Research Scientists don't usually do manual labor

After all, they get to design the experiments. Matt has to get his props; he's carrying the load.

I'm a little, maybe a lot, remiss in this post. After all, these scorched earth rectangles have been popping up around the Arboretum for more than a month. They are the beginnings of a research project conceived and executed, note the photo, by Dr. (I presume) Matthew Greenstone, a research scientist at ARS. There are twinned plots in various locations around the Arboretum. They will be planted with a sort of standard palette of landscape plants: trees, shrubs, perennials (I think), and turf. Of each set, one will contain all native plants, the other non-natives. As they years pass the relationships between insects/arthropods? and the respective plantings will be explored. Hypotheses will be tested. Conclusions may be drawn. I'm psyched.