Environmental Professionals Radio (EPR)

Scouts, Trail Building, and Invasive Plants with Ryan McClean

October 21, 2022 Ryan McClean Episode 89
Environmental Professionals Radio (EPR)
Scouts, Trail Building, and Invasive Plants with Ryan McClean
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Ryan McClean, Terrestrial Invasive Species Project Manager about Scouts, Trail Building, and Invasive Plants.  Read his full bio below.

Today's episode is sponsored by The Stone and Holt Weeks Foundation https://www.stoneandholtweeksfoundation.org/

Showtimes:
2:22  Nic & Laura talk about the do's & don'ts of submitting resumes
11:25  Interview with Ryan McClean Starts
12:01  Scouts
14:15  Trail Building
18:04  Invasive Plants
31:02  Field Notes

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review.

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Ryan McClean at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlgmcclean/

Guest Bio:
Ryan’s love for nature was fostered at a young age through years of outdoor activities with the Boy Scouts. In an effort to better understand what he loved, he received his B.S. in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from The College of New Jersey in 2017. He got involved with invasive species by spending time in a research lab that focused on how invasive species and deer interact with the native forest plant communities. After three years in the lab, including two summer experiences, he completed his capstone project researching interactions between invasive plants and invasive earthworms. Since graduating, he spent two years serving with AmeriCorps. His service included managing invasive plants with the Invasives Strike Force, building trails in Sterling Forest, and restoring and protecting aquatic resources in Montana. Ryan spent 2019 as the Trail Conference's Conservation Corps Invasives Strike Force Crew Leader before transitioning to the position of Terrestrial Invasive Species Project Manager. When he’s not waging war against invasive plants, you can find him looking for interesting bugs and fungi, cooking for friends and family, and unwinding through gaming.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

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Transcripts are auto -transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Welcome to EPR if your favorite environmental enthusiast Nick and Laura, on today's episode, Laura and I discussed the do's and don'ts of submitting resumes. We talked to Ryan Mclean about scouts, trail building and invasive plants. And finally, there are over 80,000 edible plants in the world but 90% of what we eat comes from just 30 plants. Many are grown for speed instead they rather than nutritional value. So we're actually also missing out on that respect. So we're only eating a tiny fraction of what's available. And a lot of it's not good for us. So we need to get out of our comfort zones and trying new things. What do you think?

Laura 
I gotta try some new things when I was in Hawaii. Some good some not so good.

Nic 
Yes, I'm not saying that they all taste good, but some of them are probably good for you and about that.

Laura 
Yeah, I'm just good as long as someone else tells me they're edible. I'm like, forging my own stuff because I probably die.

Nic 
Yeah. Oh, yeah. First day, that would totally be me. Anyway.

[Episode Sponsor]

Laura 
Today's episode is sponsored by the stone and hold weeks Foundation, which is Ryan Hathaway's organization. Brian was our guest from last week, and he very much believes in the spirit of paying it forward. So we thank him for the sponsorship. We also thought it was a really cool idea. The stoical week's foundation exists to honor the memories and spirit of two brothers remarkable young men who were tragically killed in a highway trucking crash in the summer of 2009. Through unbearable sorrow and unending love the foundation has its mission to carry on the hopes and dreams of stone and holds in their spirits by raising money for and creating awareness of sponsoring participants in and recognizing volunteers for their many good causes that they were involved with. Stolen hold not only believed but proved through their volunteerism and incredible vitality, that you can do good and have fun at the same time. They both very much wanted to make the world a better place for all and they each had the gift of making everything they did so much fun with creativity and originality. Do good, have fun and make the world a better place for all. You can learn more at www dot stone and Holt weeks foundation.org That's s t o n e ANDHOLTWEKS Foundation tech work. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura discuss the do's and don'ts of submitting resumes]

Nic 
There's a screening process and there are typically I would let the recruiter do what I did. But I wanted to do it for the show. And I was like I was like let me let me like take a look at these and see because I want to give people advice on how like what I'm actually looking for when I'm trying to find a job.

