Scott Zhu, Undecided '07
Field Study with the Wrangell Mountains Program in Alaska

Top   |   Student Research   |   Previous Year

A Tale of Two Cities: Transportation & Land Use Patterns in Paris and Athens, Comparative Landscape Study
Jane Brandon Berkeley, Environmental Studies '06

This summer, I had the opportunity to begin working on my senior project, looking at an important aspect of urban planning that carries significant implications for management of suburbanization’s ecological impacts. My goals were to study the relationship between transportation policy and suburban land use patterns in Paris, France, and in Athens, Greece. I hoped to examine the spatial impact of transportation networks on population density, vegetation distribution, real estate values, and land cover classification, as well as to identify the underlying political and social forces that shape those transportation networks. I used scientific literature, policy documents, satellite imagery, and personal interviews with conservation managers, academics, and government officials to begin my exploration of this topic.

The first part of my summer research focused on establishing a background body of knowledge to direct my later summer activities. I began by compiling and reviewing in depth the scientific literature on transportation’s effects on suburban expansion around large urban centers; I had already identified a number of articles during the EVST Junior Seminar last spring, and I added to this body of works with other articles that I felt would help to give me a good grounding for beginning my senior project research. I also read a couple of well-known books on the principles of urban planning, City: Urbanism and its End by Douglas Rae and The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, both of which helped me to place my own topic within the broader context of the evolving field of urban planning. Also with the goal of furthering my background knowledge of the link between transportation and suburban land use, I examined the Washington, D.C., area and the northeastern Pennsylvania area for the character of their relationships between transportation corridors and suburban expansion traits. Finally, during this early period of my research, I worked with Larry Bonneau of Yale’s Center for Earth Observation to acquire four hyper-spectral dataset images of Paris and Athens. I used these datasets to measure vegetation distribution and land cover classification patterns around the two cities, and this fall I will be pairing them with spatial information on population density and real estate value to complete my quantitative profile of suburban land use patterns in and around my study site.

The larger part of my summer internship was spent on site in Europe, observing and documenting the nature of selected Parisian and Athenian suburbs, as well as researching (through both documents and interviews) the transportation policies that shape the cities’ commuting and residential development patterns. In both cities, I used photographs and GPS waypoint markers to document on-the-ground land use traits. In Paris, I focused on two suburban towns west of the city, Chatou and Rueil Malmaison; in Athens, I focused on the major highway corridor in northern Attica and in particular on the suburb of Kifissia.

To understand the policies that influence the cities’ transportation and land use patterns, I met with Nadia Hilal of the Sciences Po University, agricultural economist Andre Gilbert, Victoria Sotiriadou of the European Union’s economic council, Kleanthis Rokidis of the Regional Administration of Attica, mechanical engineer Dimitra Mika of the Regional Administration of Attica’s Managing Authority division, and representatives of the Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifissia. I had scheduled additional appointments with two other individuals in Greece, Nikos Zarbalos of the Socialist Party’s Urban Development and Transport Committee and Professor Dimitris Oikonomou of the University of Thessalia, but both of these appointments were not met—a summer lesson in the frustrations of “Mediterranean time.” I hope to conduct correspondence interviews with these two contacts during the school year, as my senior project progresses. The meetings were very helpful not only as interviews on France’s transportation policies and Paris’ commuter patterns, but also for the counsel I received on how to direct my project. I found that my knowledge of the French language improved the Parisian segment of this interview aspect of the research experience immeasurably.

The summer research was immensely helpful—even essential—to the progress of my senior project. My summer experience provided more challenges and new information than I had expected, leading me to change my assumptions about the distributions of income, population density, and vegetation communities in both cities. After this experience, I decided to shift the focus of my senior essay toward an evaluation of the Athens Metro project and its effects on suburban land use around Athens, since the political and ecological implications of this single project alone will provide a great opportunity for a more topical, focused project on suburban land use issues today.

Top

Internship with Save America's Forests in Washington, D.C.
Caitlin Clarke, Environmental Studies '07

Save America’s Forests is a fifteen-year-old environmental group with a tiny budget and an office in a converted garage on Capitol Hill. It is a bare-bones organization, and my experiences there, while they were valuable in an intellectual and personal sense, were also interesting because of the insight they provided me into the workings of an environmental group. While I was working there, I studied not only forests, but also, more informally, the organization I was working for, and it was an instructive experience on all counts.

