Michael Putz's Senior Project at Hoyt Arbo

    As I reflect upon my time at Hoyt this past month,  I think that I did in a sense, accomplish the goals that I set out to. The goals that I set in my first blog post, To be able to more accurately identify the plants around Hoyt; I did in fact learn more about plans this month by working on Tuesdays with Martin the horticulturist, I learned about many new species both native and invasive.  I was also able to learn a lot more about a different kind of perspective in exploring the Arboretum.  By spending most of my time on this handicap route project I thought a lot about how difficult it must be the one and explore the outdoors I have some kind of handicap hold you back in certain ways or areas.  from this experience, I will be more wary about my own outdoor recreation, and my privilege as an able-bodied person to go off of paved paths.  I would also like to make the outdoors more accessible in the future to people of all abilities, and perhaps lead...

  These pictures above are from the visitors center loop. The pictures below are of the bristlecone trail loop.  This week I had a very intense staring match with a squirrel while I was photo- documenting one of the Bristlecone Trailsl. I don't know what it was, the squirrel would not look away while we're standing about 5 feet apart locked eyes, but we just shared the space for a few minutes,  and they moved on. It's moments like these. I've come to appreciate even more now that my shoulder is in unusable condition. the squirrel did not seem to mind my being there and rather we just checked each other out and then moved about our business enjoying Hoyt.  I think I've come to learn that the smaller things in life are usually the most meaningful,  and to notice  some of these moments I've realized  people often have to intentionally slow themselves down, due to the inherent quick pace of our everyday lives.  I progressed with all of my goals still,...

  The funny thing that happened to me this week was during a photo session of the Overlook Trail, I followed a couple of old ladies basically the entire Trail, and they kept on laughing and joking with me about my taking photos of them for the website.  it makes me so happy to meet older people enjoying the outdoors at Hoyt,  so this is a pleasing moment in relation to my project, since some less physically-capable people were out using this Trail. A sort of incentivizing moment for my hard work… I've gained some more perspective over the past week, on some of the same things I talked about in my last post.  I’ve continued thinking about just how hard it would be to be disabled and wanting to experience Outdoors but constantly being met with  challenges at every turn you take. I also learned some more about how to use mileage tracking app Gaia,  and I've been trying to figure out a way to divvy up my three different trails into sections which I can calculat...