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Effects of Deforestation on Production and
Survival of Seeds in the Southeastern Amazon, Pinkaiti Research Station,
Kayapo Indigenous Area, South Para, Brazil
Severn Cullis-Suzuki, E&EB `02

This summer I learned many things from my two-month stay at the remote Pinkeiti research station of Southern Para, Brazil, in the Amazon rainforest. My brain had to wrap around the languages of Portuguese and indigenous Kayapo, to communicate with people who didn't understand my culture or language at all. I came to depend on people of a world without money, written language, or even maps. Through BiriBiri, my Kayapo guide, I learned how to identify many types of trees, their seedlings, how to conduct my research efficiently, how to cut through the forest with a machete, how to find drinking water in specific vines, how to be still in order to observe snakes, birds and monkeys. As we walked the forest in search of the timber species cedrela that I was beginning a database on, I witnessed the unbelievable biodiversity of a tropical rainforest unchanged for millennia. But, as a logging road was built straight through the research territory on the last day I was in the field, I also saw the outside economic and cultural forces that are threatening it. I was forced to recognize the pressure on such regions, and realized the importance of giving scientific value to this biodiversity, as well as to the deep knowledge that the Kayapo people have for this biodiversity. Their knowledge as well is being threatened, as inevitably the outside world is pushing them to conform to the culture of TV, junkfood, and consumerism. The relationship between local peoples and the protection of biodiversity is obvious, and unless there are some careful efforts of scientists to conserve the culture and forest as much as possible, this pristine area will disappear. I left Pinkeiti with the knowledge that this amazing, biodiverse world exists - full of potential and unexplored by science, but also that work must be done to make sure that it is not destroyed.

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Promoting Reforestation of Degraded Landscapes with Native Species, Yale Tropical Resources Institute and Proyecto de Reforestación con Especies Nativas (PRORENA) in Panama
Georgina Cullman, E&EB `02

I spent ten weeks this summer in Panama on a Henry David Thoreau Environmental Summer Internship. I was part of the first summer of research for the Proyecto de Reforestacion con Especies Nativas (PRORENA), a Yale-Harvard cosponsored project that works with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Center for Tropical Forest Science in Panama. I worked with Libby Jones on her master’s thesis project for FES, and did my own related research, under the guidance of Mark Wishnie, PRORENA’s director, and Professor Mark Ashton. Libby’s research focused on understory regeneration in mixed native species reforestation plots on land owned by the Authoridad del Canal de Panama (ACP)—the Panama Canal Authority. My research investigated naturally occurring diversity in Saccharum spontaneum grasslands, and will be my senior project for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

The ACP has planted 45 hectares with 24 native species in the effort to replace Saccharum-dominated grasslands with native forests. Up to now, the forest regeneration on unplanted Saccharum sites has not been investigated. Workers are, at present, not able to discern if planting accelerates the natural recolonization of these S. spontaneum patches by forest vegetation, or if it enables what would otherwise be impossible. The current systematic native tree-planting and manual cutting of the Saccharum may be more work than is actually required to reforest these degraded landscapes. My study, especially when coupled with the results from Libby’s study, could inform future plantings by the ACP, and other groups interested in reforestation in Panama.

I focused on forest-edge effects on the diversity in Saccharum patches. Using aerial photographs, I identified forest/Saccharum boundaries that met my criteria (the forest and the Saccharum patches had to be of sufficient size and the boundary had to be relatively straight). I used two main areas for my research: Soberania National Park and Ecoforest’s leased land near Las Pavas. Both areas are in the Panama Canal Watershed. In each area I located six transects (for a total of twelve). Each transect was eighty meters long: forty meters into the forest, and forty meters into the Saccharum. At 13 different distances along those forty meters, I sampled the understory vegetation. By the end of my fieldwork, I had collected over 525 unknown samples. Jose Deago, PRORENA’s chief botanist, has presently identified about 75 of them to species.

Working in Panama with the Smithsonian is a luxury: the Smithsonian simplifies logistics and makes enormous resources available, including a library, an herbarium, vehicles, and high-speed internet access. Being a part of PRORENA allowed me access to all the support that the Smithsonian can provide, in addition to helping me with issues specific to my research, such as attaining permission to work on national parklands and on private lands held by PRORENA’s collaborators.  I gained enormous experience this summer in fieldwork and study design. Most importantly, this summer gave me a little taste of what it’s like to be a research scientist, and afforded me the opportunity to live in a community of scientists from all over the world in a beautiful and exciting setting.  It was an amazing experience.

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Conserving Marine Resources and Coastal Rainforests on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, The School for Field Studies
Angela Early, MCDB `02

This summer, the Thoreau Internship funding allowed me to participate in a program run by the School for Field Studies at its Center for Coastal Rainforests and Fisheries Studies in Bamfield, British Columbia. The program provided me with the exposure and hands-on experience that is impossible to gain in a typical university setting. Every day, we were out in the field listening to lectures while surrounded by 80 meter tall tress or knee-deep in a stream. Most importantly, however, we learned by doing. Instead of simply hearing about research that had been done, we learned how to do the research itself -- everything from tree inventories to shellfish sampling. I now have a grasp on what field research actually entails, and so now when reading scientific papers, I understand both the amount of work the studies necessitate and the inherent problems in dealing with a medium that lacks the controls and easy replicability of a laboratory science.

The town of Bamfield itself is located in Barkley Sound on the western coast of Vancouver Island. Its population is only 300 people, and like other communities in the area, its inhabitants have historically relied upon resource extraction as their means of livelihood.

Obviously by living in the town, I was able to meet members of the community, but I was disappointed that the program itself did not involve more community interaction. Before arriving, I had imagined that much of our work and research would be applicable to, for instance, community conservation efforts. In some instances this was true, but not to the extent I had hoped.

The course culminated with a research paper in which I analyzed restoration efforts of a local stream, the Sabrina Creek. The restoration occurred in the summer of 1999 and consisted of the strategic placement of large wood jams. These groups of large logs and boulders create pools that are more stagnant and have a more constant temperature than the adjacent flowing water. Areas like this are important within a stream for they serve as feeding grounds for salmon fry. After the restoration, School for Field Studies began monitoring the stream through salmon population assessments and invertebrate sampling.

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Hitchhiking in Leafcutter Ants in
Response to Phorid Parasitism,
Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Jeffrey Firman, E&EB `02

With the assistance of the Henry David Thoreau Scholarship, I spent one month last summer studying tropical leafcutter ants (Atta mexicana) in Mexico. During this time, I enrolled in a Yale summer course entitled Seminar in Tropical Ecology that was held on the Pacific Coast in Careyes, Jalisco, Mexico. I traveled down to Mexico where I not only studied the diversity and ecology of the region, but also received assistance with my own independent ant project.

The site at which we stayed in Mexico was beautiful. It overlooked the beach and was only a short drive from private forested land, including tropical deciduous, scrub brush, coastal, and mangrove habitat to which we had full access. In this nearby forest, classes were often held and the bulk of my independent research was performed. In addition, there was time for hiking, nature walks, swimming, and relaxing. A large portion of our time was spent outdoors and in close association with the rest of the class.

The time that I spent with my research project was the highlight of my experience. I was afforded the opportunity to develop a project from ground zero beginning last spring and to see this project to completion when it culminates this coming spring. Essentially, this project has become the focus of my academic study at Yale. My project looked into the defense mechanisms employed by leafcutter ants (Atta mexicana) in attempts to reduce levels of successful parasitism by phorid flies.

