Environmental Summer Internships, 2000
Viviann Chui, STEV and Political Science
Internship with Winrock International
Kathmandu, Nepal
Scott Goldberg, Economics
Earth System Field School II
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Rebecca Kolsky, STEV and Anthropology
Internship at NEETF
in Washington, D.C.
Josh Mukhopadhyay, STEV and Biology
Studying bamboo control of forest dynamics
in
the Tambopata-Candamo reserved zone in
Southeastern Peru
Claire Ogalvie, American Studies
Earth System Field School I
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Hilary Owen, American Studies
Earth System Field School II
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Abigail Ryder, STEV and E&EB
Demographics, health, education and
natural resource utilization of Bantu women
in logging camps and surrounding
villages in the forests of
Southeastern Cameroon
Naomi Shinoda, MCDB
Earth System Field School I
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Joanne Sum-Ping, Ethics, Politics, & Economics and E&EB
Internship with the U.S. Department
of State, Bureau of Oceans,
Environmental and Scientific Affairs,
Office of Policy Coordination and
Initiatives
in Washington, D. C.
Nicholas Stucky, STEV and Biomedical Engineering
Assessment of remote sensing of
ecosystem change affecting salmon and
steelhead habitat in the Puget Sound
region
Viviann Chui
STEV and Political Science
With the assistance of funding from Studies in the Environment and the Ezra Stiles Linck fellowship I was able to spend an eight-week internship this summer at Winrock, International in Kathmandu, Nepal. Winrock, International is an American-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that works primarily on farmer assistance programs and reforestation projects in rural areas of developing countries. One of the newer programs in Winrock is the Renewable Energy Program Support Office (REPSO) which looks at electrifying and expanding the energy sector in Nepal in a sustainable fashion.
Most of the battles that occurred in the Winrock REPSO office this summer involved hydropower projects, electric vehicles, and campaigns against diesel vehicles. Kathmandu is located in a bowl-shaped valley, and hence, emissions from the capital city tend to hover right above the valley, making views of the Himalayas virtually impossible. Many people in Kathmandu Valley have respiratory problems and other illnesses from the pollution created by vehicles that use liquid petrol gas (LPG) or diesel. The severity of air and traffic issues will only worsen as the number of cars in the city increase.
My supervisors at Winrock were involved in halting the number of diesel-based vehicles on the road. For instance, this summer the national government had a proposal to subsidize a fleet of diesel-based minivans to provide cheap public transportation to citizens. Citing that these vehicles were “clean” vehicles to the public, most people in the Winrock office realized that even officials in the government were confused on definitions of clean energy and zero-emission vehicles. Nonetheless, the mini-buses were allowed into the country and are now operating on the streets of Kathmandu.
Diesel and other forms of fossil fuels are especially unattractive in a country that can indigenously supply its own electricity. Nepal is ranked third in the world behind Brazil and China for hydropower potential. Through micro- and mini- hydropower projects and proper investment, future vehicles could efficiently and cleanly operate on clean energy. Moreover, fossil fuels are counterproductive for Nepal’s economy since these fuels must be imported (mainly from India), creating a negative balance of trade for a landlocked country that must import the majority of its goods.
For this reason, as well as others, the Winrock office wants to declare Nepal a clean energy country. This essentially means that Nepal would look at mechanisms to harness renewable energy resources and to decrease its carbon emissions. My job this summer was to do the legwork for the Clean Energy Nepal (CEN) Campaign. The campaign would begin with a declaration that would commit Nepal to clean energy at the Sixth Conference of the Parties (CoP6) in Hague this November. The CoP6 is part of a greater body of talks and negotiations on climate change. Over 150 country delegates meet to discuss the broader implications for mitigating and/or adapting to the effects of global warming. At a time when developed countries are reluctant to decrease their emissions, it is the hope that Nepal will serve as a moral example for others to follow as well as capture some of the funding available for carbon reduction programs.
