The Spring 2023 MMTP monitoring tour took place on May 24. It has been more than two years since the project started the operating phase and this was the time to visit the surroundings of towers 124, 405, 406, and 441 for monitoring along with the Indigenous monitors and co-workers, very nice people. My name is Mario, I come from Colombia and am working as a summer student at Manitoba Hydro. This is my first blog ever written about my first fieldwork in Canada that involved my first time on Manitoba’s roads, countryside landscapes, and small towns. It was certainly one of the most enjoyable fieldwork days I have had in my life, and I will always remember this experience.
Despite that by those days we were already having very warm and sunny weather as if the summer were already here, in the morning of Wednesday, May 24, the sun wore sunglasses, exhibiting a cloudy and windy day. My colleague Geneva and I started the field trip heading south out of Winnipeg to meet the MMTP monitors at 9 am at tower 124. At the meeting site, we met up with the monitors Darryl, Travis, Keith, and our colleague Jonathan, where we had a description of the job plan for the day and a small safety orientation. On the day of the tour, some construction work was ongoing for another transmission line next to tower 124 which limited our access for safety reasons. However, it was possible to see Meadowlarks, ducks, and geese in the area around the tower. From this site, we drove southeast to Steinbach to have our morning coffee stop before continuing to towers 405 and 406.
It was a quarter past 11 am when we started the observation walk at towers 405 and 406. In the area, there was much more new vegetation advertising the end of the winter and the flourishing of the spring season. Along with the new vegetation, the wood ticks were present trying to climb our bodies the whole time, sometimes doing it successfully to the point that some of them came back with us to Winnipeg in our clothes. Additionally, we could see different plants such as raspberry, yellow willow, rose bush, red willow, marsh lily, strawberry, and others that the monitors identified and described some of their characteristics and traditional usages. Also, we could see some deer tracks, bird nests, caterpillars, and hints of the presence of bears in the area.
It was a bit after noon when we started the observation walk at tower 441, the last one of the day. On the walking tour, we could observe Marsh marigolds, red willow, and Strawberry plants. We also saw frogs and a nest on top of one of the towers; apparently, for some bird species, the peak of the towers is a desirable spot for nesting.
The end of the journey was coming when Darryl invited us for joining him to harvest Cedar leaves. We walked to the tree, and before starting he led a prayer thanking nature for providing food and resources to people while offering some tobacco next to the tree before cutting off Cedar leaves. During that unique moment, he explained some of the usages of the Cedar leaves in his community (the tree of life) and dropping tobacco in advance of harvesting is to give back to nature, as an expression of thankfulness.
Finally, after a successful and nice day of fieldwork, we headed to a small town called South Junction to wrap up the workday and have lunch before starting the trip back to Winnipeg. It was more than just a fieldwork day to me, it was a journey full of new experiences and learning about taking care of and interacting with the environment, accompanied by kind, knowledgeable, and wise people.
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