Half way through my internship and we’ve included a Cape Cod field trip, documented all the plant material within the Buttrick Garden, incorporated the drawings we created from the gardens into AutoCAD, and we even introduced goats and sheep to Minute Man National Historical Park!
This was my first trip to Cape Cod National Seashore, and it was breathtaking. The old Coast Guard house was where we were stationed and the view surrounding us was heart-stirring! Imagine walking away from your back porch and just within a few steps, you’re near the water (well actually it was a good 1-2 minute walk to the beach) but the overall view was spectacular.
Our agenda everyday consisted of visiting modern homes that the NPS owned, documented, photographed, and mapped the existing site conditions. As we listened to Bill, the parks historian, he gave us background information to what was important and how beneficial it was for visitors to rent homes during the summer season. We later found out how crucial it was to make sure the surrounding landscapes were in tip-top shape; to make sure there were plethora of activities to get into around the park; hiking trails around the Pamet cranberry bog and the dune shack sand trails. We even made a visit to the Highlands center to talk to a GIS specialist who is also a landscape architect. We were all engaged by the usage of GIS and how easier it is now to map certain locations using a variety of mapping techniques.
Our last day we ended our trip by having a round table type discussion with some of the parks staff about preservation maintenance and any ideas for future care and projects to host throughout the park and to further extend toward the near by community.
Back to reality!!
We head back to Minute Man to continue our mapping of the Buttrick garden and document the reminder of plants that are now being converted into AutoCAD. Using the great tips we’ve learned from a three day training from Timothy, the historical landscape architect from the Olmsted center, we learned several ways to create gardens bed with mass polygons of plants, specifically the mass quantity of irises in the Buttrick garden.
As the weeks go on, one of our main projects that has finally come to life are our introduction to livestock at MIMA!
It all started where the interns/volunteers for the Summer Stewardship program started only a month ago and were already given a survey to nominate their top projects of interest to get into for the summer. One of our volunteers wanted to get involved with the introduction of goats and how the grazing method would be beneficial to help reduce the invasive species around the park. Erica Nork, a sophomore student from Tufts University who is studying sociology took on the challenge working on getting the approval and bringing the goats to Minute Man. It took the proper paper work, determination, phone calls and even an accidental run into the farmer who provided the goats to assist with this project to make this project proposal a success!
We thank Erica for her hard she put it in search of the livestock, and with the help of Margie, Olek, the farmer, and the many volunteers who signed up to help take in and out the goats every day, we say thank you for your time, the effort and passion to help with this dream of coming true with the return of livestock back into Minute Man!
Designing the Parks 