I drafted up the general ideas behind my project during a seminar course at Yale last spring and a field research course in Costa Rica during a semester abroad last fall. In Mexico, I assessed general patterns of activity for the ants and collected ant specimen which, in turn, were brought to Yale. Throughout the next two semesters, I will measure and dissect these ants, ultimately writing a paper that will serve as my senior project for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Thus far, my experience with this project has been exceedingly valuable. Because of the grant I received, I was able to travel to Mexico for one month in order to complete a project that would otherwise have been impossible. During this time, I not only enjoyed the time I spent performing my own research and participating in class activities, but also had the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the culture of Latin America and to experience firsthand the life of a field biologist.

In the future, I intend to continue participating in field research projects. I had this intention prior to my trip to Mexico. However, the process of performing my own independent research project has given me much greater insight into the life of a field biologist and the difficulties that a field project entails. I have now confirmed my conviction to pursue this sort of work upon graduating at the end of this academic year and my experiences this past summer will certainly help me with my future pursuits.

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Analysis and Comparison of the Environmental Justice Movement in New Haven; San Jose,
Costa Rica; London; and Madrid
Anne Fishman, Political Science `02

My primary source of information in London was, the Environment and Planning Department of South Bank University, a large urban university in south central London. I conducted a series of interviews with several professors at South Bank University. My first series of discussions took place with Robert Evans, one of the preeminent advocates for urban sustainability and equality in the greater London region. While the environmental justice movement in the United States has predominantly been focused on the relationship between poor minority communities and exposure to environmental hazards such as pollution, environmental justice in the UK has extended to include all issues of lack of access to a clean and healthy environment. Environmental justice in the UK has been a class-driven rather than race‑based movement, due to the fact that the black and ethnic population is only 8-10% , centered in London and the west-midlands.

The year 1987 marked the formation of the Black Environment Network (BEN), whose goal was to inform and educate about race issues in environmental problems throughout the United Kingdom, or a response to the "Sierra Club" view of the world.

Originally, BEN, founded by current Tufts professor Julian Ag: a man, focused on minority access to the countryside, citing environmental racism in blacks not having the right to "own" a piece of the environment, of their national heritage. In recent years, BEN has expanded to include reducing social exclusion and promoting inclusion of poor and minority communities in healthy physical environments. A new organization, CAPACITY, was recently founded by Evans' South Bank colleague Maria Adebowale, as a nonprofit coalition of poverty-based and environmental NGOs. Working alongside BEN, CAPACITY links local community groups with case studies and, partnerships, working to ameliorate the demographic deficit of leadership in poorer communities. Adebowale, former director of the Environmental Law Foundation, is herself part of a network of public interest lawyers and academic activists who provide free legal services to take local authorities and negligent individuals to court.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, Eurig Scandrett of Friends of the Earth Scotland (FOE) introduced me to the concept of environmental space, whereby every residential community, no matter what race or economic level, must have access to adequate resource use, carrying capacity, and waste reduction techniques. In 1999, FOE shifted from a primarily environmental organization to one of social justice, providing training to local communities on issues of organizing, waste management, and environmental law. In Scotland, environmental injustices have been perpetrated by the intersection of large corporations and weak local politics, whose political disempowerment is due to geographic isolation. FOE's Catalyst agenda has as its motto: "No less than a decent environment for all: no more than a fair share of the Earth's Resources. " This historically middle-class organization is setting the stage for an environmental justice movement to take root in the UK.

My research in Madrid was conducted in three primary locations: La Consejeria del Medio Ambiente (a division of Madrid's local government), Greenpeace Espana, and Ecologista en Accion (a network of environmental organizations from all over Spain). From my work at La Consejeria del Medio Ambiente, I discovered Madrid 21, a proposed environmental plan designed to move the urban community toward a model of environmental sustainability, dealing with issues of climate change, air pollution, waste of energy and natural resources, and degradation of the urban environment. However, while membership in the European Union has strengthened Spain's desire to comply with environmental standards oriented toward new social and economic development, these discourses have virtually ignored race and class as environmental factors.

Race and class have been associated with environment in Swain only as the political and social transformations of the 1980s and 1990s resulted in the increased participation of new actors, mainly ecologist groups (like Ecologistas en Accion) who have established alliances with other social justice groups. The primary locus of an environmental justice movement in Spain has been the incredible response to El Plan Hidrologico Nacional, a proposed plan to channel fresh water from poor rural areas to the wealthier coastal regions through the construction of large dams. The protest movement has mobilized in the form of COAGRET (Coordinadora de Afectados por Grandes Embalses y Trasvases), an association of local community-based organization, the European Rivers Network, the World Commission on Dams, and the International Water Resources Association. COAGRET embodies the Spanish environmental justice movement's focus on the right of all people to have access. to adequate natural resources; the movement is a reaction to the national government's belief that modernization of the agrarian sector is the principal motor in the development of rural zones. Throughout Spain, the same struggles with incinerators, garbage dumps, and polluting factories are taking place, but this struggle on the distribution of water is the primary focus of most of Spain's ecological groups.

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Individuality and Multilevel Selection in the Colonial Rotifer, Sinantherina socialis
Owen Gilbert, E&EB `02

For the summer of 2001, with support from the Studies in the Environment Thoreau Fellowship, I was able to spend most of my summer working on a project on colonial rotifers in New Haven, CT. Little is known about the life history of this aquatic invertebrate, and it has been my goal to find out more about this interesting organism. I worked from June through August on a project at Osborne Memorial Lab of Yale University started by Melissa Garcia, a graduate student of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Melissa has focused her research on this particular rotifer because of its unique qualities that make it good model for studying individuality and multilevel selection.

Going into the project I wanted to carry out several experiments. In early June, however, the first thing T had to do was get acquainted with the rotifers. I learned how to identify the rotifers and how to culture them in the laboratory. I also learned how to make food for them using a mixture of algae and diatoms. I then started on my first experiment, examining whether or not a sequestered line of individuals was acting to reduce within colony variation and promote individuality of colonies. This experiment was set up using a video camera attached to a microscope to film the colonies overnight. I examined the videotapes each day to see how many young each individual rotifers was contributing to the next generation. I plan to continue with this experiment for a while longer before I analyze the data.

Much of the latter portion of the summer was spent setting up an experiment to determine feeding efficiency versus colony size, an experiment designed to help identify the advantages or disadvantages of coloniality. They rotifers are fed fluorescent microspheres and then captured on disk using a liquid nitrogen cooled digital camera iin conjunction with a microscope with a fluorescent filter. I learned how to use this set‑up as well as the computer program that controls the digital camera. I also spent some time learning imaging software that will be important for analysis of the experiment. This will also be helpful for any future experiments in which I will need to photograph colonies.

I spent a lot of time taking care of the rotifers and learning the limitations of what these rotifers can tolerate during experiments. I also had the unique opportunity to collect specimens in the field. I made several field trips, going as far as Massachusetts to collect specimens. I learned where these rotifers live in nature and how to find them. I also learned techniques used for collecting an array of aquatic invertebrates. I plan to continue researching this rotifer, and everything that I learned this summer will be valuable in carrying out new experiments for my senior project. I even caught on videotape a new behavior that has not been reported in the literature, and I hope to follow up on this with further experimentation. Overall, the experiences I had this summer thanks to the Studies in the Environment Summer Programs were be extremely valuable and rewarding. I am excited about continuing research on this intriguing organism.