Laura 
I don't know people will do that what you're talking about which is just like throw their hat in the ring without making improvements or doing anything before they'll bother looking for help and it's it's really strange and frustrating for the hiring people. It's hard frustrating for the people themselves. But I hear a lot like people will say, I applied for the job and I was qualified to I didn't get called back. It's like well, there's two things here like probably a handful of other people were qualified also. So that doesn't mean you're automatically getting selected. And that means you weren't doing anything to make yourself stand out. And secondly, maybe there's some mistake, like you're all the ones you're just mentioning that you're not addressing.

Nic 
Right, right. I mean, every resume you submit should be different, though you should never have one resume, you should have like a template a baseline. But every resume you applied for should be a little bit different. Look at the job description, put some of that stuff in there. If you have descriptions of what I'm looking for in your application, I will consider it. It's that simple. You know, it doesn't have to be like there's a balance between like content and you know, ease of reading, right? You don't want it to be just this wall of text because that's also very frustrating and it makes you feel like you can't take the time to organize yourself on paper. How can you do it anywhere else? Right. But like, that's so simple to me use what you have in the description as a baseline for updating the basic resume you have it's a simple, simple piece of advice. I would just it's amazing of all the 75 applications, like maybe 1015 of them actually seemed catered to what we were trying to look for. They weren't perfect, but like I was the five of them were like exactly what we wanted, but 10 to 15 at least had what we were looking for.

Laura 
Yeah, I won't respond to ones that don't address the company name specifically. Like if they're just like, I think this sounds like the perfect job for me like

Nic 
to finance that just

Laura 
means they're submitting the same thing to everyone and

Nic  
that was my favorite. Yeah, cool. Thank you.

Laura  
Yeah, I mean, I've heard some I don't do this like I've heard extreme things like you know, you must include the word rainbow in your cover letter to be considered just to make sure that you read the job description. I don't do that. But I do say if you have not submitted a cover letter you won't be considered so that knocks out most of them for me. And then I only get qualified candidates who actually follow directions. I don't want to micromanage people, but I do want people that will follow directions like there are still policies that have to be you know, Eva has directions that needs to be followed. So, that's not like, you know, trying to be overly managerial or whatever, you know,

Nic 
it's the first step right, you're trying to see, do you have the basic requirements, just to just be a little bit organized and follow a few directions. And if you can't do that.

Laura  
Yeah, and I'm always telling people that you know, your resume is the first look someone has about you. So people think it's interview, it's not the interview. Your goal with the resume is to get an interview not to get a job. So that's, you know, number one, your resume is to stand out and everything you put on it as a representation of yourself. So when you say I'm detail oriented, and then you don't have the same periods or non periods or you misspell things, no, you don't. And thank you for showing me that I'm not going to hire you if I need someone who can write with attention to details but can't even put it on something as important as their resume.

Nic  
Right. Yeah, and like, especially for junior jobs, right? It doesn't not have to be a one to one. It doesn't have to be perfect like we interviewed somebody yesterday is very, very qualified, who does emergency environmental response. We don't do that at all. But this person is a very good candidate because of the interview that we had. The resume that they put together, had a lot of the keywords we wanted. And so we decided to set up an interview and it went really well. So it's one of those things too, that I don't want people to be discouraged, just targeted a little bit because that person took the time, energy and effort to look at what we said and organized their resume for what we were doing even though I could tell the career lines weren't exactly what I want. This close enough and there's a lot of things that we can teach for junior staff that we don't have to really worry about as much. So it was really, really, really, really well. You know, you never know how the rest of them are gonna go. So I want to say yes, this is the person but it's really top candidate. So I love that. I think that's really important for people to hear. I also really like to find relevant experience pretty easily that it's also kind of important for me, if I can't find it, if it's buried underneath the trip that you took to Guatemala, like that's not really for me. What happens a lot and people just don't seem to put the information in the right order or even just make it easy to see I don't care if it's not, this is the exact same way every time I just need to find where's your experience. And if it's on page two, that's not that's a problem for me. I'm working on.

Laura  
People are always like one page or two page and I'm like if you're not sold on one page, don't bother with two pages.

Nic 
Right? Your first page. That's the one.

