Thursday, May 26, 2016

Recently started a new job and wanted to share my anxiety with you all


I'm a recent graduate in environmental sciences, and I'm working as a field technician in Northern Alberta researching ducks. It'd a seasonal gig that isn't permanent, but it's a cool experience.My work takes me to isolated wetlands and ponds in the boreal forest. These range anywhere from old holes from oil/gas exploration to beaver pond chains as far as the eye can see. While there, we search for duck nests for future monitoring.I'm not usually afraid of water, but today I was. We needed to cross a wetland to reach some nesting habitat, but it involved crossing grass that was literally just floating on the water. It didn't look that bad, and it looked like you were connected to shore, but every step meant you were sinking up to your knee really slowly... That's if you didn't just go right through, having your foot dangling in 4 meter deep water exposed to an ecosystem thats never seen the light of day. Sometimes the grass would open and you could see water, where the bony roots of grass, peat, and deadfall mats plummeted into the unseen right below your feet.I was shaking by the time I got to the other side. Not looking forward to the next time I have to do that.

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