Cate Harris – Sometimes Saving Plants Takes Removing Others: The Threat Invasive Species Hold Against Forest Health

Ever since I was little, I dreamed of a job where I could spend the day outside just as I did then. It wasn’t until I was older and looking for a subject to study in college that I realized that doing just that was possible. My sister gave me a piece of wisdom to pursue something that I truly cared about. Bingo! Conservation of natural resources it was.

This past summer I had the opportunity to attain this dream that I had held on to. I got to be outside all day long! The North Carolina Forest Service (NCFS) is a part of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDA&CS). I worked with the NCFS’s Forest Health Department as a member of their Invasive Species Treatment Crew. Invasive species are plants, animals, insects, or pathogens that are not naturally in the area they inhabit and are harmful to the new ecosystem they are living in. My job was monitoring and removing invasive plants and insects across the state of North Carolina so that our forests might remain healthy, beautiful, and enjoyed long in the future.

I loved my job, I really did. Even before my first day, I could feel my excitement growing to finally get real-world experience in the field of natural resources. But there was one problem: I had never had real-world experience. As my excitement grew, my nerves did too. Lucky for me, my supervisor’s one goal for me was to learn and be exposed to as much as I possibly could over the summer. He emphasized that my position was a “working internship.” He had no intention of giving me fluff work, but for me to be right there with the other employees getting a taste of the real world and responsibilities of forest health.

My first week with the forest service was full of initial trainings. I was approved to drive the state truck entrusted to me and to use the tools that I would frequently need. Such tools included the utility task vehicle (UTV), brushcutters (something like a weed eater with a saw blade on the end), machetes, hatchets, backpack sprayers for pesticide application, and GPS devices. Prior to the summer, the only experience I had with a UTV was my plastic John Deere Gator from when I was a kid! Luckily, I had great teachers who were willing to invest in me.

Shortly into the summer, I had a routine and my independent responsibilities began. To give you a glimpse of my internship, here is my favorite week of the entire summer. It starts by traveling to South Mountains State Park where I stayed in Morganton, NC for the week. The first day there, I helped to remove kudzu from around a reservoir and roadside. Kudzu is an invasive plant that was first introduced as forage for cattle and to prevent soil erosion. However, it has become a stubborn vine that suffocates the trees it crawls up. Everyone agreed that this was one of the worst parts of the summer from the hard work in the mid-July heat. It was the following days that became the most memorable.

My main purpose for the trip was to assist in a chemical treatment for a population of hemlock trees that were on a ridge. Eastern and Carolina hemlock trees are native trees to North Carolina, but their populations are declining from an invasive insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid. The chemical treatment helps the hemlock trees withstand the effects of the hemlock woolly adelgid in an effort to keep the tree populations alive. In order to administer the treatments, I was hiking up the ridges to reach the hemlocks. The rest of the time was spent saving hemlocks with a captivating view from the top of the mountain! To me, this was worth dreadful kudzu, changing elevation taking my breath, dodging yellowjacket nests, and the heat of July in North Carolina.

And just like that, my summer with the NCFS was coming to an end with a portion of my childhood dream being fulfilled! Being able to learn from and work with some incredible professionals to help steward North Carolina forests was incredible! I will always be thankful for the opportunity I was given and for the memories I now have. With my time at NC State coming to a close, this internship experience taught me how much I love working in the field. My favorite part about my job was the feeling of doing something that matters. I’ll be carrying that with me as I begin my career!