Laura  
Yeah, yeah, if you go missing pages, all the best stuff on the first page, right? Because regardless, you gotta sell them on the first page and you know, flipping it over if you didn't like the first page. Let me see what else was here.

Nic 
Yeah, exactly. It's just because there's so many applications and you know, if it's me or the recruiter, trimming them, they're gonna find a way to trim it. They need to trim and you're giving them an excuse to so that's like, Okay, I have a bad first page done. Don't worry about the rest.

Laura 
Yeah, and I, you know, a lot of times I see people say too much when they try to do two pages, especially entry level positions, like you're just you're putting in things that will get you removed instead of things that will get you selected for the interview. Because again, you're not trying to convince them to hire you at that point. You're trying to convince them to talk to you further.

Nic  
Yeah, that's another really good point too. Like I don't I don't mind that you if you're a barista or if you're already working at a you know, a random job while you're trying to find other jobs. But you still in that resume, I need to know that you still are interested in this field. You know, you can even put it on there. I don't care if it's on there. I don't care. I'm a barista at this place. That's totally fine. But why would I interview you? What about you working there helps me determine that you're interested in this. You know, that's where you really have to come up with. Okay, well, I volunteered this. I am doing continuing education here. Where are the things that are really telling me hey, I am interested in this career field. Yeah.

Laura 
I think sometimes people don't realize it, or forget that there are allowed to also put non paid work on there. Yeah, yeah, no experience is experienced. It doesn't matter if it's volunteer or exactly. Something you did for fun, you know?

Nic 
And if it's something that that is relevant to what we're doing all them, please put it on there. I hope you do. So, yeah. And then I guess my last point, we had this happen, as well, where somebody's applied for a few times, right where it's entry level position. Okay, great. That sounds great. I would like $80,000 a year sorry. No, no, that's not what this is. Like, Oh, do you have something else that could be that's not what this is you applied to the junior staff, person. That's what this job is. That's what we're trying to hire for. We could have other things. But if you can't figure that out, I don't want to they're on our recruiting page. They all the applications that we have are out there, or all the jobs we have are out there. So yeah, that was not great. I didn't know I like that one bit. I don't know. It almost feels sneaky to me or something. It is very strange. And like if you don't want to do this, why are you wasting my time? I don't know.

Laura 
Yeah, we do want people to get jobs and it's you there's you know, how many resumes Do you see there's god awful and there's templates out there. There's you know, Grammarly, there are things to help you.

Nic 
I mean, yeah, it's a good point too, because like, like I said before, like there's a balance between like it looking good and looking like too much. But you should always try to strive for I'd rather it look a little glitzy and have exactly what I want then look terrible and have either doesn't have what I want or it's very, a good looking resume. automatically pops up there is somebody that I did have, honestly, I'm like, this is a good looking resume. Not quite what I'm looking for. But I know that this there's other groups in our group that in our department that are I'll send that to them. That does happen. And that's it's really like, oh, this this resume is really good. It's just not for us. And yeah, I mean it catches your eye. When stuff catches your eye, you're going to spend more time on it. That's just the trade. That's a lot of good advice. I think we we covered a lot of it. So let's get to our interview.

[Interview with Ryan McClean Starts]

Nic
Hello, and welcome back to EPR and today we have Ryan Mclean who is the terrestrial invasive species Product Manager with a New York New Jersey trail conference under the lower Hudson partnership, regional invasive species management contract on the show. Welcome Ryan.

Ryan McClean 
Thank you so much for having me. Sorry, my name title is such a mouthful. I was about to

[Scouts]

Nic 
say I made it through in one day. So that's something Laura said she can't be here, but she did. Tell me about the passion you have for your work, which really started when you were a kid. So what were your experiences growing up that led you to where you are today?

Ryan McClean 
Yeah, I was in the cub scouts from the minute I could I spent a lot of time camping and hiking with the Cub Scouts. I went into the Boy Scouts as well got all the way up to my Eagle Scout. I learned a lot about all the different plants and organisms that surrounded me. And really influenced by hobbies like passions, just being outside all the time. And that's really why I went into studying ecology and environmental studies. I originally wanted to be a biology teacher but after observing a traditional classroom and college, I kind of understood that that was not really for me. You know, I definitely consider myself an educator but much more of a non traditional I really like being outside and engaging with people that that really have that shared interest. Yeah, and

Nic 
that's great, because both of them are really wonderful jobs, but they're totally different. So it makes a ton of sense. Did you get into the Cub Scouts on a whim? Was it something you were like? I love being outside. I'm doing this like where did that was it just kind of what happened?