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Tropical Rainforest Reforestation,
Atherton Tableland in Australia,
The School for Field Studies
Scott Goldberg, Economics and STEV `03

This past summer I participated in a program that brings American Undergraduate students to the Rainforest in northeastern Australia.  The program focused on the problems of reforesting the land that had been cleared upon the arrival of Europeans.

I had never been to a rainforest before and from the initial drive out to the site, I knew I was in for something new and exciting.  The drive took us up from the more densely populated, and thus less forested coastline, to an elevated plain where much of the land had been cleared for dairy farming.  The center for rainforest studies was located within a larger patch of rainforest that had been left standing among the various pastures and clearings; this was the base of operations for the month long program.

The other students and I attended lectures each morning and each afternoon was spent visiting the land surrounding the center—seeing firsthand what we had discussed each morning.  The lectures covered every element of reforestation from the economics to the biology and ecology.  We discussed why the land had been cleared in the first place and what forces were keeping it cleared.  The situation was analyzed both from the position of the conservationist and the dairy farmer trying to earn a living; from this position we could see how difficult it can be to find that middle road.

The most interesting information I learned dealt with actually reforesting the land; planting a tree represents just a fraction of the overall effort that must be put forth to create a successful patch of reforested area.  Conservationists must analyze the area and location of each intended reforestation site in order to maximize the success while minimizing the investment necessary.  The current focus lies in connecting existing patches of rainforest in National Parks with narrow corridors that allow for animal and plant species to immigrate and emigrate freely.  We learned that this approach maximizes genetic diversity, which is important for species to survive various perturbations within the forest, including disease and storms.  Once the site is chosen, a complex interaction among innumerable variables must be balanced; a successful planting should have the right density, species, and concentration of trees based on the soil, the proximity to water and to mature rainforest.  We looked at the natural stages of rainforest regrowth and learned that, for a variety of reasons, climax species cannot be planted immediately.  By analyzing the success of previous plantings we were able to help determine which non-climax species “set the table” for the future successful growth of climax species. 

The knowledge and experience gained in the tropical rainforests of Australia can be applied to any conservation effort throughout the world.  My hands-on Australian experience provided me with significant insight into the problems associated with conservation.  By approaching the problem from the unique perspective provided by each party involved, I learned that every level of reforestation is rife with problems, from finding an appropriate piece of land to maintaining a planting.  On the other hand, with an enthusiastic corps of volunteers led by a knowledgeable coordinator the forests of this world can be saved to the mutual benefit of all parties.

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Preserving Coastal Diversity and Conservation of Sea Turtles, Magdelena Bay, Baja California Mexico, The School for Field Studies
Emily Jeffers, History and STEV `04

This summer I enrolled in a course with the School for Field Studies in Puerto San Carlos, Bahia Magdalena, Mexico. This coastal lagoon is located approximately three quarters down the length of the Baja peninsula in the state of Baja California Sur. The abundance of sea grass beds coupled with protected mangrove channels makes the area a perfect feeding and development ground for the black sea turtle, Chelonia mydas agasizzi. Unfortunately, the residents of Puerto San Carlos have harvested sea turtle for generations, and regard the animal as a traditional food. The project ultimately undertaken by me and the other students at the Center for Coastal Studies involved compiling data to present to the community concerning a proposal for a sea turtle protected area in a section of the bay, Estero Banderitas.

The amazing hands on learning I did during my four weeks in Mexico consisted of a combination of lectures in the classroom, and field exercises in the surrounding environment. The classes held at the center varied in content from coastal oceanography to co‑management of fishing resources, and included class discussions on topics such as environmental ethics and conservation biology. The three professors hailed from three different continents, and brought their own specialties and passions to the program. They were excited to teach what so obviously captivated them, and had no problem if, at ten o'clock at night, you desperately needed help identifying a specific shell, or wanted a companion to go bird watching with in the morning.

The field exercises done throughout the course gave the students an opportunity to interact and observe their new environment in a very direct fashion, either by snorkeling around the bay observing the various species, conducting interviews with the townspeople about their views on natural resources, or netting sea turtles, to name a few. The time spent outdoors emphasized the information we learned about in class, as everything could be applied directly to our surroundings.

One of the most memorable parts of the course occurred over a four-day span, when we all went camping on a small cliff over a part of the lagoon. During this period, extensive sampling of the environment, both terrestrial and marine, was done for the directed research papers written at the end of the course. This was accomplished by a variety of techniques, both qualitative and quantitative. The roving snorkeling and desert walks gave us lists of species found in different environments, and quantitative measurements like quadrat throws gave a sampling of the percent cover of different substrates on the desert and ocean floors. The research papers were written in groups of four ro five on different topics, and presented to the community at the end of the course, proposing a sea turtle protected area enforced by the fishing cooperatives.

Apart from this, every night groups of students and staff could go out in a panga, a type of boat, to set turtle nets in the lagoon, and check them periodically. Any given night would bring in anywhere from zero to three turtles, who would be measured, weighed, and tagged in their hind flippers. To track the movements of one turtle that was caught, we attached a line with a buoy on the back of the carapace, and released the turtle. For the next forty-eight hours, students and staff in kayaks followed the turtle, and recorded GPS positions and depth at fifteen‑minute intervals. Understanding the habits and movements of the turtles allows for a more knowledgeable construction of a protected area of their habitat.

Although it is illegal to harvest sea turtles in Mexico, the three enforcement agents for the entire Raja peninsula, a region with over two thousand miles of coast, have little effect. The only way the animals will be protected is when the communities along the coast decide for themselves to harvest less. It was only when the commercial exploitation of turtles began did the numbers of turtles begin their drastic decline, and now with larger numbers harvesting turtle for their families, the turtles existence remains in jeopardy.

One of the aspects of the programs I wasn't expecting but greatly enjoyed was the interaction we had with the local community. Apart from walking into town at night simply to explore, a basketball tournament was held the third week we were there, and the school entered a team. This provided another opportunity to mingle about the plaza and town at night, cheering for our team (who lost every game), and conversing with new friends.

Overall, the time I spent in Mexico will be remembered as a remarkable experience. The twenty-four other students of the course, coming not only from all over t, all shared my love of the outdoors and helped to solidify my desire to reconcile development and the environment in the future.

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Determining the Phylogeography of
Komodo Dragons
Joshua Kayman, E&EB `02

This summer, I worked in Gisella Caccone’s conservation biology laboratory under the guidance of Claudio Ciofi.  The aim of my project was to develop a genetic test for determining the sex of Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis).  Although I was not able to develop the test this summer, I learned the skills necessary to complete the project this fall.

Because neither males nor females have external genitalia or sex-specific marks, it is not possible to identify the sex of a Komodo Dragon on sight, but some more involved techniques do exist.  One way to definitively determine the sex of adult Komodo Dragons using ultrasound has been developed at zoos.  In the field, the sex of a Komodo Dragon can be determined by probing the internal sexual organs.  However, this field technique is only reliable with Komodo Dragons older than eight months.

Using these techniques, biologists have observed three times more males than female Komodo Dragons in the wild.  This raises an interesting question: is this unbalanced sex ratio established at birth, or do males and females start at equal numbers, and males have a much better chance of surviving?

A genetic test for sex could be used to determine the sex ratio of newborn Komodo Dragons in the wild.  It has already been shown that Komodo Dragons are born in equal numbers in captivity.  If the genetic test reveals an unbalanced sex ratio in the wild, it means that there is some sex bias that does not function in captivity, and further investigation will be required to determine why.  If the test shows that males and females are born in equal numbers in the wild, it means that males have a much better survival rate, and again, further investigation will be required to determine why.

