Keep it Going, Keep it Flowing!

I really need to check my hours list uhhhhhh

~*UPDATE*~

• Nothing new, really.  I have a meeting with my Gold Award Advisor tomorrow, Friday, in the first time in what seems like forever.  
• Things will clear up!

     So, last Saturday I had an interview at the American Museum of Natural History for he possibility of having an internship there over the summer... Very exciting!  All went well, I brought my mother, younger sister, and best friend with me, and we walked around the museum afterwards.  First of all, we went to their temporary exhibit about natural disasters which I loved! I've always been extremely interested in that kind of stuff.  However, later on while we were wondering, we came to the section about North American forests, and I, in all my nerdy-glory, got very excited and looked everywhere for a section on the American Chestnut trees!  I read every plaque and placement at the exhibits, looking in the windows...

     And I found nothing. I don't even think I found a single mention of the trees! I saw mentions of the American Elm and other Chestnut variations, but not the American Chestnut! :-(  I was actually pretty upset by this haha.  Just thought I'd bring this up. 

    Talk to you guys soon!

I'M BACK, SORRY

28?/80

~*UPDATE*~

• I just returned from my Easter break which I spent in Italy... I have quite a few stories from that trip. haha Yet I unfortunately had no internet, or very little internet.  Needless to say not much work got done at all in that time.  Even before the break I really did not have time to work on this- between my school play, SATs, ACTs, and various other projects; however, since getting home on Saturday I've done a sufficient amount of work on this.
• Working on my curriculum and I plan to email a few people within this week to see about setting up presentations! 
• I got offered by my advisor to speak with a woman about my Gold Award for my local newspaper... So exciting! I'm hoping that goes through! :3
• Since receiving a donation from the bird sanctuary, I will have to do less fundraising to obtain the trees (which I don't mind a bit)... Now all that I have left to do is get a supplier!

     Alrighty!! All things considered, my project really is going very well. As soon as I purchase trees and start presenting, I'll really have this process almost, if not completely, underway.  My only problem is that I've hit quite a few road bumps, and, if you haven't already noticed, I've been very busy and unable to keep up with this.  Not to mention, the weather here in NY hasn't been so great either.  I feel like it's only now just starting to feel like spring!  You know that feeling, right? I think people call it "spring fever." I just want to be outside everyday doing stuff instead of being cooped up indoors like I have been almost all winter!

     Now that I know I'm most likely going to have trees and start speaking about my curriculum by next month, June at the latest, (and because of the events in my school which are signifying the end of the year) I'm starting to become very excited for this summer.

     In other news, I plan to post my curriculum up here, and I feel like I've mentioned this before, for you guys to look at it and maybe even make suggestions.  I'm looking to show it to a few of my local Girl Scout troops, Boy Scouts maybe, even at my school or my younger sister's elementary school. 

     Again, sorry for being so inactive.  Entries should start to spring up more often now. ;-)

21/80

~*YET ANOTHER UPDATE*~

• Everything has been super busy lately, between all the work in school I've been receiving, the school play, and SATs.  I haven't really had time to do much work on this because my mind has been otherwise occupied.   I certainly will go full-speed ahead after this week is over, I hope. 

• My goal as of now is to get information and start raising to buy the trees and/or saplings.  I'll call Mr Nardone hopefully tomorrow, and send an email to the ACF guy.

• My curriculum needs a few touch-ups and information sheets, then I should be good to go in terms of talking to people and getting the word out about my project. I'll probably make a worksheet and a crossword... Something like that. :3 

AGAIN, I'm kinda bugging out because of all that's been going on.  I hope to get things going more fluidly when I have less work to do. 

So sorry, guys. 

- Elena

20/80

Okay, here's a little update on what's going on:

~*UPDATE*~

• Mr Nardone replied to me, and I plan on having a conversation with him either sometime this week or the following.  He said that he liked my idea and was willing to give me some advice! :3
• I also got a reply from the Saratoga Tree Nursery, and they gave me contacts to both David Lee and Allen Nichols from the NYS Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. (Ooooo~ that's exciting)

That's really all I have to say for now. School has been pretty busy lately, and SATs are next week.  

I hope to get back here again regularly soon!

Here's Something Interesting!