Ryan McClean  
Yeah, I mean, I was five at the time. So don't really make a whole lot of decisions for yourself at that point. Yeah, definitely something that my parents put me into and you know, exploring different activities. When I was a kid. I was never really into sports. And the scouts is really what stuck with me. I was outside I was socializing. I was exercising but I was quite afraid of like baseballs and footballs having the interface so that's the route I stuck with.

[Trail Building]

Nic 
So, now you work with New York New Jersey trail conference. What do they do? What's their mission? Yeah, so

Ryan McClean 
the New York New Jersey chalk conference has been around for over 100 years. It is a volunteer powered organization. In fact, for the first 80 or so years, it was completely run by volunteers, and they build and maintain hiking trails in the New York, New Jersey. area. A lot of times people think that it is the park themselves that build these trails and maintain that that's typically not the case. We're there to add that extra capacity of helping build those trails build them sustainably so hopefully they'll be here for generations to come and maintain them. You know, cut down any of the fallen logs and remove them from the trail cut back all the brush that's growing into the trail. And more recently in the past 15 or so years. We also got into land stewardship. So that's where my team came in and the lower Hudson prison contract. So we deal with both terrestrial and aquatic invasive species with the prison contract. Yeah, so

Nic 
Okay, so say it's volunteer run, or is it was for a long time. Now you have it's a little bit different. So what what kind of people? Are you looking forward to kind of fill these jobs and what jobs are there that are like those paid runs versus volunteer?

Ryan McClean
 
Yeah, so we have 1000s of volunteers and we really look for anybody that's looking to help out the environment. helped out the hiking trails to fill that volunteer role. Typically, our volunteer base is a little bit older people that have been volunteering with the trail conference for a long time. So what we're really looking for in terms of volunteers are people one that just love the environment. You want to make that commitment, but we'd also love to get more youth involved. In terms of full time positions at the trail conference. We have a lot of different positions available from volunteer managers to cartographers, program managers. On the stewardship side of things. We have both aquatic and terrestrial invasive managers. We have the prison coordinator, education outreach people. So really a wide breadth of backgrounds that we look for at the trout conference to fit these kinds of niche needs for each individual program.

Nic 
That's really, really cool. It's, it takes a lot of energy and effort. So need to work with volunteer folks as well. Are you are you working with cub and Boy Scouts? Is that something you guys guys do? Or is it more like you said, those specific people you could reach out to?

Ryan McClean 
Yeah, we do sometimes work with the club and the Boy Scouts. Obviously there's a lot of overlap, but right right, what we're trying to do and they're interested in their passions, so we do contact them we let them know better work days and we love to have them come along. A lot of times we also have corporate working things come out different organizations that want to have a volunteer work day they'll come out with us to either remove invasives or help with trail maintenance, and we have over 2500 volunteers that regularly help us. So yeah, the word really gets out there. We try and have workdays in different parts of the region so that people can come out when they find out about our work days.

[Invasive Plants]

Nic 
That's really, really cool. But you mentioned invasive plants. Let's talk about them. I know this is a huge part of your work and your team focuses on early detection and rapid response. So So what does that mean? What do you do? Yeah,