The DNA sequence on the sex chromosomes of Komodo Dragons are different enough from other species that no genetic sex determination test exists; however, sex determination tests for other reptiles do exist that can serve as models.  In many reptiles, sex is determined not by XX or XY chromosomes, but by ZZ and ZW.  In the case of Komodo Dragons, males are ZZ and females are ZW.  The most common sex determination test involves four primers.  Two primers anneal to a section of the Z chromosome and two anneal to the W chromosome.  The primers are designed to make different size fragments on the different chromosomes.  After a PCR, the fragments are run out on an agarose gel.  Individuals with only a Z chromosome will show a single band on the gel.  Individuals with both a Z and a W chromosome will show two bands.  In other words, males will show one band and females will show two.  

When I arrived at the Caccone Laboratory, Claudio Ciofi had already received from the San Diego Zoo a set of primers designed to reveal the sex of DNA from Komodo Dragons.  I attempted to determine the sex of the DNA samples from Claudio’s previous visits to Indonesia.  It soon became clear that the test was not robust enough to be used with samples from the field. 

The primers from the San Diego Zoo were designed to anneal only to the W chromosome.  If it were to work perfectly, the test would show a band for females and no band for the males.  There were two problems.  One was that, in the case of a lack of a band, there was no way to determine for sure whether the individual was a male or if the PCR simply didn’t work.  This was a problem with the basic conception of the test.  The other problem was that the test itself did not anneal only to female DNA.  They happened to anneal weakly to a segment of DNA in the males that was about equal in length to the fragments from females.  As a result, both males and females showed the same band, though the band in males was very dim.  It is possible that the dim bands appear because the primers anneal to a sequence of DNA that exists on both the Z and the W chromosomes with minor differences at the annealing sites. 

I set to work optimizing the PCR for the males so that I could sequence that male DNA fragment, develop new primers, and create a new test for sex determination out of the old one that would show one band for males and two for females.  However, after over two months of trying different PCRs, it became clear that the primers would not optimize well enough in the males to allow for sequencing.  Professor Caccone suggested that I try to use cloning techniques instead of PCR, and so I put the fragment from the males into a vector and cloned the vector in E. Coli.  My first attempt at cloning failed.  I will begin my second attempt when I return to the lab to continue the project this fall. 

Although my demonstrable successes this summer were few, I gained many laboratory skills.  I arrived at the beginning of the summer not knowing how to pour an agarose gel.  By the end of the summer, I could run an agarose gel, extract DNA from blood samples, optimize a PCR, geneclean, sequence DNA, and clone DNA.  Because I have gained such a good background in lab techniques, I expect that this project will come to completion quickly this semester. 

I leave this summer with a great sense of appreciation to the Thoreau Fellowship.  I would recommend the Fellowship to any Yale student interested in Ecology or the Environment.

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Organic Farming Practices, Center for Urban Agriculture, Fairview Farms, Goleta, CA
Jocelyn Lippert `04

I had an amazing time at my internship at the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens in Santa Barbara, California, which was made possible by the Henry Thoreau grant I received from the Environmental Studies Program.  I first became interested in the farm after reading about its work in an article in the UTNE reader.  I was fascinated by the dual nature of the farm’s mission.  The first part of this mission is to serve as an example of a small-scale working organic farm.  The second part is to be an outreach center for educating people about the importance of practicing sustainable agriculture in the world at large. 

The farm is a twelve-acre plot of land that used to be a tiny fraction of a fertile agricultural region in California’s Goleta valley.  Slowly, however, the land around it began to be built up with suburban tract homes until Fairview was the only farm left.  In 1989, when the zoning was changed to allow for condominiums on that land, the farm was thrown into grave danger of being bought out and turned into yet another casulty of suburban sprawl.  However, the farm manager at the time was not going to give up without a fight and in six months time, he raised $750,000 to buy the development rights of the land and to put it into a land trust which stipulated that it must remain forever a working organic farm and education center. 

So this is the setting into which I arrived at the end of May.  I moved into a tent in the cluster of trailers that house the 10 Mexican migrant workers and two Mexican families who reside on the farm’s land.  I had with me a duffle bag of clothes and a sleeping bag, along with a few more essentials, but that was it. 

The first morning I woke up at 5:30 with the other workers and two other interns to pick the white asparagus, which has to be picked before the sun comes up so that it doesn’t turn green when the light hits it.  Each day, we started our work day either at 6:00 or 6:50, depending on what we had to pick for that day.  I worked until 2:00 in the afternoon, stopping to cook lunch with the rest of the workers in the communal kitchen trailer from 12:00 to 1:00 and then going back to work for one more hour.  The Mexican field workers’ day did not end until 4:30 in the afternoon.  I spent each day from 7:00 to 2:00 picking, planting, pruning, hoeing, weeding, putting up latices, and taking down latices.  In the afternoons I would either have the afternoon off or go work at one of the farmers markets where we sold our crops.  The farm also operated a stand by the roadside, and sold some crops wholesale to restaurants in the area. 

It was a powerful experience for me to be working in the fields for six hours each day.  The farm grows over a hundred varieties of fruits and vegetables, all strategically crammed into its twelve acre plot.  I learned so much about the intricies of growing food in accordance with nature’s processes, but all of it was learned first hand in the fields so that even now I don’t think I even realize the extent of my new knowledge.  I learned about using beneficial insects to kill crop-destroying insects, about planting crops next to certain other crops that repel each others predatory insects, about fire-weeding and irrigation. 

I felt that I was living as an integral part of nature’s chain in a way I had never felt before.  Each day I was tending the food that I would then pick for my meals, and which I would cook and eat, savoring each bite, knowing exactly what had gone into growing and cultivating that food.  I now know and think about the source of my food in a way that I never had before.  I gained a new appreciation and understanding of what it means to have sustinence, and how bodily and spiritual nourishment are interconnected.  I would highly recommend this internship to anyone interested, and I am very thankful to the Thoreau fellowship for providing me with this invaluable, and yes, I believe life-changing, experience.

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Environmental Law Internship with Earthjustice, San Francisco, CA
Jeannette MacMillan, English `02

My Thoreau Internship allowed me to spend the summer as an Intern with the International Program of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.  I had a wonderful experience and I strongly encourage any Yale students interested in environmental law to investigate this position or similar ones.  Since Earthjustice is a nonprofit public interest law firm, they couldn’t pay me themselves; this funding allowed me to take this position and support myself in their San Francisco headquarters. 

I was working mostly with the staff scientist of the International Program, Anna Cederstav.  Anna is a PhD chemist (Yale grad), but her job mostly involves coordinating AIDA (Asociacion Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente), the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense.  And essentially, I spent almost all my time on projects for AIDA rather than Earthjustice, focusing on natural resource issues in Latin America.  AIDA is a hemispheric coalition of environmental law groups, with member organizations in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, the United States, and Canada.  It is a relatively new coalition forging new ways that legal groups in different countries can offer each other unique support.  Although the field of international law faces many challenges, most notably enforcement, AIDA members have found several areas where such regional cooperation is very useful.  For example, they can cooperate on trade cases involving two member countries, advocate for the creation of new international treaties, and bring cases before the secretariats of existing treaties.  It was all very interesting- certainly I was quite pleased to spend three months observing these groups in action. 

