Artists, Epidemiologists, and Oatmeal: Stories from Third Session

By: Johnica Morrow

The final week of third session has begun! Last week we saw the arrival and departure of three artists in residence and the scampering of students perfecting projects that will be due by the end of this week.  This week is sure to be just as eventful. Students continue to monitor their crayfish, toads, minnows, snails, and damselflies that are being treated with everything from clay to antibiotics. We have also welcomed a new set of artists to the campus.

Art Continues at Cedar Point

Last Thursday, our three artists, Zach Jacobs, Trudie Teijink, and Kelly Weber, were kind enough to share their work with an audience of students, professors, and staff members. Zach is working on a creative non-fiction piece about his time working on an archaeological excavation in Turkey. Trudie is a printmaker working on a number of different pieces inspired by Lake Ogallala and parts of the surrounding landscape. Kelly is a poet who is also working on various pieces inspired by nature and the study thereof. Each of these artists had unique perspectives of the region and chose CPBS as the place to hone their skills and fine-tune their products. We were glad to have them and elated for them to share their works in progress with those of us living, working, and learning here at the station.

Kelly, Zach, and Trudie smile after presenting their projects to a CPBS audience.

Associate director, Jon Garbisch, enjoys the artists' presentations.

Though these artists have returned to their homes to continue working in another venue, we have seen the arrival of new artists in residence for this week. One artist is collecting plants as part of a photography project. The other artists are here to paint a mural in the computer/sitting area of the library in the Gainsforth Resource Center. The artists hope to integrate the local flora and fauna into their art in a way that captures the essence of CPBS and the nature of the research conducted here. Before, during, and after photos of the library walls' transformation will be forthcoming.

Epidemiology at Otter Creek

Students capturing damselflies at Otter Creek.

I was lucky enough to be able to tag along with the Field Epidemiology class last Friday as they embarked on an adventure to Otter Creek. This is a great region for collecting different types of damselflies from those that the class has been capturing for other aspects of the course. This site is home to Ruby Spot Damselflies (Hetaerina americana) and to Ebony Jewelwing Damselflies (Calopteryx maculata). The sexual dimorphism between the sexes of both of these species is astounding in and of itself, but that's not why the course instructor, Dr. Devin Nickol, has his students collect them. "The damselflies in Otter Creek seem to have far fewer gregarines and ectoparasitic mites than damselflies that we collect at other sites," says Dr. Nickol, "We don't really know why this is the case, but it demonstrates epidemiological principles like variations in the prevalence of disease and may be linked to ecological factors such as agricultural disturbance."

Field Epidemiology, 2015

After students had collected their damselflies, the class headed toward the Ash Hollow Cemetery to see a monument to an Oregon Trail traveler who had succumbed to cholera en route. Dr. Nickol spends some time talking about cholera in his lectures because the stories of people like John Snow (the original, not the Game of Thrones character) so perfectly introduce the early development of epidemiology. Dr. Nickol wanted to show students that cholera was a problem even in this country at one point in time, and the monument to Rachel Pattison demonstrates this concept from a local perspective.

Dr. Nickol points to the grave memorial for local cholera victim who died on the Oregon Trail.

Before heading back to the station, the class made one last stop at Windlass Hill. This area was a difficult place for travelers to traverse with their wagons. The ruts from these treks are still visible, and mark the entrance into the Ash Hollow area and into the North Platte River Valley. Students hiked to the top of Windlass Hill to see the landscape unfold before them, fairly different than the view seen by those traveling along the Oregon Trail so many years ago,  but still retaining the scars from the treacherous crossings made by early 19th century Americans.

Field Epidemiology student, Megan Wright, begins the trek up to Windlass Hill.

Culinary Art in Oatmeal
The fact that our kitchen staff prepares a wide range of different oatmeal flavors isn't new. The "Oatmeal of the Day" was a thing that started last summer. However, it hasn't really been talked about here on our blog, so I felt compelled to let all of you other CPBS fans out there know about a tradition that has carried over into this summer.

Even those of us who like oatmeal and recognize how healthy it can be for you can easily see how it would get boring day in and day out. There's only so many things you can put in it, right? Wrong! Our kitchen staff puts their culinary creativity to work almost every day as they prepare traditional and totally inventive versions of this classic breakfast food. We've had everything from your standard cinnamon-raisin, strawberries and cream, and blueberry oatmeals to deliciously different concoctions such as lemon poppyseed, pina colada, and coconut lime.


"It's fun working in the kitchen because we have the freedom to make all kinds of different things," says Sam Pellatz, a member of this summer's kitchen staff, "Especially, with making the oatmeal, we have complete culinary freedom to make whatever kind we want for the day. Be it classic or completely off of the wall. There are no limits."

Some of the other featured oatmeals of the day have included trail mix, cranberry orange, banana nut, red velvet cake, apple cinnamon, peanut butter banana, strawberry chocolate, turtle, peaches and cream, and pumpkin pie. There have been many other fun flavors over the last two summers and the staff members are continually working to create new and exciting dishes to start our mornings off right. I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Third Session Begins as the Fourth of July Approaches

By: Johnica Morrow

As Independence Day approaches, the station has been a flurry of activity. This week has seen the excitement of students enduring the beginnings of third session and the influx of people coming to the area to celebrate the Fourth here at Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala. With the celebration right around the corner, the station is abuzz with excitement!

Students have been enjoying the nice weather as they collect specimens for their classes. For Dr. Bill Glider's LIFE 121 (Fundamentals of Biology II) course, students have been running around with insect nets hoping to back wasps and dragonflies to add to their collections. When the running gets exhausting, they have been able to pluck plants for pressing before curating them for their plant collections. Luckily, these organisms don't often escape during collecting! These students have been making good use of the station's resident herbarium and entomological collections to assist them with identifying the local flora and fauna.

Simultaneously, Dr. Devin Nickol's BIOS 452 (Field Epidemiology) course has kept students busy studying the core concepts of disease transmission. This class has taken field trips to classic collecting spots like Beckius Pond and Arapahoe Prairie to pick up things like grasshoppers, damselflies, amphipods, predacious diving beetles, and, most recently, toads. These organisms, and often their parasites, are then used as model systems to demonstrate epidemiological concepts, such as mortality rates and disease prevalence within populations.

The holiday weekend also has some of our resident interns busy with surveying people about invasive and endangered species. Our invasive species interns, Ty Trump and Ashlee Wright, hang out at docks around Lake McConaughy offering courtesy boat inspections to prevent the transmission of the dreaded zebra mussels that can devastate naive aquatic ecosystems.

Our plover interns, Peyton Burt and Jessica Tramp, are prepared to ask hundreds of people questions about the endangered birds that are nesting on the shores of Lake McConaughy during this busy weekend. With the excess of rain this year, the lake is almost at 100%, which is great except that much of the beach has disappeared. This leaves people to be more concentrated on the beach than in previous years, and makes our interns' jobs of monitoring the nesting sites of these birds all the more important.

People who willingly take surveys from any of these interns are rewarded for their time with free koozies to keep their water and sodas cool in the hot July sun during their days at the beach. These surveys are important for monitoring the wildlife around the lake and for preserving the natural history of the organisms that call Lake McConaughy home...even if only for part of the year.

So, if you find yourself out at Lake McConaughy celebrating this country's independence with your friends and family, please be sure to get your boat checked out for unwanted hitchhikers and to share the sand with the endangered birds that have a summer home here!