Ryan McClean 

so we really focus on new invasive species to the region, the prism network as this prioritization system, where each year we review all the invasives in the region, and we categorize them to different tiers. So tier one our threat species, things that are invasive, we know they're invasive, but they're not here yet. So we're keeping our eye out for that. We've got a tier two which are emerging invasives those are new to the region, tier three which are established, there's a bit more populations of them and tier four, which are widespread things that are everywhere. And if you're local to the New York, New Jersey area, these are things like Japanese Barbary wineberry oriental bittersweet things that are just really prevalent on trailside that trail heads, and we also have this tear em, which is the monitor kind of we don't know if it's invasive, but it could be so we're kind of looking to research that morning and figure out where we're going to prioritize that. And so, my team early detection, rapid response, we have to put our blinders on to these widespread invasives obviously there's a lot of merit in managing all invasives but with the capacity that we have, and with the goals that we have, we really focus on these high priority new invasives with our goal being regional eradication. So we take a look at maps that are generated from data that is produced both by invasives managers but also by citizen scientists and people just posting online and we take a look at the distribution of where these invasives are located, how abundant they are, how likely they are to spread, and we target those really high priority ones. We do also work on protecting conservation targets as well. That's another one of our high priority goals. So we're talking about things like rare and endangered habitat or species, if they're being threatened by invasive species. It doesn't matter what tier those invasives are awesome, my team to go manage that. Good example of that. We're working up at the Great Swamp in New York. And they have a difference limestone bedrock, which is not a very common type of bedrock and influences the characteristics of the soil, which also influences what plants grow there. So they have a bunch of rare plants there. And they also have New England Cottontail, which is a species of rabbit that's native to the northeast. There is a look alike but it's very hard to distinguish but these rabbits like earlier successional habitat, they don't like late growth forest they prefer meadow to struggling so my crew helps them every year to remove those big invasive plants that grow to much bigger heights don't provide good food source to the rabbits and try and reduce that successional habitat to be more suitable for the rabbit.

Nic 
Sir great, great point because you know, people are looking at that from the outside and why bother managing for invasive plants or invasive but who cares? Right and that's a great, great example of that. And I know what you're doing is kind of an uphill battle right. So so what is the main goal of of what you're doing is it simply eradication and protection and kind of how do you manage with the fact that it's it's an ongoing thing, this is not going to change? It's not going to stop?

Ryan McClean
 
Yeah. Right. It definitely is an uphill battle, especially if you're working with those widespread invasives The main goal of what we're doing is really to eradicate those new invasive species before they get a chance to get a foothold in the region and become as widespread as things like barbarian bittersweet things that are everywhere. My job requires me to look decades into the future at the potential for these plants to really cover the region. So of course, I would love for After I remove a plant for native plants to come in, and there's the great biodiversity and flourishing a native community but that is a secondary gold for our early detection, Rapid Response Program. Really, we need to get these hyper species out before they spread.

Nic  
Yeah, so that sparks a question for me too. So with climate change, and obviously these things become warmer, warmer plants can move further north and so you know, I live in the south and kudzu, you know, the divine aid to South is here, everywhere. And is that the kind of thing are you monitor how far north it's coming? Like that kind of thing? Yeah,

Ryan McClean 
we do. The South is actually nibbling at the North as well. It's so our team manages kudzu in New York as well. Yep. So, that is something that I am very interested in. looking at expanding ranges of invasive species or species in general. Typically, we think of invasives as something from another country that does not belong here that does really well and pushes out native biodiversity, but an invasive doesn't have to come from another country. It could come from another part of this country. So that's a very good point that yeah, something that is native South of here could really push and show aggressive invasive tendencies in different parts of the region. So we have a lot of different partners with the lower Hudson prison and the prison network in general. So we have a lot of people that are boots on the ground. We have a lot of people that are doing research and academia. And so the people that are doing research in academia, have their pulse on that and are letting us know like, Hey, watch out for this species. Keep your eye out like this should be on your radar.

Nic 
So cool to see the collaboration there. Because, you know, sometimes it's really hard to see that you're like, Oh, the researchers are over there doing their thing, and we're over here doing our thing. So I'm really glad to hear that there's a collaborative effort and I see that more and more as we go. And you have this. Now that you're here to I really want to talk about like you work in the field a lot you have a lot of field crews. I'd love to ask you a few questions about that, too. So you mentioned for example, your team has been practicing crew swaps. So what is that and how does that help you do what you do?

