VAFO Week 6 & Week 7 Lexus Ocampo/Eric Morgan

View of the harbor from the Star Fort

 

Hey everyone! Week 6 started off great. As mentioned in the previous blog, we drove to Maryland on Friday and started working at Fort McHenry on Saturday, Week 6 began Sunday which would be our last day working at Fort McHenry for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. Saturday we were placed at the Star Fort again. This day was different from the other day because there were more families there. Our job was to keep the visitors behind the safety line. If people were to cross the safety line, they'd be in danger of falling off the thirty foot high walls of the fort. Compared to the day before our job to keep the visitors behind the line was more difficult because there were a lot more children who like to play along the line. Towards then end if the day, Lexus Ocampo and Jay Copper had the opportunity to fold the flag.  

Lexus and Jay folding the American Fla

  Monday was a travel day and that is when we drove back to Valley Forge. The weather while at Fort McHenry was surprising nice, but the weather during the rest of the week was really hot. To get out of the heat we worked at the front desk of the visitor's center. Working at the visitor's center is very fun because we are able to much more contact with visitors than we normally do while we do our patrols. At the visitor's center we are able to help many people navigate through the park and make plans on how to best utilize the time they have at the park. 

Inspecting carvings on the tree while on patrol

Eric speaking to a visitor

Lexus and an interpretive ranger helping a family

Week 7 was another hot week. For two days we worked at the Visitor's Center again. On one day, when the weather was bearable we went to Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site to patrol some of the trails there so that we can familiarize ourselves with the park but also because there are no law enforcement rangers there. The next day we had a few indoor projects like radio inventory. That day there was a missing dog that was found in the park. We helped Ranger Bungard look over the dog while he tried to locate its owner. The day afterwards we worked with resource management and their partner, St. Gabriel's Hall. That day was our orientation on the project that we had to do. The project was to work with the kids from St. Gabriel's Hall and to remove and prevent the spread of foreign vegetation. Invasive species like mile-a-minute weed can over come areas and push out native plants.

Lexus with Kate from resource management and a rep from St. Gab

The missing dog taking a break outside the Ranger Station after a walk