My tasks included writing content for the AIDA website, graphic design, general administration, and legal and scientific research.  You can see the webpages I worked on under “Recent Updates” at www.aida2.org.  In the course of writing the webpages, I had to research many aspects of a few of AIDA’s projects.  This was just one of the ways that I was able to gain exposure to happenings grander than the rather small tasks on which I focused.  I also was able to sit in on staff meetings of both the International Program and the main office of Earthjustice, as well as various activities arranged for the law clerks, and attend hearings.  The public interest community is very strong and supportive in the Bay Area, so I was able to meet inspriring activists and professionals. 

I had my own tiny office and voicemail.  Every day I checked several online environmental newsletters and compiled a newswire to send out to AIDA members.  I also had to go through all of Anna’s files over the course of the summer and reorganize them, a task which, although time-consuming, allowed me to read a lot about environmental issues in Latin America.  In small nonprofits, one has to gain whatever skills are needed, so in the first few weeks I worked on learning Adobe Photoshop and then used my new skills to create graphics and maps for various briefs, publications, and webpages.  I had other small projects that were always changing.  For example, I prepared a memo about the legal status of various moratoria on offshore oil drilling in the US as background information that we could use for a case involving Costa Rican petroleum development (explained below).  I sat in on a conference call that served as a briefing for various sea turtle advocacy groups about a recent meeting in Mexico negotiating the international status of hawksbill turtles.  There was one case involving illegal logging by American companies in the Peruvian rain forest, and when one of the AIDA participating organizations was meeting with the Peruvian ambassador to attempt to explain the details of the case, everyone in the office, including me, reviewed and edited the document summarizing these details.  I also got to use my limited Spanish somewhat, for example in translating the captions for some graphs on a document we were using to raise funds for a case on lead poisoning in Peru.

But the majority of my time was spent working on the two webpages I wrote, which served dual purposes of educating the public about the facts of some key issues and allowing AIDA a chance to explain its achievements to donors and other interested parties.  I researched the background of the cases, made contacts at other organizations to obtain photos and further information, created maps, developed the organizational structure of the sites, wrote and rewrote the text, and collaborated closely with the HTML- proficient site administrator.  It was a more intensive process than I had anticipated, but I learned a lot.  One of the pages described the multifaceted efforts by AIDA to protect endangered sea turtles, and the other described an ongoing controversy about petroleum development off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

 Sea turtles are highly endangered; their protected status and migratory nature provide a unique opportunity for international legal cooperation.  My website has pages about the biology of sea turtles, the creation of the Interamerican Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles, the huge problem of incidental sea turtle death caused by shrimp trawlers and longline fishers, and the challenge of protecting coastal turtle habitat. 

 The Costa Rica case was more focused.  Costa Rica has traditionally eschewed oil development, but the government recently sold oil concessions to several American companies.  The concessions are only on the underprivileged Caribbean coast (the tourist industry wouldn’t tolerate such development off the Pacific coast), so this is an environmental justice issue as well as an issue of protecting fragile marine ecosystems.  A broad-based coalition of both local and international groups has been working for years to avoid petroleum development in Costa Rica, using the tools of media, legal argument, public protest, and scientific objection to inadequate environmental impact statements.  Although many successes have been achieved, this is an ongoing struggle, and it remains to be seen whether the government or oil companies can be persuaded or forced to abandon the pursuit of Costa Rican oil.

Working on these projects, I not only gained an understanding of substantive environmental issues and improved some of my research and organizational skills, I also was provided an invaluable glimpse into the special challenges and rewards of hands-on international environmental policy work.  This knowledge of the day-to-day efforts made by small groups of impressively intelligent and dedicated people has been the true accomplishment of my summer internship.  I was definitely inspired to continue in the field, and with a greater understanding of the daunting scope of the environmental challenges that will face my generation, I truly hope that more of my fellow students will choose to apply their intellectual and professional skills towards the reliable science and sound environmental policy that the 21^st century will require.

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Gathering Data on Copper and Zinc for the
Stocks and Flows Project in France, Germany,
and the United Kingdom
Brenden McEneaney, Environmental Engineering `02

With the help of the Henry David Thoreau Fellowship, I traveled to Europe this past summer to study material flows of copper and zinc.  This research stems from work that I have done over the past year with the Stocks and Flows (STAF) project in the Industrial Environmental Management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  The project involves creating a budget for materials as they move through their stages of life, from resource extraction to manufacture, through the material’s use in society and its eventual disposal.  Such a budget would allow us to keep track of the massive quantity of material that society uses, and also to know where that material resides in stocks and how it moves in flows.  This method of accounting can be useful for a broad range of not only environmental applications, but economic ones as well.

My role over the summer in this large undertaking was to investigate the differences of use of copper and zinc between the different European countries.  Specifically, I was interested in finding differences in intensity of use—both in the content of the material in the products and in the actual consumption of the products containing the materials. 

One of the possibilities raised by the STAF project is the idea of mining landfills.  Copper and zinc were chosen as the trial materials because they are widely used in society, but also because they are expected to be depleted from the Earth in about forty years.  At that time, if we have a reliable accounting system in place, it may be possible to mine these materials from other sources, like landfills, or buildings that are being torn down, or junkyards. 

My research took me to London, Brussels, the Netherlands, Germany, and Portugal among other places.  The time spent traveling to these places was in itself an intense experience of cultural learning.  I benefited both from being immersed in the local atmosphere of these places and from observing how the academic and scientific community operates across the different cultural standards and norms.  My research was fulfilling as well.  It was grounded in an existing program at Yale, and so I had the support of a clearly defined purpose and organization, yet it allowed me the freedom of an independent study, since I was essentially doing original research.  I have brought back my results and will apply them to the STAF project this year.  I hope to extend this work to investigate the use of arsenic in my senior project.

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The Organismal Diversity on the Carapaces and Plastrons of Sea Turtles Conservation
at Tortuga Beach, Mexico, Yale Tropical Field Ecology of Mexico Course
Melissa Salgado, E&EB `02

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Denmark`s International Study Program on
`Geology of Iceland`
William Schraufnagel, G&G and Theatre Studies `02

The Denmark International Study Program (DIS) offers a 6-week program every summer in Iceland. The program offers two courses of study: The Geology of Iceland and Arctic Biology. Students in both programs have very similar experiences, with the main difference being focus of study.

This summer I was a student in the Geology of Iceland course. The course was based in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, with classes taught at the University of Iceland campus. Students spent 4 weeks living in various off-campus housing arrangements in Reykjavik (I lived with 13 other students in a large boarding house, but other students stayed with families in smaller groups). The remaining 2 weeks were spent traveling, on "study tours."

The course itself, "The Geology of Iceland," offered a broad survey of geological topics related to Iceland. Main topics covered included volcanology, glaciology, surface-level geochemistry, igneous petrology, and hydrothermal activity. Seismic activity related to the MidAtlantic Rift Zone and volcanic systems was also studied. Other topics covered in somewhat less detail were paleoclimatology, tephrachronology, meteorology, low-grade metamorphism (zeoliteformation), and some aspects of arctic biology. We had one main professor responsible for the course; he gave many of the lectures, and the others were delivered by members of the Icelandic scientific community. All lectures were given in English (and some better than others!).

A large part of the course was based on field work, in the form of day trips and "study tours." The small class (7 students) enabled an excellent relationship with the professor, and all of us soon became proficient in identifying the major Icelandic rock types. In fact, I think all of the students in the class would have agreed that the field work was probably the most fun and most educational aspect of the course. Not to say that we learned nothing in class, but it always helps to have the real thing in front of you.