While researching the effects of climate change on Nepal, I was also reading up on news regarding the CoP6 and creating a datasheet to track the progress of the climate negotiations. I looked at possible funding mechanisms that would help Nepal pursue its clean energy drive. Within the larger framework of the Kyoto Protocol are three flexibility mechanisms, one of which would provide incentive to developing countries for adopting policies to decrease carbon dioxide emissions. One of my most exciting duties was to assist in the submission of a funding proposal to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support an electric trolley bus network in Kathmandu.
To be at the very sidelines of policymaking and lobbying was incredibly thrilling and interesting. Living in Nepal made me understand the complexities of developing world issues and the cultural considerations that need to be made when pursuing any type of environmental management strategy. Moreover, this experience brought the classroom to life for me; previous classes in environmental studies, sustainable development, and international politics all gained an entirely new depth as I compared and explored these academic theories and insights to the real world.
Earth System Field School II
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Scott Goldberg
Economics
Joining the other
students at Columbia’s Biosphere 2 in the Sonoran desert
provided great hands on learning. The classes, which
focused on the desert life surrounding the Biosphere, utilized
the surrounding desert to teach universal points. The
numerous field trips and projects in the surrounding area served
as a powerful tool to emphasize the information we learned about
in classes. Instead of merely hearing about the natural
surroundings of the desert, about the geology, plants, and
wildlife, through pictures and lectures, the other students and
I were placed outside, with nature, to see the particular facts
and as they actually existed. Learning at the center
provided a welcome contrast to the undergraduate learning
environment in New England at Yale, which focuses more on
lectures rather than on hands on material.
The subject material
covered in the four-week course represented a smattering of
environmental subjects. Even the material provided in
lectures was taught both inside and outside the classroom.
Lectures were taught on everything from North American
environmental history to the flora and fauna of Mt. Graham in
Arizona. As a student from the East Coast I came to
Arizona believing that the desert was one of the most lifeless
and least diverse ecosystems. To emphasize the error in my
and many other similar students thinking, the professors
emphasized the diversity of life in the desert by taking us to
the Sonoran Desert museum to see the variety of wildlife and to
different national parks to see the variety of plant-life and
geology. While the breadth and depth of information
covered was varied and diverse, all the lectures were kept
focused on a central theme throughout the course. This
theme centered on land management and wildlife park design and
maintenance and culminated in our final project, which was to
create a long-term environmental plan for a national park. The
course-work concentrated on the surrounding Sonoran desert to
provide a context for the management policies and themes
discussed throughout the course, which could be applied to any
ecosystem.
One of the most
important personal learning experiences of my summer came when
the class visited the Sonoran Desert Museum. I found the
term Museum to be quite a misnomer, as it seemed to be more of a
zoo to me, since it had wild animal enclosures throughout.
As an exercise we were to write an essay about the contrast
between the old and new exhibits found at the museum. I
had never really given any in depth thought about zoos from the
animal’s perspective other than to think abstractly “gee, I
bet the animal, if it had its druthers, would prefer to be
free.” The trip emphasized the progression in the public’s
view of animals. In Arizona, long ago, the most popular
place to see animals in their natural environment was to visit a
museum where animals had been killed by hunters were stuffed and
placed in lifelike poses. Later, people developed the idea
of the zoo with live animals and placed them in cages to be
viewed by the public. As time progressed these cages
opened up and became concrete enclosures designed to be natural,
but still seemed cold and foreign compared to the animal’s
natural habitat. Finally, zoos are now adding open
enclosures on the actual soil with real cacti in truly natural
surroundings. I had not realized this progression from
animal as man’s trophy to animal as nature’s trophy. In
writing the essay, I was amazed at how long it has taken
humankind to realize that the best cage for an animal would not
be a cage. This experience accentuated the need for
animals to have a natural setting and human’s need, as
civilization grows, to provide it.
