The boathouses were packed with people.

Saturday of Summer VIIIs

We rowed really well, we rowed really hard. We got bumped, but it was less of a defeat this time because we were just strong and managed to hold them off for a long way. We all gave it everything we had, and it was a good race.

Then we rowed home, had some drinks and threw Judy in the river. It was fabulous, and an all around excellent time.

Saturday warming up. Taken by Jessica from the bridge.

Addicted to pain and suffering

We were feeling good. Nervous, but strong and hopeful. I REALLY wanted to bump Osler-Green. We were looking good and the practice starts in the warm-up felt good. The weather had cleared up. Then somehow, things went wrong after the start gun. As we were closing on OG (which we really were, just not as fast as we'd hoped), Hertford came up behind us fast. We fought, but not hard enough, not long enough, not enough enough. We couldn't hold them off, and we conceded to them while still a length off OG.

Tough one. It sucks to be bumped. It sucks to lose. And, we tried our best. So we'll try again tomorrow, we'll brush it off, and we'll hunt down Hertford on a saturday afternoon. How does rowing (and losing) turn me into a petty revenge seeker? I do believe its an overdose of lactic acid buildup and shifty weather. Or maybe the rivermud all over my clothes, bike and backpack. Okay W1 - we know what we can do so lets ride Hertford the whole way tomorrow.

St Hildas Women's First VIII. Thursday of Summer VIIIs racing.

Thursday racing. See that grimace? Its PAIN

Bittersweet Defeat

Maybe we were overconfident. Maybe we didn't have a proper crew chat. Maybe we just didn't row well. Because the sun was shining, perfect weather, we were chasing a crew that isn't as fast as us, and we had every reason to bump in this race. But we didn't. They bumped before we could catch them - so we rowed on. The good news is we didn't get bumped either, so we stay in the same place as yesterday. And, we know now that we do have work to do - its not going to be easy, but we can row well and we can keep bumping. We just won't get blades (bump every day). So now that we won't be getting blades, the pressure is eased a little bit and we can focus on the fun part of rowing, doing our best and just having a good time on the water! Bring on friday!

St Hildas closing on Queens

St Hildas closing on Queens
Originally uploaded by n_yoder.

At approximately 18:20, St Hilda's Womens 1st eight bumped Queen's Womens 1st eight in the gut. This Weds 25 May, first day of Summer Eights 2006. Beast it Hilda's! (For all my loyal fans: i'm sitting at 2, second from the end of the boat in the foreground of the picture)

Three cheers for the first eight! Congrats guys.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Exams over! I made it through, alive! Its amazing. And glorious. This had to be one of the most stressful experiences of my life. The last exam went relatively well, and the relief once it was finished was exquisite - like a tangible weight being lifted. Here are the questions i answered yesterday:

2a/ Critically evaluate the success of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity.

5/ What is rapid biodiversity assessment? With examples discuss the circumstances in which this approach is required.

6b/ Assess the evidence that the global network of protected areas does not cover the geographic ranges of enough species. Why might this be so?

Sorry, folks, but my camera is broken and all the photos i took didn't come out. I will get some photos from classmates to post here very soon.

Finally, thank you for all your support which has helped me get me to this point. I couldn't have reached this milestone without your support and belief in me - thank you. Lots of love and conservation!

Exams - day 2 - breathe deeply

"Lose the panic" as our cox would say. Today was all about panic. Not enough prepared material, not enough references stuck in my head. Not enough coherent structure or argument in my essays. But, the good news is: more than halfway through! One more day, and exams are over! Here are the questions i answered today:

5/ Is there any such thing as a business solution to the biodiversity crisis?
7/ What role, if any, do religions play in biodiversity conservation?
8a/ Discuss the multiplicity of factors lead[ing] to the misrepresentation of conservation science in the news media?

I'll be happy to discuss my answers with you at length if you're interested. I'll post all the choices of exam questions, plus photos and more - after tomorrow. Truckin along until then.

Exams - Judgement Day no. 1

This was more difficult than boat racing. But strangely similar. Butterflies in the stomach, nervous beyond belief, cyclical feelings of panic and disbelief, followed by fatigue. That was yesterday. Then i went - after a day of reading over notes trying desperately to memorize the references i need - to exercise class, got home and ironed (yes, IRONED) my gown. I woke up this morning, and was more nervous that i would forget something like my student card or my bowtie - they're very strict with the dress requirements - than i was about the exam. It was normal England-style chaos at Exam Schools. I looked over my notes one last time, pinned a white carnation (signifying our first day of exams) on classmates, donned my gown, and walked in. The desks are in rows, simple little tables. We're sitting in a room right next to the courtyard (pics tomorrow) and i was next to the window. Alphabetical order. There's only one gigantic portrait on the wall. I'm not sure who it is, but he's wearing a long red cloak. As we took our seats, and everyone wished each other well i realized part of the point of wearing sub fusc (fancy dress). Its part of the ritual to signal to yourself, to the world what you've set out to do, and this is a significant piece in accomplishing that. When you wear your sub fusc out in town, people notice - they smile, give you a nod of encouragement, give you free beer (right? at the Turf? Friday night, here we come!). It signals to the world that something is happening today.
The exam itself. Nine questions. Nothing out of the blue. Here are the questions i answered (an hour for each, annotated with references):

1/ What are the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls? Why are they such a problem for conservation science?
3/ How environmentally fragile are oceanic islands? Should they be a priority for conservation? (Note: this question was not on any of the study guides, but is my FAVORITE! Thanks, Rob!!!)
7/ Discuss the challenges of nature conservation in a changing world.