The first study tour lasted about 5 days and in that time we visited several different locations in southern Iceland. These included a coastal town, a hike on Vatnajokull, Iceland's largest glacier, and Thorsmork, a spectacular valley nestled in between two smaller glaciers. This trip was tremendous and involved many wonderful hikes, and some truly awe-inspiring scenery. Taking place during the second week of the program, it also offered a tremendous opportunity for all of the students (geology and biology) to bond with each other. After this trip, we had all become great friends.

Our second study tour, in the 4" week of the program, we traveled to Heimaey, a volcanic island just off the southern coast of Iceland. We spent 6 days on this island carrying out a research project, which was probably the main academic endeavor of the program. The island is the result of many volcanic eruptions that have occurred since the last ice age. My group of 3 students took samples of ash fallout from two different volcanoes: one that had erupted underwater, and another above water to compare the types of soil (or tephra) produced. We analyzed 400 individual grains of tephra, and found characteristics of each sample that corresponded to its specific eruption mechanism.

That was the academic side to the program, but naturally the experience extended beyond academics. First of all, Iceland is geologically very unique. Because of its high amount of both volcanism and precipitation, Iceland offers extremely dramatic landscapes: recently cooled lava flows, monstrous glacial valleys, serpentine fjords, and waterfalls so plentiful one begins to take them for granted. Everything is gigantic in scale, and there are more shades of green than you would have ever thought possible. The facts that there are very few trees (the soil is too rocky in most of Iceland) and that during the summer, the sky never really gets dark (think "midnight sun") only contributes to the surrealistic feeling. It is a land that forces you to rethink your relationship with nature, and thus your relationship with yourself.

The social aspect of the program was also tremendous. All students lived in Reykjavik for 4 weeks in close proximity to the main downtown area. The students in the program came from all over the United States for widely various reasons. I was exposed not only to Icelandic culture but to cultures from my own country I had never really encountered before. The course work outside of classes was light enough that we had tremendous freedom to explore (except at the end when working on our research papers). We soon became well‑acquainted with Reykjavik's downtown area‑ all the shops, cafes, restaurants, bookstores, clubs, etc. We even sampled a bit of the local music, art, and theater scenes. Many groups of 4 or 5 students chipped in and rented a car for a weekend to go traveling in the northern and/or northwestern parts of Iceland. None of the close friends I made in this program came away unchanged.

The Geology of Iceland program offered by the Denmark International Study Program (DIS) runs for 6 weeks in the summer. I learned a lot about many topics concerning the geology of Iceland, as well as doing an original research project in the field. I spent a lot of time hiking through Iceland with an Icelandic geologist who helped me understand everything I saw. I made incredible friendships with Icelanders and Americans, and it was one of the best summers I ever had.

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Study of Arctic Habitats and Ecosystems with the Alaska Earth Systems Field School
Naomi Shinoda, MCDB and Music `02

Imagine a picturesque scene of massive snow-capped mountains looming in front of your eyes amidst the early-morning fog. An expanse of lush green valley of spruces, birches, alders, willows, and devil’s club extending to the far reaches of the land. Splashes of intense reds, pinks, violets, and yellows in the delicate wildflowers growing at your feet. Wild blueberries, salmonberries, cloudberries, and raspberries dancing and mingling tantalizingly on your tastebuds. All of this was my world this summer as a student of The University of Alaska Anchorage’s Alaska Earth Systems Field School. 

The Alaska Earth Systems Field School was, in every sense of the word, exciting. Days were spent hiking (or rather, wading) through marshes and boglands, warding off swarms of Alaskan mosquitoes in the process. Soil cores of several meters depth were drilled and dug manually. Long walks were conducted along Alaskan beaches investigating intertidal life.

The course’s central focus was the inquiry-based thinking process of the study of the history of a landscape, and stressed the interaction between the ecology and geomorphology of the coastal ecosystems in South-central Alaska. Through a series of projects, we learned to form well-informed hypotheses on the history of any landscape simply by conducting investigations into the vegetation, ecological systems, geomorphology, and soil science of the region. 

The instructors of the course were Dr. Frank von Hippel and Dr. Scott Christy. Dr. von Hippel was born and raised in Alaska, and I had the pleasure of working with him last summer as his student at the Biosphere 2 Center in Arizona. His current research projects include primate ecology and rainforest conservation in Kenya and fish biogeography and conservation in Alaska. Dr. Christy works in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, is a veteran of the Alaskan wilderness, and is known for his exciting and long-winded tales of his numerous heart-stopping personal encounters with the wildest of wild, wild Alaska. 

The course started out in Anchorage with an introduction to soil science, an especially important subject in Alaska because of the geologic history of earthquakes there, which ultimately impacts the surrounding ecology. This knowledge was applied in many of the subsequent projects, such as the units on "succession at ice, snow, and earthquake fronts" and "succession in a fire-adapted landscape".

In Homer, a major project involving wetland delineation was conducted with a guest faculty member from the Alaska Natural Heritage Program. The last two major units involved "Human Impacts on the Intertidal" and "Forest and Alpine Tundra Ecology", and were conducted by three more guest lecturers at the University of Alaska’s field station at Kasitsna Bay – a glorious site that is only accessible by boat.

The overall experience of Alaska was one of overwhelming awe for the wilderness and the Alaskan way of life. As half of the course consisted of non-Alaskan students and the other half of native Alaskans, there was a valuable exchange of knowledge, insights, and experiences among the group. I left Alaska in awe of the massive, looming mountains and glaciers as well as of the tiniest wildflower and wildberry plant. I recommend this program wholeheartedly to anyone interested in a unique environment and lifestyle.

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Ecology and Conservation of Native Bee Populations in Northern California,
Davis, California
Benjamin Smith, E&EB `03

My time spent as a research assistant in California this summer resulted in three primary realizations for me. First, I learned the inner workings of an ecological experiment. Second, I got to know a natural system, and the animals working in that system at a high level of depth. Third, I was able to put in perspective science's role in the direction of greater society.

As a lab assistant, spending 5 hours a day (in 105 degree heat!) observing bee activity, counting thousands of pollen grains on an insect under a microscope, and purposefully shearing apart the cotton nest of a bumblebee colony, certainly taught me the details involved in running a successful experiment. I have a new appreciation for the amount of work it takes to accurately plan and execute a sound scientific experiment. Most importantly, however, I started to learn to differentiate between those factors that are important to control and those that are not, I learned when to make a shift in scientific perspective, and I learned of the ingenuity and creativity involved in designing an experiment.

So vigorously was I studying these bees, I came to know them intimately. I had to be able to identify close to 40 bees or so at a glance. Be it the elusive metallic green genus Agopostemon, or one of the six cotton-like bumblebee species, they all had distinctive personalities and unique life histories. And the bee-to-bee interactions were fascinating-especially in light of the sometimes unfortunate introduction of invasive bee species. The European honey bee (Apis meliffera) now dominates Yolo county (and its agriculture), for better or for worse. And of course, there was my favorite bee, Anthophora Urbana, the quirky black and white bee (capable of sonnicating tomato flowers in order to release their pollen onto its ventral abdomen). This bee would dart from to place, fly right up in front of your nose; look you square in the eyes, and dart off, all in a split second.

