryn

My name is Kamryn and I’m excited to be the 2023 Conservation Education intern with BCCDKY this summer!

A little bit about me:

I will graduate from Eastern Kentucky University in the Fall of 2023 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Wildlife Management with a concentration in Conservation Management. I am also minoring in American Sign Language and working on a certificate of Environmental Education.

My passions and interests outside of conservation, environmental education and the outdoors include: travel, learning languages, thrifting, and puzzles!

This summer I hope to enhance my nature identification skills, gain a better understanding of wildlife law, develop and design environmental programs, and explore a lot of creeks... all while avoiding a farmer’s tan (wish me luck)!

May 24, 2023

Conservation Intern

Hello, I’m Lillie

I’m excited to be the BCCDKY Forest Health Intern for Summer ‘23. Mountains, rivers, caves, and beautiful forests are all part of the amazing state of Kentucky. From warms summer days hiking in the woods to boating on the lakes of glistening water, I appreciate all that nature shares with us. This love of nature and a desire to protect it led me to Thomas More University where I’m in my junior year pursuing a dual major in Life Science (Sustainability Concentration) and Educational Studies with minors in Environmental Science and Psychology. I hope to listen to all the environment teaches us and be a part of preserving all that is around me.

“I believe the world is incomprehensibly

beautiful – an endless prospect of magic and wonder.” Ansel Adams

What’s happening…

Monday, our first day, we planted 26 native trees in an orchard project created by the junior board. Kamryn and I planted trees such as black cherry, chestnut, and persimmon.
Tuesday, we were CPR certified, and I learned about the bat monitoring equipment and made sure it was all set for the week. Bats are one of my favorite species, and I can’t wait to learn more about them!
Wednesday, we had the opportunity to hike with a great group of students on a Conservancy Field Trip and met a baby turtle and cricket frog. We hung a subsonic bat detector to listen for the echolocation of bats!
Thursday, super fun time with the Girl Scouts making tree crafts at Middle Creek. This brought back great memories of my time as a Scout.
Friday, we worked with SD1 and two NKU students at Boone Cliffs to help them collect data from the creek for their research.
Saturday, Community Activities Fair day! I was able to meet lots of great people and tell them about all the exciting things happening at BCCDKY!

May 24, 2023

Conservation Intern

Sarah’s Blog

Hello all! It has been a wild time working with Boone County this semester. We hit the ground running with the development of our mussel surveys in Gunpowder Creek. If you don’t know much about mussels, they are a great bio indicator and help keep our waters clean! While we snorkeled in the creek looking for our beloved mollusks, we stumbled upon a lot of cool and exciting macro invertebrates like crawfish and water pennies. Little guys like these are great to see in our waterways. We also have been having great success with our bat monitoring. Many bat species are listed as federally endangered so it’s always an exciting day when we identify them on our recording devices. Beyond our research projects, we’ve been kept busy with weekend events such as salt fest which displayed the rich history of Big Bone Lick State Park. Lastly, we welcomed our junior board and took them on a plant survey. It was great to see the enthusiasm these kids share about the environment; I can’t wait to see where they go next!

November 1, 2022

Conservation Intern

Derek’s Blog

The last two months have been amazing, despite being busy as well! From hiking in Dinsmore Woods, Conservancy Park, Middle Creek, and Boone Cliffs to Creeking for mussel surveys in Gunpowder Creek, there has certainly been no shortage of nature lately!

While the mussel surveys yielded little results, the bat data has been phenomenal! Not only have we monitored nearly all bat species that are found in Kentucky (11/16), but we have caught all 3 federally endangered bats in Kentucky on the monitors. The Virginia big-eared bat, the Indiana bat, and the gray bat were all found at both Dinsmore Woods and Boone Cliffs. We are currently working on lots of data from the semester and preparing to teach the Junior Board some techniques for research!

I’ve learned so much so far in this internship – from plant identification to bat and mussel research techniques, my tool belt is growing in both size and strength. I cannot wait to see what the remaining half of the internship brings!

November 1, 2022

Conservation Intern

A Summer-y of the Internship

Welcome to my final blog post of the summer! My last day is next week on the 28th, and I can’t believe how fast time has flown. It’s crazy that this time next week I’ll be done! I got so many fun experiences in and they’ll forever be some of my best memories!

We had our second LEAF Academy and it went so well!! The kids were so kind and I got to see a bunch of kids from CKC! It was so nice to see kids stick with it for this long. I’m gonna miss goofing around with a bunch of conservationists in the making, but I’m super excited to do it again next summer!

We also have gotten SO MUCH bat stuff done!! We found proof of Indiana bats living in Boone County through our detection software which was crazy cool. That same week, we ran into a group of people mist netting for bats and invited us to join! It was so cool to see bats that up close! One of the groups that we met with to mist net even CAUGHT Indiana bats which means that our audio was right!! IDK about Jaron but I certainly feel like a celebrity now.

I’ve learned and grown so much this summer conservation wise, and this internship really changed me for the better. While I’m gonna stick with my Music major (sorry), I’m certainly much more keen on the idea of conservation being in my future. Thanks for being with me all summer and watching me grow!

Mackenzie 🙂

July 25, 2022

Conservation Intern

Jaron’s June Blog

These past couple weeks have came and gone faster than I can wrap my head around. I have kept busy with some very exciting work regarding bats. My month started with a audio recording indicative of the presence of Indiana bats in Northern Kentucky! For those who are unaware Indiana bats are a federally endangered species. With this information we can start doing more work to protect these super special mammals that are so great for our forest’s health. I have also gotten the opportunity to be involved with some mist netting for bats with Kentucky Game and fish and Stantec, which has been a very rewarding experience. The reason they’re mist netting is in regard to some stream mitigation work happening here in Boone County. For those unaware of what mist netting is, it’s a live capture technique where large nets capture flying bats. Once captured the bats are recorded and if they’re a endangered species they are tagged with a tracker so they can find where they roost. I’ve also been able to participate In some hydromod surveys with SD1. Its been fun to work with the SD1 staff and assist them In there stream monitoring work. Along with the bat work I have been researching how to do mussel surveys in Boone County. It will not be long before we start said surveys in which I will update all yall about in my last blog. I am loving this internship and wishing I could slow down time to keep this summer from ending.

– Jaron

July 21, 2022