Ryan McClean  
Yeah, so our crew is in America. Our crews are the trail conference Conservation Corps. AmeriCorps is kind of like the Peace Corps, but here locally in America, there's a lot of different ways you could get into American war from a disaster relief to education. And we're on the environmental side of America. So our crews we have the terrestrial invasive StrikeForce the Aquatics invasive StrikeForce the education and outreach trail stewards and trail builders. And so we really focus especially because this is an America program on professional and personal growth of our America members. We're trying to train the next generation of environmental leaders. It's often people's first steps right when they get out of college. With a degree in psychology and environmental studies. It can also be a really great way to switch into the field. If you feel really passionate about something. You're afforded a lot more wiggle room with your educational background when you're trying to get into an AmeriCorps program. So for us, there's a lot of overlap in the messaging that we're trying to put out there. And also, just so much opportunity for growth, perspective change amongst the core members. So this is the first year that we really sat down and mandated that each person has to be on every other crew at least one time, because there's just so much knowledge out there that can be passed on to other AmeriCorps members to members of the public, friends and family that if you don't get out with the crew members, you'll just never pick up on that information. It's really great to build their knowledge but it's also a lot of fun for the AmeriCorps members. Our program. We have housing that we provide them in Harriman state park at a retired Girl Scout camp. And they all get to know each other really well while they're living together and so to be able to go out and see exactly what they do on a day to day, but to joke around with them to have fun and rip plants out of the ground. It's a great time all around. Awesome.

Nic 

I love this because it's almost exactly like what your parents did for you when you were younger, right? Like, you're gonna try the Cubs cows and some sports and we'll see what sticks. And that's how you kind of took your, your path. And it's kind of like doing that now for them as an adult, right. It's good to experience lots of different things so you can figure out what you like and what you're good at. But I also love I love that you said fun at work too, because it's really, really important. So what do you guys do? What are some of the things you do to ensure that not everything is a big grind, but it's hard work? It's not easy.

Ryan McClean  
It's hard work. I always say that a happy worker is a productive worker. So I encourage my crews to take breaks it's almost they need them. I have very high standards so that you know not to abuse that. You know if it's real hard and you're sweating your bone plants of course you got to take a break. They love to see a pretty much every year we've had crews singing parodies of songs related to the specific plants that they're working on that day. And we also we have a freeze on the invasive StrikeForce that everything is
________________
Ryan McClean 
When you're bowling plans, of course you got to take a break. They love to sit. And pretty much every year we've had crews singing parodies of songs related to the specific plants that they're working on that day. And we also, we have a phrase of the invasive StrikeForce that everything is a competition. So every day, we collect really rigorous data because it informs our management decisions. So I have them count every single plant that they pull. And so it's this competition amongst all of them to see who can pull the most plants that day. And we also have this game at the end. How many plants you know, Price is Right rules. How many plants did we pull total for the day? The one that gets closest they get a high five, they don't get any

[Field Notes]

Nic 
volunteer work. Well, that's really cool, though, because I think it's really important. And it's like making me want to go out there with you right now. Like, I love that. So it also means that you have a lot of field stories and we have a segment on our show called Field Notes where we love to hear about stories of people from the field and we definitely could write a field novel or I'm sure the ones that you have, but let's start with one of my personal favorites. I'd love to hear some of your your stories about poison ivy.

Ryan McClean 
Yeah. It's always a battle with poison ivy. It's a native plant and it provides a lot of benefits to the local birds in the area that just love to eat the berries. So we avoid touching it as much as we can. But like I said, many of the crew members don't have a lot of experience when they start at this position. So they have a hard time figuring out what poison ivy looks like. When I was an AmeriCorps member myself, we were managing oriental bittersweet one day and one of the interns that was with us. I picked up a plant holding it real close to their face. And they're like, it's this bittersweet. And I'm like, no. So, of course the poison ivy had touched their face, and they had a big rash on their face for the better part of the field season. And yeah, luckily it didn't start. We're still friends and recovered nicely and this year too. I mean, when you're learning to identify plants, it's hard, right? They're all green. They all stay very similar. So for a lot of plants, it's more than just the visual. You have to you have to feel them. You got to smell. It's the whole picture. This year, our crew leader had a hard time learning what was Nivea look like every time I pointed it out, she'd go up, and she'd touch it with her hands. And I'm like, No don't touch the outline.