The other field
trips that we took did not affect me quite so greatly as the
Sonoran Desert Museum but they all nonetheless left an indelible
mark in my memory. The trips to different mountains
accentuated the diversity of life in the desert. Traveling
up one of the Sky-island Mountains, I saw the scenery change
before my eyes from a hot saguaro filled desert to a cool pine
forest similar to those found in the Rockies. It was easy
to see why these mountains are described as sky islands, as I
looked out across the desert at the other pine forests the
distance emphasized the separation between the mountaintop
ecosystems. They were islands of pine forest at the tops
of the mountains separated by a sea of desert. Observing
this distinction demonstrated the difficulty in creating
wildlife refuges where the animals of one pine forest would be
able to travel to a similar pine forest on another mountain,
links need to be created in park design.
The design of the
course provided an excellent teacher to student ratio, which
allowed easy access to resources for questions and further
knowledge. There were two teaching assistants and two
professors for about 25 students. I felt that everyone at
the Biosphere, both students and teachers, were exciting
interesting people who truly were happy to be in the desert
learning or teaching. The professors had impressive
knowledge about the subject matter and brought in guests to
lecture on their own specific fields of expertise to fill in any
gaps. The students interacted with a cattle rancher to
learn his side of the national park debate regarding land-use
and a Native American woman to learn her side of the national
park debate regarding the sacred nature of a mountain that was
now a national park.
My time spent at the Biosphere 2 center in Arizona will be remembered as a very valuable learning experience and great time. It served to solidify my already strong environmentally friendly inclinations and emphasized the continuing struggle that all humans should recognize between civilization and nature.
Internship
at NEETF in Washington, D.C.
Rebecca Kolsky
STEV and Anthropology
For the summer of 2000,,
with support from the Studies in the Environment Summer
Program, I had the opportunity to intern at the National
Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF)
in Washington, DC. NEETF is a not-for-profit foundation
that seeks to achieve solutions to national
environmental issues through environmental learning. It
has built strong ties between non-profit organizations
and federal and state-level agencies in an effort to
connect real Americans to issues of regional and
national significance, such as health care, business,
and community participation. NEETF focuses on
several areas of environmental concern, including
natural resources, corporate mentoring, health and the
environment, and K-12 education.
From June through August,
I worked in a close one-on-one mentorship with Dr.
Marcia Sward, the Senior Director of the Education and
Environment Program at NEETF. As NEETF is largely
a grant-giving and grant-receiving foundation, I spent a
lot of time working on proposals. In addition to
researching, writing, and editing reports and proposals,
I had the unique opportunity to review and give
suggestions for NEETF's grant guidelines (intended for
the recipients granted money by NEETF). I worked
on a number of pieces, including "Environment-Based
Education: Creating High Performance Schools and
Students," and "Leaders, Learners, and Lasting
Successes: How Environmental Learning Programs Produce
High-Performing Students and Winning Attitudes."
It was a highly valuable experience for me in both
learning about these issues and refining my researching
and editing skills.
Dr. Sward also took me to
every meeting and conference that she attended during my
internship at NEETF. I was able to partake in briefings
at the National Science Foundation and the National
Research Council, several meetings at the White House
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), a Congressional
hearing on the re-authorization of the National
Environmental Education Act, a meeting with the Science
Advisor to the President at the White House Office of
Science and Technology, a meeting of the the Glenn
Commission, and a preliminary meeting with the new
Environmental Education liaisons at the U.S. Department
of Education. In addition to these conferences, I
also attended a few events that demonstrated how NEETF
has an effect in the real world, including the official
launch of the Anacostia River Keeper (hosted by Earth
Conservation Corps), and a Student Conservation
Association Workshop with high school students in which
they were working to identify macro-invertebrates in a
local (highly-polluted) stream.
All of these experiences made my time at NEETF a truly wonderful internship. Most importantly, the one-on-one interning with Dr. Sward allowed me to see what happens in Washington behind closed doors- to see how everything really works!
Studying
Bamboo Control of Forest Dynamics in the
Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone in
Southeastern Peru
Josh Mukhopadhyay
STEV and Biology
My work this summer was in the wet tropical forest of the Western Amazon, specifically in the area located in the Tambopata River watershed of Southeastern Peru. Thanks to funding from YIBS and the Saybrook College Richter Fellowship, I was able to spend twelve weeks conducting ecological research on patterns of forest succession. I worked under the supervision of Bronson Griscom, a joint doctoral student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the New York Botanical Gardens.