Certainly the most inspiring aspect of my time in California, however, were the greater motives of the project I was working on. Pollination systems are of crucial importance to our agricultural subsistence, and native bee species in California's central valley-one of the most important food-producing corridors in the world-are essential to many of the crops grown there. Without the seven species of native bees in Yolo County that are able to pollinate tomato, we would lose the crop entirely from the country's highest tomato-producing county. As our world continues to grow in number, pollination science will be essential to producing enough food for the world to live on, certainly enough to live as it currently lives.

Native bees are one of the many aspects of our threatened environment that bear the need for greater scientific scrutiny. As their habitat is destroyed, so are they-and bee diversity decreased visibly (even without statistical analysis) the farther we got from the wild lands in Yolo County. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to study this system, for the scientific lessons it taught me, for the personal satisfaction of the knowledge, for the sense of a greater cause.

I would highly recommend this type of experience to any student interested in getting their feet wet in a real ecological study. I issue a word of caution, however one should truly investigate the lab before agreeing to dedicate a summer's work. I was surrounded by people willing to teach me, and help me engage in the most dynamic aspects of the experiment. I can very easily see, in another situation, having to wash test tubes as being my primary role.

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Selkirk Biodiversity Project, the Lands Council, Columbia River Watershed,
Eastern Washington and Oregon
Shata Stucky, English and Political Science `02

When I arrived for my first of work at The Lands Council in Spokane, Washington, I expected that my summer days would be filled with research and writing. I had been told that I would be working on The Selkirk Biodiversity Project, a campaign to secure permanent protection for critical wildlife habitat in the Selkirk Mountains and preserve the richness and diversity of native species. While much of my time was spent on the biodiversity project, I found that working for a small nonprofit meant being flexible and willing to work on a number of different issues in multiple capacities.

In addition to attending meetings of the Selkirk Coalition (a committee designed to bring together and coordinate the efforts of local nonprofit organizations), scouting proposed sites for clearcuts and new roads on Forest Service land, and collecting information about future FS projects, I constructed and frequently updated The Lands Council website (www.landscouncil.org), worked on the newsletter layout, helped organize a rally for the cleanup of heavy metals in the Spokane River (a rally attended by Senator Maria Cantwell), and at the start of the fire season began posting a Wildfire Update page on the website with the latest news and articles pertaining to conservation and safety issues.

Much of the work I did involved collecting data that would eventually be used to appeal the Forest Service's proposals to harvest timber and build new roads. This meant identifying contentious points in Environmental Impact Statements and often required visiting the site to do further investigation. Although I learned that these appeals are rarely successful, I was fortunate enough to be present for one small, exciting victory.

Our triumph came when foresters decided to put on hold a plan to log in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The Lands Council became particularly interested in the proposed MyrtleCascade Timber Sale because of its location inventoried Selkirk Mountain Roadless Area. The Roadless Rule, enacted under the Clinton administration, prohibits logging in roadless areas but grants an exception in the case that a commercial timber sale will protect or enhance habitat for threatened or endangered species. It was The Lands Council's position that, in the case of the MyrtleCascade sale, the Forest Service was acquiescing to industry pressure and abusing this exemption.

The Lands Council submitted an appeal on May 29, and later we inspected the site to monitor and photograph the roadless units. We found that many of the statements in the Forest Service's proposal were even more questionable than we had originally thought. In a stand of trees that had been labeled "overmature" and set aside to be logged under the justification that logging would restore ecosystem characteristics and structure, there were very few trees over 12 inches in diameter. We also found that the area below and adjacent to the proposed site already had been clearcut, making the newly proposed site appear to be the next logical area to be logged in a typical timber sale that has units marching up a hill. It was hard to believe that the logging project was aimed at protecting or enhancing habitat for threatened and endangered species.

About two weeks after we visited the site near Bonners Ferry, Idaho and spoke with rangers in the district, it was announced that Forest Supervisor Ranotta McNair had decided to defer the roadless portion of the project. This was a small victory and might be reversed after the Bush administration finishes its review of roadless policies, but my coworkers at The Lands Council assured me that this was an outcome to be celebrated.

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Developing Urban Agriculture Practices, ECO-Initiatives, Montreal, Canada
Abhimanyu Sud, MCDB and Linguistics `03

Eco-Initiatives is a non-profit environmental organization working in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace region of Montreal.  Their goal is to act as a catalyst in transforming the people in their community into urban gardeners, or otherwise ‘food secure’ peoples, and in concordantly transforming available community land into viable and productive natural spaces.  The organization operates a series of approximately 20 collective gardens on the land of churches, a YMCA, community groups and individual’s backyards.   My role coming through the Thoreau internship was to learn enough about urban agriculture to be able to return to New Haven (or any urban space for that matter) with the ability to develop and operate a collective garden.  The collective garden is to be distinguished from the community garden by several features.  Generally, community gardens rent out small plots of land to individuals needing or desiring an area in which to grow food, plants or both.  Gardeners are free to come and go as they desire and must adhere only to a few basic rules.  Collective gardens are large spaces in which groups of gardeners come and work the entire area at the same time.  There are no individual plots or harvests in the collective model.  Thus, there is a very strong emphasis on a building a good social dynamic in collective gardens.  Gardens are by their nature very creative places.  Always something is growing, changing, and showing its true colours - whether it is the plants you intended to grow or weeds that are effecting this change is a different matter.  This creativity is very much lacking in many urban communities and thus gardens act as a wonderful tool for involving people in a communal creative pursuit.  Each time one returns to the garden, there is something to be learned.  Asking ‘how did the eggplants transplants deal with the cold whether?’ or ‘how did the beans deal with the dry weather?’ will teach you much.   Always one returns to a different garden that is different because of your contribution to it.  Meanwhile, there are constant discussions regarding food security, food policy, urban ecology, nutrition, health and all the like.  Many gardeners, after having been stuck in a rut of social isolation are now some of the most powerful people I know.  Such empowerment is a testament to the power of nature, the power of creativity and the importance of both of these in people’s communities.  This implies a real commitment to developing natural spaces in urban communities.  That a natural space can provide something as important as healthy food is an incomparable boon.  I had an opportunity to work not only in extant collective gardens, but also to develop new gardens, in backyard gardens, to distribute excess food, and to begin the development of other community based food security schemes.  Essentially I was warmly welcomed into every aspect of the organization’s projects and gained a very strong understanding of how to proceed in future endeavors both in New Haven and Montreal.  I would strongly urge anyone interested in agriculture, organic growing techniques and urban ecology to commit themselves to an extant project in any cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, Toronto and the like.  There is much work to be done.

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Development and Environment in Southwest China, Consulate, U. S. State Department, Chengdu, China
Susan Tuddenham, MCDB and Int'l Studies `02

This summer, I was privileged to complete an internship with the U.S. State Department and to conduct research on environment and development in China. With the help of the Environmental Studies Department and the Charles Kao Fellowship, (State Department internships are unpaid), I travelled to Chengdu, China, and worked in the Political/Economic section of the American Consulate for 10 weeks.

The city of Chengdu is in Southwest China, in Sichuan, the province next to Tibet. Within China, Chengdu is particularly interesting to study, because the Chinese government has made it a focus of its push to modernize western China. In a sense, Chengdu is a pivotal point: a place where old China meets the government’s vision for what China will become. In the last few years, the Chinese government has poured millions of dollars into development in Chengdu. This development comes with a heavy ecological pricetag, and Chengdu and the area surrounding it are now faced with critical air and water pollution problems. 

My work focused on two areas: researching and evaluating International NGOs working in Sichuan and Tibet, and studying the rise of College Student Environmental Groups in Sichuan and their ties to other student groups in China.

