Crab Campaign: An Invasive Species Tracker's Journal
true and an actual prediction It had to be It said You will step on the soil of many countries All semester I’ve been wanting to go to China and see those Terra Cotta Warriors And now to get that fortune while out celebrating my hard work it had to be a sign Right Wrong When I told my parents why I was so excited about my fortune they were amazed and not in a good way They didn’t buy into the idea at all that a little piece of paper was a sure sign I was going to China at least not anytime soon What did they need it to say Hello Ned Bolling you will step on the soil of many countries Instead they had all kinds of practical questions like how would I pay for it and what about my responsibilities at home and with the Science Squad Okay so it’s true that I’m the new leader of the Eastern Shore Science Squad Maggie was supposed to be but her family had to move to Boston for her dad’s job My plans to travel the world and be the leader of the Eastern Shore Science Squad cancel each other out If I’m not going to China this summer all I want to do is swing in the hammock on our porch and read the books that I lugged home from the library on the SCIENCE SQUAD
Terra-Cotta Warriors The thing I’m most interested in is their weapons They had the coolest arrowheads Here’s the crazy part Those arrowheads which archaeologists think are from the third century BCE look a lot like the ones I collect around here which are even older Paleo-Indians were the first Marylanders Archaeologists say they migrated to North America more than 10,000 years ago to hunt mammoth bison and caribou I never really thought about where they were migrating from so I looked it up Get this These people who were of Asian descent crossed the land bridge into the Alaska-Canada area of North America Okay so maybe they weren’t from China exactly but still I like to discover connections between things that when you first look at them don’t seem connected at all like arrowheads from two different continents My parents call this daydreaming Dad says it’s what keeps me from being productive which translates to he thinks I don’t help out enough on our farm Dad inherited our farm from his dad who inherited it from his dad It’s a small farm but it’s still a lot of work which my dad points out to me just about every day Even though he hires workers to help plant and harvest the crops he Crab Campaign
still expects me to help out especially in the summer when school’s out I don’t mind so much when I have the time but I have other stuff on my mind besides corn peas squash and tomatoes When I ask Mom why she doesn’t help she says she does the books and that she’d much rather take care of people than vegetables Guess that’s why she’s a nurse I need to get my parents to see the big picture the someday picture Instead they want to cramp my style with lists of chores I need to check off At the very least they should understand that I need to relax a little this summer Mom has her book club and Dad carves decoys of Eastern Shore ducks paints them in colors that are true to life and sells them in the stores in town He says it supplements his income Mom says it gives him an excuse to hang out with his buddies at the woodworking shop Still as the leader of the Guardians of the Bay the name our Science Squad gave to ourselves I probably should spend less time in the hammock and more time planning our next project At least that should get Dad off my back Boring summer here I come SCIENCE SQUAD
Invasion of the Mitten Crab Maybe I was wrong about this summer Maybe it’ll be interesting after all Today as I was drinking some of my mom’s icy mint tea and hanging out in the hammock no need to rush into this Squad leader business too quickly Dad came racing around the corner of the house He jumped onto the porch two steps at a time and waved a Wanted Dead or Alive poster in front of my face It had a picture of a fierce-looking crab on it Its name the Chinese mitten crab I found this nailed to a pole down by the docks he said They’re an invasive species that’s wreaked havoc right here along the Chesapeake Why don’t you check out the website Maybe you and the rest of the Guardians of the Bay should investigate these crabs this summer