Nic  
Oh my gosh. That's pretty funny. And it's like, doesn't have like it that's like, it couldn't be like Vine tendencies type thing too, right where it grows up. And that also freaks me out. I can't handle that. That's that's too much. It's like no, that's awesome, isn't it? What?

Ryan McClean  
Yeah, it kind of grow on the ground, kind of like a normal like a small shrub or something like that. But it does grow up trees and women. It's growing up trees like buying. It has these long branches that can stick out on jet out onto the trail and unsuspecting people just going for a hike you know, their beef purse up against the leaf and it's just not any way that's

Nic 
That's too funny. I mean, obviously there's dangerous plants but like there's gotta be other there's two kinds, right? There's the ones like poison ivy, and then there's the ones like you know, Brambleberry and only just the name itself, you know, thorns. That's all you have to know. Right? You have to have some thorns experiences as well. I don't know if you have any good stories there. But

Ryan McClean 
yeah, one time we were at a site. We were managing this plant Linden by Burma. Of course, an ornamental escapee. And most of the site was covered by this horrible plant, Japanese Barbary. I'll go a little bit more into the background. Of Barbary just because it is horrible. So the thorns are very thin needle like thorns that can puncture your skin, break or cause infection. And because of how densely Barbary grows, it's really a humid environment like a microclimate underneath the Barbary and it also is great protection for mites and other little critters, so the mice as well. As the human environment that's underneath the Barbary is a breeding ground for ticks. They just fester in there. Yeah, terrible. So we were managing this plant Linden by Brian. It was a huge site. We must have scouted 50 acres that day. We all kind of started at the center point and went off into different directions. And the site was just covered with Barbary as well. Hard to imagine how the Linden viburnum was growing there, but it did and so this Barbary is super hard to see your feet and what you're walking through. Of course, it's really hard to walk through unless you're in chats. When you were in chat, you can practically print through the Barbary as we were that day. So the stick, Barbary, I'm walking through, and all of a sudden, I looked down and there's a rattlesnake right

Nic 
at my oh my gosh, oh gosh.

Ryan McClean  
And so you know, of course we have these Tailgate safety meetings at the beginning of every day and you know, if you see something dangerous tell somebody else right, that's. So I shout, we've got our walkie talkie. I let people know. Hey, like, I can't really tell you exactly where but there's a rattlesnake near here. And throughout the course of the day, two other people on the team almost stepped on the same snake in

Nic 
Yeah, which is just funny actually reminds me of another thing. That's really important too, is like proper field gear, right? Like they're snake boots and to a degree they help there's not a whole lot you can do for rattlesnakes, but for walking through those brambles you talking about having chaps or you know, even like the car hearts are really important. Something like that to keep you from getting ripped to shreds, right? But I know this has to happen to you like I'll give you my example and I'd love to hear a story of us, right? You tell people hey, this is what you should wear. Right? And say I'm going to a salt marsh and I'm like, Hey, this is gonna be really muddy. You need muck boots, and you need you know, a quick dry clothes and all this other stuff. And I had somebody I told this to their face. Hey, this is what you need and they shut up white t shirt, shorts, brand new white sneakers. I have to send that person home that that has to happen to get to that right you have that?

Ryan McClean  
It does. Of course. You know I've been doing this for a few years now. I know what PPE personal protective equipment we need at every single site. One example is our largest giant hogweed site in the region. Giant hogweed is nasty plants that has sap that can burn your skin. If it gets on you and it's exposed to sunlight and if the staff gets in your eyes, blind you as well. So we're on this partnership with the DEC to eradicate dragon hogweed. Again, the lower Hudson and we're actually getting fairly close we've got about 75% of our sites no plants found. This one site has 1000s of giant heartbeat, growing all along this kind of windy stream that has shallow parts, deep parts, and I learned myself back in 2017 When I was a board member that toll booths, waterproof muck boots are really necessary for this site, because I was scrambling up the bank of the stream and I lost my footing I put my foot in the water, walked around with wet all day. It's the worst. It totally is the worst. That's

Nic 
exactly what I was gonna say. And so

Ryan McClean 
every year without fail, I tell my crew you need to have total muck boots to get through this site. And every year without fail, right Right, right um, but he forgets the tall boots. And one year, we had somebody that had sneakers on and they took plastic like grocery bags, tight them around their feet. No, of course not.