For the International NGOs, I went through the large amounts of material that the consulate on each one, and wrote up short reports including my own personal assessment of each. I also conducted telephone and face-to-face interviews with the NGO leaders who were accessible, and went and visited a number of project sites, most notably that of Heifer Project International. I also attended meetings with a number of local EPB (Environment Protection Bureau) officials. Finally, I was lucky enough to attend a number of conferences held by International NGOs and Environmental Groups, which provided me with some of the best insights into the problems and challenges of dealing with environment in China. 

In terms of student environmental groups, I conducted interviews with student leaders, faculty environmental leaders, undergraduates and graduates studying in Sichaun University’s Environment department, Environmental Studies Professors, (e.g. Water Quality expert), and members of Peacecorps new Environmental Education program.          

An overview of the problems: 

1. Dilemma: environment vs. Development: China needs to develop, but there is real tension between development and environmental protection.

2. Government Structures: The Chinese government is highly decentralized, which makes it extremely difficult for the central government to actually enforce any environmental policies.

3. Lack of reliable statistic

To summarize briefly: I found that student environmental groups are interesting not only for what they are doing to help the environment, and to help educate students and the general public about environmental issues, but for what they may represent in terms of civil society. Environment is really the only issue that Chinese College students are organizing around on a large scale. A large part of this is because it is an important cause, but perhaps more importantly, it is relatively safe. The government condones student environmental activism, where it would surely not tolerate other types of activism—(human rights activism, for example). And for the most part, student environmental groups conduct small-scale, uncontroversial campaigns: education programs, for example, or campaigns to ban disposable chopsticks in college dining halls. However, environmental groups are beginning to organize on a wider and wider scale, coordinating with other student groups in their region, and even across the country, as well as, in the last year or so, with international environmental NGOs.

I had an absolutely amazing experience. I learned incredible amounts about the political structure, culture, and history of China, simply by being there and living in the culture. I sincerely thank the Environmental Studies department for their generous funding.

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Community Protection of Watersheds, 
DECOIN, Intag, Ecuador
Ezra Vazquez-D`Amico, Music and
Latin American Studies `03

I found that my internship went well because of several factors.  First of all, it was very well organized by DECOIN; when I arrived, we met and discussed a structure for the time I was in Ecuador and specifically what I’d be doing.  I think it was helpful that they gave me a specific project to work on and within that project, while I was helping on all levels, I had a specific task (doing research for the watershed conservation manual and writing it up).

Working with the other members of DECOIN was very rewarding.  I spent a lot of time working one on one with Carlos Zorilla, their president.  This format allowed me to ask questions and for him to guide my experience in ways that would assist me in my learning.

My internship was successful on a number of levels. I leaned a lot about conservation ecology got great exposure to working with communities.  I also think that my work with DECOIN was very helpful to them, having someone work with them full time was helpful and I produced something that they will use (the manual).

I would definitely recommend this internship to other students. DECOIN also expressed interest in having more Yale students come down to work with them during the summer or school year.  I think it would be especially great to for Yale to set up some kind of relationship with DECOIN because not only is the region amazingly biodiverse, but there are also practical issues such as community sustainable development that are very intertwined with ecology today.  DECOIN expressed interest in working with the Yale Environmental studies department on a more institutional level, thinking about possibly setting up a program for students to go down even in groups. 

For more info about the possibility of working with DECOIN, contact me at ezra.vazquez-damico@yale.edu or Carlos Zorilla at intagcz@uio.satnet.net or visit http://www.decoin.org/

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Speciation of Rotifers: Relationship Between Mate Recognition and Genetic Divergence
Erica Westerman, E&EB `03

This summer, while suffering through the heat of New Haven, I studied the mating behaviors and speciation of rotifers.  I was working with Lisa Suatoni, a graduate student in the Sean Rice lab, on the methods of speciation.  At the moment there are two different schools of thought concerning what actually leads speciation, mate recognition or internal fertilization recognition (egg/sperm interactions).  Before this summer this issue had not been directly tested, because it has been very hard to find an organism with a short enough life span to do repeated tests on fertility and mate recognition. Rotifers, however, have a short population life span, and reproduce primarily asexually.  This is ideal for the mate recognition study because there are hundreds of identical females in every population, making the only difference in the genetic make up of the animals being used each study in the males, as they have slight genetic differences due to their being haploid.

Since rotifer populations have a sexual life span of about seven days, with males produced after the fifth day and mictic females produced after six days, as well as a simple mate recognition system, performing weekly crosses and mate recognition bioassays was simple and efficient.  Using populations from around the world, we were hoping to have populations in a variety of different stages of speciation with differing levels of mate recognition and fertility.   In order to form hypothesis concerning which populations would actually mate and fertilize, we compared two different genes on mitochondrial DNA from all the different rotifer populations used.  Unfortunately, and to our great surprise, after the DNA was sequenced, we learned that not only did we have many different populations from around the world, but we also had many different species with genetic differences of over twenty percent.           

In order to make sure that the populations with large genetic distances were actually different species mate recognition and fertilization tests were done.  To do this twenty females were put in twenty micro liters of water with one male and their actions video taped for five minutes. This was repeated with ten different males and the same females.  For each set of two populations both reciprocal crosses were done along with homogeneous control mate recognition bioassays.  None of these populations suspected to be different species would mate with each other in the five-minute period, which suggests that they are different species.           

The rotifers made up four different clusters of genetically more related rotifers, and for the purpose of testing the different phases of speciation, the group of Asian rotifers were chosen.  For the next two and a half months rotifers of different genetic distance from the Tokyo 3 rotifer population, which was our control species, were mated with the Tokyo 3 rotifers, their mating behaviors monitored, and their fertilization rate noted.  The fertilization rate was taken by crossing two hundred mictic females with two hundred males and seeing how many females produced resting eggs instead of male eggs (which meant that the female had not been fertilized).         

While this study is not finished, all the first generation crosses have been done, and research has moved on to testing the first generation hybrids for mate recognition and fertilization with themselves and one of their parent species.  So far we have learned that there is a difference, though not particularly extreme, between the tolerance level of female rotifers verses male rotifers. It is thought that this may be because the males are haploid, and therefore the genetic mutations are visible.  It was also learned that the males are not as different as had been previously thought.  According to rotifer specialists, there was supposed to be a great amount of variability in the actions of the male rotifers over a five-minute time period, thus the use of ten different males for each batch of females.  It was accepted that males did not mate more than once in a five-minute period.  However, after watching around three hundred and sixty males actions with twenty females for five minutes, it was found that when the males did recognize the females the average, and extremely constant, amount of copulations in a five minute period was two, and once or twice males were seen to mate four times in the five minute period, suggesting that previous studies were incorrect concerning the actions of males.   

Due to the amount of rotifer populations and the need for checking the hybrids to find out if and when the males/females become infertile, I am continuing this lab work throughout the year, to see if we can find that either mate recognition or internal selection evolves faster and is therefore pushing evolution.  Having spent the last three months on extensive lab work in which I was not only expected to do research but also to keep the lab alive, I have learned many lab techniques important to a live lab.  We had a constant problem of unhealthy algae, which was the food for the rotifers, so Lisa and I were constantly changing variables in the lab alga habitat to try and make the algae grow better, experimenting with temperature, food supply, salinity, oxygen flow, and the amount of minerals in the water.  This is also a work in progress, as we have been unhappy with our best results and are consistently attempting to increase the density of the algae.

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