This particular area of Amazonia, encompassing the eastern Andean slopes of Peru and the westernmost reaches of Brazil’s Acre Province, contain large amounts of forest that are said to be “bamboo-dominated.” This means that the local forest matrix is comprised of monodominant stands of dense bamboo (almost exclusively of the species Guadua weberbaueri) thickets with few other trees and shrubs. This structure is contrary to what a majority of people would imagine the rainforest to resemble. Also puzzling is the apparent longevity of these bamboo stands – aerial photos indicate their presence at the sites I visited this summer going back to the 1960’s. Bamboo is an early-successional pioneer plant. That is, it tends to rapidly colonize plots that have experienced some sort of disturbance that has created an opening in the usually continuous and dense canopy. They grow quickly and may dominate a site on a short-term basis, but are inevitably shaded out by slow growing, but shade-tolerant, later successional plants such as hardwoods. Thus, the apparent ability of the bamboo to stall conventional forest successional processes is most interesting. This information, combined with the fact that an enormous area seems to be bamboo-dominated – over 180,000 square kilometers – makes the subject an interesting and germane study subject.
The principle work we undertook involved the identification, setup, and inventory of eight transects. A transect was defined as a 100x10 meter rectangle subdivided into ten 10x10 meter plots. One end of a transect would be in high forest and the opposite end would be in bamboo-dominated forest, with the edge between the two ideally occurring somewhere around the fifty meter mark. Transect locations were also selected such that they were free of most topo-edaphic variability; that is that they contained minimal. intruding topography or soil composition variation. Once chosen, hemispherical photos were taken in each plot. This involves using a digital camera in conjunction with a fisheye lens to obtain photos of the canopy above a given location. Computer analysis of these photos results in detailed information about a given site’s light regime, which in turn can be used to explain the distribution of vegetation on a site. Samples of leaves, fruiting bodies, and flowers were taken from plants in the transect understory and will be identified over the course of this year at the New York Botanical Garden to catalog how plant diversity/distribution changes over the course of a transect. I also hope to be able to complete a sustainable harvest plan for a certain type of understory palm whose fronds are used as the principle source of roof thatching material locally. Given the exploding population and the adverse effect a bamboo canopy seems to have on the growth of this species, the methods used in its harvest will have to be carefully controlled in the future in order to prevent over-exploitation.
To call that program
educational seems strange to me now because it was one of
the most adventurous summers I have ever had; the fellow
students were fun and engaging, the staff was no less fun to
be with, and the places we visited and activities we
experienced was one of a kind. The education was undoubtedly
there, however. I learned more than I thought possible
in six weeks about: biological diversity, ecological
disturbance, geology and geologic history, riparian zones,
desert ecology, insects, global positioning systems,
management conflicts, conservation biology and the Biosphere
itself. Our specific research in the Biosphere
encompassed a self-designed assessment of a chosen aspect of
the Bio2 rainforest. This project was typical of the
program in that we were frequently encouraged to choose a
specific question or issue to address in our reports.
The things we learned in our
six weeks were intimiately connected with the places to
which we journeyed. Almost immediately following our
beginnings at the Biosphere we hopped down to Mexico and
stayed in a research facility overlooking the Gulf of
California. We slept on the beach, performed research
on the beach and in a shallow and picturesque estuary and
visited a salina salt flat that typified what life was like
billions of years ago. Perhaps the most phenomenal
thing we did in Mexico was to experience the desert sand
dunes. After an arduous walk up the unforgiving sand,
we came to the top of the world - a place worth walking
weeks for. We were greeted with a scene worthy of
Lawrence of Arabia - sand dunes peaking and sloping for
forever. We played frisbee and football across them,
did somersaults down them, and wached the sun set slowly and
beautifully. We waited a little longer to watch the
stars come out before walking down slowly, looking eagerly
for sidewinder snakes.
