To keep you all updated on the Summer Intern Program, we have asked the interns to serve as guest bloggers from time to time. Here is a re-cap of the first week courtesy of Jim Wally:
The summer interns just finished our first full week of work!
We’ve been getting “fire hosed” as John calls it, trying to wrap our minds around all of the scientific background we need to understand the Everglades. It’s been a little challenging absorbing it all, but it helps that it is what we all love to study anyway. Dr. Tom has been a great teacher, and he certainly has some interesting methods. John, Eric and all of the rest of the mentors have clearly a great deal of thought and energy into setting up this program.
We’ve already got a heavy dose of government meetings that will be a part of our summer. We’ve been studying up on acronyms like WCA, ASR, and CERP just so we can follow some of the dialog. I know I already feel way more informed about how local government works. On Tuesday, we got to meet Christopher McVoy, one of the leading experts on what the Everglades looked like before we started to change it. We were all impressed how much knowledge he’s managed to accumulate about this controversial topic.
Thursday, Dr. Tom and Eric took us to the Wakodahatchee wetlands. It was easily the most wildlife-packed place I’ve ever seen. A few species like Anhinga and Blue Heron were still nesting, and the pond apple tree islands were chock full of nests. This wetland was all built to further process treated wastewater from the nearby treatment plant. It’s probably the best example I’ve seen of turning something society needs into something that can benefit wildlife.
Friday we got to visit the meeting of the Science and Technology committee for the Foundation. It was great to meet them and get some wisdom they’ve accumulated from all of their collective years of working on everglades restoration.
This week has been really informative and a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to spending most of next week out at the Refuge.
We’ve been getting “fire hosed” as John calls it, trying to wrap our minds around all of the scientific background we need to understand the Everglades. It’s been a little challenging absorbing it all, but it helps that it is what we all love to study anyway. Dr. Tom has been a great teacher, and he certainly has some interesting methods. John, Eric and all of the rest of the mentors have clearly a great deal of thought and energy into setting up this program.
We’ve already got a heavy dose of government meetings that will be a part of our summer. We’ve been studying up on acronyms like WCA, ASR, and CERP just so we can follow some of the dialog. I know I already feel way more informed about how local government works. On Tuesday, we got to meet Christopher McVoy, one of the leading experts on what the Everglades looked like before we started to change it. We were all impressed how much knowledge he’s managed to accumulate about this controversial topic.
Thursday, Dr. Tom and Eric took us to the Wakodahatchee wetlands. It was easily the most wildlife-packed place I’ve ever seen. A few species like Anhinga and Blue Heron were still nesting, and the pond apple tree islands were chock full of nests. This wetland was all built to further process treated wastewater from the nearby treatment plant. It’s probably the best example I’ve seen of turning something society needs into something that can benefit wildlife.
Friday we got to visit the meeting of the Science and Technology committee for the Foundation. It was great to meet them and get some wisdom they’ve accumulated from all of their collective years of working on everglades restoration.
This week has been really informative and a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to spending most of next week out at the Refuge.
Keep checking back for more updates as the interns get deeper and deeper into the Everglades ecosystem.
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