I can post all the questions presented in the exams this weekend.
I was pretty happy with the way it went. The islands question was a windfall, since much of the material i had prepared had to do with island ecosystems. I was way more nervous than i needed to be. Three hours went by in a flash - there was never a moment where i felt like time was dragging. My arm and shoulders got tired from writing. Like Torpids, the nervousness is a lot less now that i know what to expect, what the room looks like, and i can envision myself in there writing my answers out. And, like Torpids, this will be a significant challenge every day.

One down, two to go! Lets get out there and rock the exam schools, folks! Dreaming of friday afternoon...

BCM study tour, part 3 - OVP

The last part of the study tour involved visiting Veluwezoom National Park, and Oostvaderplasen Wildlife Refuge.

We had a lovely tour of the national park. The most exciting piece of the tour for me was the wildlife overpass. There are about 15 wildlife overpasses in Holland, and so its not as controversial even as the idea is in North America. The park was also lovely, and the landscape was quite different than the floodplain areas we had seen the day before.

Next, we traveled to Oostvaderplasen - OVP. OVP is a wildlife refuge/natural experiment. It is an area that was artificially filled in (as most of Holland was) to create habitable land. Under the astute direction of Frans Viera, there are now Konik horses, Heck cattle and Red Deer thriving in the refuge. There are also many birds. I saw: spoonbills, greylag geese, oystercatchers, avocet, great white egret. We also saw a fox wading through the reeds. It was very interesting, to see so much wildlife in such a controlled resotration environment. It seems to be working, is the other interesting piece. There are many species there now that had been extirpated, and the vegetation community is theorized to change into forest. Unfortunately, my camera broke so there are no pictures of OVP.

It was a fascinating trip, overall. We were presented head on with this question: what are we preserving? How should we go about it? Holland has a national restoration/natural areas protection plan that is so far ahead of what the US has done. There is nation-wide coordination and planning. There is effective implementation. In many ways, Holland's strategy can serve as a guidline for conservation planning in other developed countries.

BCM study tour, part 2

The first full day in Holland we spent at Millingerwaard. This is a nature reserve near Nijmegen, centered around...you guessed it: rivers! Its a government/NGO arrangement, and the managers have succeeded in introducing large herbivores (mainly Konik horses) into the area. The office for the reserve is an ingenious design: organic-green-healthy restaurant/visitor center/butcher/deli. There are several ideas in the reserve: one is to sell bricks made from mud that is dredged out of the areas that are being reclaimed. Brick-making, in fact, is one of Holland's traditional crafts and exports, so this practice also fosters small community sustainability. Second, since there are no top predators in the food chain, the reserve has an excess of horse and cattle. The animals that die naturally they harvest and sell the meat. The visitor center is really nicely designed, and thoughtful, with wonderful ideas about sustainable business built in. We were received warmly there, on a cold morning with coffee and biscuits and a presentation by reserve managers. We took a walk around the reserve and saw the herbivores and the dikes that had been allowed to flood over. At the end of the day, several of us stayed behind to see if we could find the beavers that we'd been told were re-introduced to the wetlands. As we were walking back into the reserve, binoculars in hand, Nick called us over and Paul set his spotting scope trained to...a BEAVER! It was extremely exciting for everyone, especially the europeans and the brits in the group who had never seen a beaver (and especially not in Europe).

We kept walking and listening to the cacophony of birds: lapwing, robin, chaffinch, pigeon, dove, goose, stork, heron. Then, as though we had walked through the looking glass, Nick spotted the beaver again. This time, it was very close to the edge of the pond where we were standing. He motioned to quietly look, and as i walked to the water's edge, the beaver surfaced not ten feet away in the water. I didn't have my binoculars, and i didn't need them - it was that close. I could see its face, nose, whiskers, and it would sort of paddle around, then dip its nose in the water, preening-style. I could also see the tail (Martha! THE TAIL!) and even though the beaver didn't slam it on the water as Martha always dreamed of, it did use the tail in a fascinating way. The tail sits like a rudder in the water, 90 degrees perpendicular to the water surface. It moves the tail side to side, like a fin, and this is how the beaver swims around. Its very smooth, and skilled: where we saw all of this was in somewhat shallow water, thick with reeds and branches to navigate.

We watched the beaver until it disappeared. Unfortunately, only Nick and i were lucky enough to see it, and we were left trying to convince the others that this event had really occurred. I don't care anymore if anyone believes me - it can remain a story locked in my memory only, a moment where i was at the very edge of beaver-world. How can i translate that into language anyway?

I also saw a fox and Egyptian Geese (there are stray populations in Europe) so all in all a very good wildlife day.