Another field trip took us to
the Chiricahua mountains where we hiked 3000 feet in a day
to do a study on the affect of elevation on vegetative
growth. Additional activities on this trip included
looking at old Apache caves and examining a reef system
millions of years old - imagine, an oceanic reef in Southern
Arizona!
One of the most interesting
trips was a one day journey to visit a true cave, one with
an entrance carved discreetly in the ground. Getting
in was an experience in itself in that we had to carefully
avoid the rattlesnake guarding the entrance - no problem!
The cave was cool and enormous, with secret passages
everywhere and tunnels that went on forever in the cool
darkness - complete darkness. Crawling through spaces
that were literally no wider than ones shoulders was a truly
phenomenal experience for those of us eager to do so, and it
will never be forgotten for those of us thinking about
becoming spelunkers in our free time!
The final field trip was to
the Grand Canyon, a trip that included a hike to the bottom
for those game - a one day trip down and up that passed many
a sign on the way down suggesting such a trip never be
undertaken - especially in summer. No problem for the
group that went down and up in less than twelve hours,
including a three hour rest break in the freezing and
refreshing Colorado river below.
Of course all of these field
trips had their geology exercises and ecology experiments,
lessons that were taught to us in six weeks, yet are taught
over months in introductory courses at college.
Remarkably these things became second nature to us as we
experienced textbook ideas firsthand and created our own
experiments to investigate.
The summer at the Biosphere was undoubtedly a worthwhile educational experience: it accomplished everything I thought it would and a significant amount more. The more important thing that I took away from this summer however, was how worthwhile my summer at the Biosphere was in terms of life experiences. It was a summer I won't ever forget and I am thrilled to have taken part in it. Truly unbelievable.
Earth System Field School II
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Hilary Owen
American Studies
As a student at the Biosphere
Summer Field School II program, I was able to experience the
wonders of the Sonoran desert through many hands-on experiences.
The philosophy of the course was to introduce students to as
many concepts as possible through direct contact with the
subject matter. This provided a welcome ticket into the
desert ecosystem in which we were immersed for the duration of
the course. Instead of merely learning concepts, we would
step outside to find examples of plant species and geology
literally visible from the balcony of the classroom building.
As a result, I feel I know a great deal more about desert
plants, animals and ecology after having lived there for a month
than I do about the same things in the Northeastern United
States, where I have lived for my entire life. This method
of teaching was a welcome contrast to classes at Yale, where
topics studied sometimes are more theoretical than directly
observable.
A second element of the teaching
philosophy at the Biosphere campus was an emphasis on teamwork.
The professors stressed the fact that as an isolated individual,
there is very little which may be achieved in the world of
conservation. In order to be successful, it is essential
to be able to integrate the interests of many different parties
when designing a desirable, sustainable plan for ecosystem
management. Most of our activities involved group efforts,
which was a challenge but an extremely worthwhile one. The
first project was an ecology project, in which my group
attempted to measure desert soil moisture in disturbed and
undisturbed areas and collect it overnight using a survival
technique, the construction of solar stills. These are
holes dug in the ground, covered over with plastic, so that when
the air cools at night, moisture from the soil will condense on
the plastic and then collect in a container at the bottom of the
hole. As a final project, each group had to design a
sustainable management plan for an area which we visited, taking
into account various stakeholders, economic issues, and the
protection of endangered or threatened elements of the
environment.
Field trips were a major part of
the course, and one of the most stimulating and enjoyable
aspects as well. We traveled to many “sky islands,”
which are mountains of great elevations which provide homes to
isolated populations of animals in communities at their summits.
Sky islands are biodiversity hotspots. One, Mt. Graham,
has desert vegetation at its base, which gradually becomes
chaparral, then pine-oak woodland, then pine-fir forest at the
peak, about 9000 feet. It was fascinating to study the
different plant and wildlife communities supported by each
biotic zone.