18/80

(I'm going to run out of these eventually and need new gifs lol)

~*UPDATE*~

• Within the past few days I have emailed a Mr Enrico Nardone from the American Chestnut Foundation and am awaiting a response from him.  I asked him for some advice regarding tree purchases, planting, SUNY ESF membership, etc.
• I have also contacted the Saratoga Tree Nursery with similar questions.

Okay, hello!

  The other day my mom linked me to some interesting articles via Facebook, and I thought I could possibly present them to you all here on my blog because they are somewhat related to my project, haha; so I figured that I would dedicate the next few blog posts to discussing them.

  Alright, the first one had to do with the Dutch Elm Disease, which is very similar to the chestnut blight.  The Tanners Pond Environmental Center actually has a Dutch Elm tree that I saw the last time I was there back in December.  My advisor showed it to me, and the tree itself had holes all over it, not from the disease but from this bird he referred to as a "sap-sucker" because it ate the tree's sap. Think of it like a woodpecker, almost:

This is the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

  Anyways, the Dutch Elm Disease is spread by a bug called the elm bark beetle (eww) which comes from Europe and not from Asia. The chestnut blight originated in Asia.  

The Dutch Elms, like the American Chestnut trees, have suffered major destruction in recent history due to this disease.     

SO, the article was one from the New York State Department of Conservation, and it essentially spoke about how moving firewood promoted the spreading of the disease and the bugs that cause them.  Why you may ask? 

Well, since most are spread by bugs, which are capable of moving from tree to tree, it wouldn't be smart to be moving infected logs around susceptible trees.  That's actually really important, if you think about it, considering that it's extremely valuable to the protection of certain trees from disease. 

This even applies to fungus diseases, like the chestnut blight. 

Article: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html

I don't know, I just thought this was related and wanted to share it.  

Actually, thinking about it again, this also was interesting because it reminds me of those signs you'll see all over town with the people on them that say things like: KEEP OFF THE GRASS FOR 24 HOURS.

THESE THINGS 

  I was told that these were being used to treat for pesticides in the soil.  That, I suppose, is helpful in the protection of the grass as well as the trees.  

  For some reason, this also reminded of the Asian Longhorn Beetle... Which I will do another post about eventually since they just, kinda, came out of nowhere and are killing a lot of trees. 

I thought this was relevant

...

But then people just leave the signs there so you never know when you can actually step on the grass. I think they just do that to keep people away. Oh well.  They always bothered me, but now that I understand I actually think it's smart haha

Okie dokie.  Well, I guess I'll leave this entry off here since I don't have anything else to add. 

See you guys soon. c;

- Elena 

Let's Get Things Started

12/80

Okay, hello!
My name is Elena Fernández, and this blog will cover my journey to completing my Girl Scout Gold Award project! (woooo)
The project is titled Return of a Giving Tree-- The American Chestnut, and my main goal/idea with this is to bring back the American Chestnut Trees to my area and educate my community about the tree itself.
Look at how pretty they are:

I plan to obtain saplings from a grower (some resistant to the chestnut blight and others not) plant them and/or tend for them, and develop a curriculum to educate my community about the tree.  My community would include local schools, my own high school, fellow troops (whether they be Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts), and through events at the Arboretum.
I'm REALLY excited to get this going!

So far this is what I've done:

1. My project got approved last week with a total of 12 hours completed out of 80.
(yay :3  still have a ways to go)
2. I've recently emailed the Saratoga Tree Nursery because one of their members, Mr Dave Lee, is closely affiliated with the American Chestnut Foundation; so I asked him for some advice on where I should plant the trees, where I should get the trees from, and how to tend for them.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/61320.html
3. I've done research for my powerpoint/curriculum and developed it slightly.  I'm planning to make worksheets later this week.
4. I'm thinking of ways to fundraise the purchase of the trees because they are going to be relatively... Costly. (I found a package of SEEDS that was around $300, but the seedlings probably won't be more than that.)

ALSO, I found these really interesting pages on the trees:
http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/revival-of-the-american-chestnut/
http://www.esf.edu/chestnut/background.htm <-- I'm going to contact them about blight-resistant trees!
(I'll leave them here for your/my own reference)

I still have plenty to do and people to contact!

- Elena

P.S. I'll update as much as I can!