Nic 
So quick. No. Oh my gosh, that's great. Like I say we spend all day talking field stories with you because I know you've got so many but we also love asking folks like what your hobbies are, you know, we all do. We have these day jobs in the environmental field but we also like to have fun enjoy and you know you have several you and I both really like cooking it seems so that's a pretty awesome thing. What got you into that? Why do you like that? So much. And what do you make?

Ryan McClean 
Yeah, I've always loved food. I'm a bit of a foodie. And when I was kidding about cable TV Food Network was on all the time. Chat that was and so when I started living on my own and college, my parents weren't there to cook for me anymore. And dining hall food is not exactly the most scrumptious. Yeah. So I really started to dive into cooking myself. I recently have been really trying to master chicken marsala which is a labor of love. I really gotta be very involved in the kitchen for you know anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours but getting to that end product and sharing it with my partner sharing it with a roommate and watching their face. As they're leaving. It's just well worth all the time that I put into it. I'm also a beginner forger as well. So definitely want to put a caveat in there. If you do get into forging one. Know what is what do not hold something out if you don't know what it is. Definitely have a checklist for IP features to know where you can take things from and Three Forks sustained sustainably never take more than like 20% of the population that something so I things like chicken of the woods, I found Morales ramps. I like to forage wine berries. They're an invasive in the region but they're quite tasty so I think sorbet from wineberry made a lemon balm simple syrup to help flavor that I've cooked up chicken with the Woods by frying it just like you would fried chicken. I mean teas from all sorts of plants like mugwort SassaFrass it's so yeah, I love food. I love cooking. And you know time later to that origin a little bit here and there is great.

Nic 
That's really cool. Yeah, so it ties into your love of hiking as well. And I'm sure you have a couple of good hiking stories for us too. If you want to share one with us before we let you go. Sure. Yeah.

Ryan McClean 
So there's this really cool stop in a state park near me that has retired shooting range there, and it's quite expansive, with a lot of concrete walls and tunnels and buildings and the entirety of all of the concrete structures are covered with graffiti art, and by no means an advocate of graffiti out in the woods. I see graffiti on rocks and trees and that's no good but on this concrete structure you know it's pretty cool so yeah, I love to check that spot out look to bring their friends there and the tunnels are subterranean. So they're not completely underground. There's these little flat windows to let some light in. So it's very, very dingy and damp in these tunnels. And there are an abundance of cave crickets and like huge spiders in them

Nic 
your friends like what did you where did you bring me? Is this our last day on earth? What's happening?

Ryan McClean 
I'm often asked, did you bring me here to kill me? Emily, right? Yeah, dropping on your face.

Nic 
Who doesn't love that? That's so great. And like see, we've had a great time with you. I know we're almost out of time. But is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we let you go?

Ryan McClean 
Yeah. I would just say that most invasive plants and animals come from ornamental escapees for your garden from the pet trade industry. So really do your research before you purchase something. And if you do it's never too late for move it properly dispose of it and replace it with something native. That's the biggest way that individuals can help out is to plant native on their properties help the wildlife help biodiversity thrive and get out there. Look for volunteer opportunities. There are plenty of people that are out there trying to protect nature, and they need your help. So try and get out there and to protect the lands that we love.

Nic 
It's a brilliant message to end on. Thank you so much for being here before last last but not least, where can people get in touch with you if they want to reach out?

Ryan McClean 
Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn. My LinkedIn is Brian L Gulick, acclaim, and the link for that would be Ryan LG. McLean. And that's ry A n L G. MC CLE. A.

Nic 
Perfect. Thank you so much for being here, Ryan.

Ryan McClean 
It was great to be here. Thanks so much.

[Outro]

Nic 
And that's our show. Thank you, Ryan for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. See you everybody.

Laura
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai



Nic & Laura Discuss the do's & don'ts of Submitting Resumes
Interview with Ryan McClean Starts
Scouts
Trail Building
Invasive Plants
Field Notes