We spoke with many naturalists
and rangers at a variety of locations we visited on field trips,
including specialists at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife
Refuge, Chiricahua National Monument, and the Arizona-Sonora
Desert museum. Additionally, we talked with a cattle
rancher and an Apache couple about land issues important to
them. It certainly makes the issues vivid and real to be
able to meet and interact with people who are involved in
decision-making for these lands. I gained an appreciation
for the many complexities of land management in the southwestern
US.
Lectures supplementing our
activities in the field provided valuable background information
on a variety of topics from ecology to geology to environmental
policy to conservation history. The professors and
teaching assistants were great, and proved to be great resources
of information, having had extensive experiences in the
conservation field both locally and internationally. We had many
lectures from visitors who were experts on their topics.
Though we had limited involvement with the ongoing research
inside the Biosphere, we did have two brief tours of the
interior. I would say that the field trips were the unifying,
central element of the course, and I learned the most from them.
We did have readings assembled into a packet, and a midterm and
final exam as well as the two projects.
Each day at the Biosphere program was full of activity and I would highly recommend the program. It is a very stimulating place in terms of ideas about scientific possibilities and frontiers, filled with interesting people. I feel very strongly that my experience there has helped to mold my ideas about environmentalism and the best ways in which to achieve sustainable, feasible plans for land management. In a short time, the course introduced students to a broad range of topics. I feel that anyone interested in environmental management would benefit from this whirlwind introduction to current issues in southeastern Arizona. It is a very beautiful, yet rapidly changing region of the country which the course enabled me to appreciate on many levels.
Demographics,
Health, Education and Natural Resource
Utilization of Bantu Women in Logging Camps
and Surrounding Villages in the Forests of
Southeastern Cameroon
Abigail Ryder
STEV and E&EB
I entered the country barely knowing where and with who I was staying. The last week of school, I was informed by the professor with whom I was I was scheduled to work with in Central African Republic that she would not be able to go to Africa this summer. fortunately, Phillipe Auzel, a French researcher and colleague of my professor, agreed I could stay and work through his European union environmental project, Projet Fôret Communitaire (PFC). PFC is based in a French owned logging camp with affiliations in several surrounding villages in southeastern Cameroon.
With Dr. Auzel's help, I was able to accomplish a truly amazing project. I had access to PFC equipment and employees, enabling me to travel between logging camp and village and take GPS measurement of fields, I collaborated with several local PFC workers, who accompanied me in data collection, assisting me with French and l9ocak translations, and providing me with a "passport" into the local women's lives.
My learning experience was three-fold: I researched the lives of women affected by logging in Central Africa as I had originally set out to do, but even more importantly, I learned research methodology and how to manage multiple teams of local collaborators effectively. These are both skills that I will carry with me in future research projects I hope to participate in.
Finally, my experience made me realize that i am more interested in quantitative research disciplines and methods than qualitative ones. Because of my sentinel experience in Africa, I have decided to change my major from Anthropology to Ecology & Evolutionary biology. I am very glad to realize this now when I still have time to alter my academic program at Yale.
I would like to thank Studies in the Environment for providing me with the means to have such a wonderful learning experience.
Earth System Field School I
Columbia University Biosphere 2 Center
Naomi Shinoda
MCDB
Before my experience at the
Biosphere 2 Earth Systems Field School I, I was just an ordinary
college student aspiring to major in molecular biology and
music. I had a vague interest in the environment, but studies in
ecology and geology were otherwise beyond my interest. Concepts
such as hiking and camping were foreign to me. By the time I had
left the Biosphere, I had become an avid outdoorswoman with a
newfound interest in ecology and renewed interests in
environmental and conservation studies. My six-week adventure at
the Biosphere was the most exciting and rewarding learning
experience of my life, and has left me with many wonderful
memories of the beautiful Arizona sunsets, the thrilling
biodiversity of the fragile earth, and the friendships I had
formed.
Our main instructor for the field
school program was Dr. Frank von Hippel, an inspiring but
demanding man who amazed us all with his broad knowledge of
ecology and his eagerness for extreme hiking. Our other
instructors included an entomologist, a marine biologist, and
two geologists. All of the instructors were engaging and
accessible, and their ecology and geology lectures were very
interesting.
