Sing the Theme Song, please!
My Mission which I chose to accept: look for survivors of Hurricane Irene: Endangered Species: Wild Beach Amaranth @ Tower Beach.
Just weeks before on a 90 degree day, for a 5 hour "Search and GPS Plot" Mission, myself, another volunteer, and my Director of Endangered Species Beach Nester Birds (and plants) surveyed Conquest to Tower Beach. We were in giddy-Amaranth mode as it seemed every few feet we were finding our quarry! My self-appointed job was to mark it with found objects of shells and reeds and orange flagging while measurements were recorded.
As a child I walked the dunes. Doing so now as an adult for the good State of Delaware is SWEET!
30 Degrees less, in the 60's, and windy, wearing my field boots and a fleece jacket, my mood was not sweet as I surveyed; there would be no survivors of Hurricane Irene.
The tides washed to the foot of the dunes decimating the Amaranth and all accompanying annual vegetation. Dune grass and the PVC pipe fencing made it thru just fine.
The Amaranth set seed in August and thus a seed bank awaits under the new accumulation of 6-12 inches of sand.
I'll see you again, August 2012!
Beach Blessings,
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