During the first week, we got
accustomed to the plant life and animal life of Arizona by going
on nature walks and by taking a trip to the Desert Museum. We
were also plunged into the world of topography maps,
stratigraphy columns, and rock identification labs as we started
our geology unit. Once we all established a "sense of
place" in the desert environment, it was time to go on our
first overnight trip. We spent four days at CEDO (The Center for
Desert and Ocean Studies) in Mexico, where we traveled to nearby
Quitobaquito Oasis, Estero Morua, and various intertidal zones
in order to learn about Tropical Desert Ecosystems. The focus of
this unit was endemism, patterns of zonation, and niche
partitioning of the various phyla found in the intertidal zones.
The second week we went camping
in the Chiricahua Mountains. The ecology unit for this trip was
called "Gradients and Diversity". Working in small
groups, we investigated the species diversity of trees along an
elevation gradient, and also compared the species diversity and
species richness of the plant growth forms in burned forest
areas versus non-burned areas. The geology unit included the
geology of the Chiricahuas and reef systems. We visited Paul
Spur, where we made a map of the area and studied the changes in
fossil content and matrix type of the reef system.
The third week was spent at the
desert grasslands of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR).
At BANWR we learned about wildlife management conflicts. Our big
project was to survey the expansive desert grasslands for raptor
nests by using GPS tracking units, and then to use GIS
The fourth week was devoted to
"Insect Community Diversity". For this unit we camped
at Mt. Lemmon in the Sky Islands. By using a method the
entomologists liked to call "pootering", we collected
various insects and then analyzed the insect community structure
as it relates to species-area relationships.
We then gave group presentations
on our findings. For geology we studied basin and range
extensions as we made observations about the geologic history of
Mt. Lemmon.
The fifth week of the program was
devoted to "Insular Ecosystems", and we finally got a
chance to spend time in the Biosphere 2 biomes. We did research
in the Biosphere 2 rainforest to study the community dynamics in
the biome. We surveyed the plants in the rainforest to help
Linda Leigh, one of the original crewmembers during the first
Biosphere 2 closure, with her ongoing research experiment. We
then applied our data findings to our own projects on community
dynamics in insular ecosystems and gave presentations. For
geology we traveled to the Eagle Pass area of the Pinaleno
Mountains and studied fault systems and dynamic core complexes.
We made a geologic map of the area and interpreted the geologic
history of the region.
Our final week of the program was
devoted strictly to geology. We went to the Petrified Forest to
study the different paleoclimate theories on the formation of
the petrified fossils. Next we went to the Grand Canyon and
conducted a stratigraphy exercise to study the formation of the
Grand Canyon. We completed our geologic study of Arizona by
traveling to Sedona to study the development of the Mogollon
Rim.
My six-week adventure as a student in the Earth Systems Field School was a valuable learning experience. I learned many things that I never would have been able to learn in an ordinary classroom environment. I developed a tremendous sense of awe and respect for the beauty of our earth - from the mysterious organisms from the paleoenvironments of the far past, to the smallest microweevil that dwells in the silver oak trees. The talented faculty and fellow classmates created a friendly and supportive learning environment. I recommend Earth Systems Field School I to all students, especially those with interests in biology, as it teaches students to love and respect the earth on which we all live.
Internship
with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of
Oceans, Environmental and Scientific
Affairs, Office of Policy Coordination and
Initiatives in Washington, D. C.
Joanne Sum-Ping
Ethics, Politics, & Economics and
E&EB
With the help of a Studies in the Environment fellowship, I was able to accept a summer internship with the US Department of State. I was assigned to the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental, and Scientific Affairs, Office of Policy Coordination and Initiatives. This office helps coordinate all of the international environmental initiatives undertaken by the US government. It was an exciting opportunity, as I had some experience with domestic environmental policy but was eager to try my hand in the international realm.
Alas, instead of managing international environmental issues, I was fated to deal with an equally complex and daunting challenge – the federal bureaucracy. All State Department interns must pass a security clearance check before beginning work. Obtaining security clearance is usually a very straightforward process – but sometimes mistakes are made. In my case, it seemed that the FBI was having trouble locating me for an interview. Dealing with various offices and staff members left me with a good taste of how government bureaucracy can work. Some bureaucratic processing is necessary to assure that everyone is treated fairly and equally. However, if one task is mishandled, the mistake might never be corrected, since the bureaucratic system, not an individual, is held accountable for the results. This drawback is amplified in the case of security clearance processing, as files are held secret, and information regarding the status of the application cannot be released.
Nevertheless, a stay in Washington DC is a valuable experience in itself. Washington is an exciting and dynamic environment, especially during the summer when it is saturated with college-age interns, all aspiring to be the future leaders of this country. I visited my roommates at their workplaces and got a feel for how government offices and non-profit organizations are run. I toured the Capitol building, visited museums, and toured the National Zoo. I also spent some time (when not arguing with State Department bureaucrats) in the Library of Congress doing background research for my senior essay.
Other students I spoke with who worked at the Department of State had mixed reviews. Some said it was the best and most educational experience of their lives. Others said that they were bored and only assigned menial tasks. I think that I would have had a good experience, as I was very interested in the work done by the Policy Coordination and Initiatives office, and my supervisor seemed very willing to give me challenging and interesting projects. However, I would advise other students considering a State Department internship to make sure they are truly interested in the office to which they are assigned and to be prepared for the possibility that their security clearance paperwork will be substantially delayed.
Nicholas Stucky
STEV and Biomedical
Engineering
This summer I spent eight weeks working with the researchers in the River Ecosystems Group within the Department of Oceanography at the University of Washington. As with most research, my project focus strayed from my initial plan. I learned a great number of technical skills and by using the spatial analysis laboratory and the classified images from a 1999 remote sensing course I was able to aggregate the classification data so as to make it more general and accurate, thereby facilitating use by environmental researchers.
The original
project objective, as a whole, was too large
to be completed in a summer and my work was
one small step toward obtaining the larger
goal of understanding anthropogenic effects
on the aquatic life in the Puget Sound
Watershed.
I did
accomplish the task of preparing a refined
classified image of the entire Puget Sound
Watershed for use by environmental
researchers at PRISM (Puget Sound Regional
Synthesis Model) in their effort to map the
environmental status of the Puget Sound
area. This landcover data will provide PRISM
researchers the data to perform a wide
variety of studies on the state of the Puget
Sound Watershed including the temporal
changes and anthropogenic effects on aquatic
life as I originally set out to understand.
The PRISM
group is conglomeration of departments and
organizations dedicated to modeling the
marine/wetland ecosystem of Puget Sound.
More specifically I worked under Dr. Miles
Logsdon as a visiting researcher. Dr.
Logsdon was helpful and available. There
were other interns in the lab and often they
were able to help answer questions.
Our main
difficulties were instances of conflicting
data. The pixels that the computer had
classified as being similar did not appear
similar when we ventured to the site and
collected ground truth data. We remedied the
conflict by two methods. Sometimes adequate
data had been collected that we were able to
do some statistic analysis with Microsoft
Excel to determine how the pixel should be
classified. When this was not possible we
were able to rename the class type to be
defined broadly enough that even with the
observed differences the pixels could be
classified in the same type. Eventually I
attempted to integrate elevation and aspect
information to improve the classification by
the computer.
This was a wonderful place to work. Access to the proper hardware and software was never a problem. The spatial analysis lab in the new ocean research building was recently completed and powerful new computers had been recently installed. The YIBS stipend was integral in allowing me to perform this research. I gain valuable technical skills that can then be applied to further research in this area through the Center for Earth Observation this year at Yale. I plan to work with Director Ron Smith and Research Associate Larry Bonneau of the Center for Earth Observation while at Yale to fully take advantage of the opportunities available in remote sensing. For further information on the PRISM project please see the website at: www.prism.washington.edu/indexh.html.