Save America’s Forests was working, when I arrived, on two projects. One was the project for which the group was founded: the passage of a bill entitled “The Act to Save America’s Forests,” which has a sixteen-count platform that lays out steps to entering a sustainable forest economy based on selection cutting, alternative papers, and sustainable work for logging communities. When I arrived in Washington, however, the focus was on another project, the Yasuní Rainforest Campaign, so my work for the first eight or nine weeks was focused on that project.

The Yasuní Rainforest Campaign is an ongoing project to help the Huaorani indigenous people of Ecuador resist the intrusion of oil companies into their ancestral lands. The situation is enormously complex and very interesting.

The Huaorani number about 2000—no one is exactly sure, including the Huaorani themselves—and live in the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Peruvian border. Their ancestral territory encompasses about 1.5 million hectares of lowland rainforest, which happens to be the most biologically diverse parcel of land on the planet. They have long enjoyed a reputation as the most dangerous and warlike of Ecuador’s indigenous groups, over the centuries resisting the incursion into their territory of conquistadores, rubber barons, other indigenous groups (with whom their relationship has traditionally been acrimonious), and the armies of Ecuador and Peru.

They live in autonomous villages that sometimes send representatives to meetings in which matters affecting the whole group are discussed. The Huaorani, however, have no traditional hierarchical power structure. They use dozens of species of palm trees for housing, clothing, food, utensils, and myriad other uses, and they hunt with blowguns, eating a wide variety of monkeys and other animals. They were first contacted by Western civilization in the late 1940s, when Shell Oil began exploring for deposits in their territory. Several years later, an American missionary named Rachel Saint convinced many Huaorani to abandon their villages and settle in a new village some miles to the west. In the intervening years, many Huaorani have lost their traditional way of life, though others chose to remain in the forest.

Between the late 1960s and early 1990s, Texaco, and various subsidiaries and partners, drilled for oil just to the west of Huaorani territory. Their substandard safety measures have left behind a toxic swill of oil production wastes, and the roads they and other oil companies built into the forest have become centers of colonization for desperately poor people who have deforested much of the surrounding rainforest and overhunted many species from the area. Texaco’s legacy in the area has been widespread environmental destruction and massive human health costs, including skyrocketing rates of childhood leukemia and other serious diseases. Oil development has also wreaked havoc on the Huaorani, many of whom work seasonally for the oil company and find themselves dependent not on the rainforest, which they perhaps know better than any other people, but on a market economy in which they cannot compete.

In 1979, Yasuní National Park was created in traditional Huaorani territory, effectively forcing them to the west. The park is the world’s most biologically diverse, containing staggering numbers of species of primates and other mammals, birds, and amphibians, along with the world’s highest concentration of social bees. In 1991, the Huaorani were given legal title to about 700,000 acres to the west of Yasuní, less than half of their original territory. Huaorani communities, however, are still present within the park itself.

The park is divided into several oil blocks, each owned by a different company. The one we worked with this summer is Block 31, ceded to the Brazilian national oil company, Petrobras. Petrobras is trying to develop the region, which is inside the national park. The oil would pump money into Ecuador’s very poor economy and help it service its foreign debt. It would also have severe effects on the wildlife of the national park, and many Huaorani, who saw what happened to the people who lived in the area developed by Texaco, are adamantly opposed to the project. Others, however, are in favor of it, particularly certain leaders of the tribal council, ONHAE, who wrote clauses into contracts signed with Petrobras guaranteeing them each $50,000 a year. (Petrobras has guaranteed the Huaorani $300,000 a year for ten years, a fraction of a percent of the profit it is likely to make from drilling in their territory.)

The issue gets even more complicated, due to provisions of Ecuadorian law, allegations of bribery on the part of Petrobras officials, the questionable legality of contracts signed with Petrobras without the consent of all the Huaorani communities, the possibility of the existence of uncontacted groups of Huaorani in the forest, and the recent coup in Ecuador, and it is fascinating because it encompasses nearly every aspect of the study of the environment. Yasuní’s unparalleled biological richness would alone make it worth study, as would the unique culture of the Huaorani. I also found myself fascinated by the legal issues surrounding the situation, which focus mainly on whether the Huaorani have title to their ancestral land.

The IMF and World Bank were also involved in this, funding a pipeline to transport oil from the Amazon and spurring reckless development in the area. There is the question of who speaks legitimately for the Huaorani—is it the elected men who have accepted money from Petrobras, the women’s group that opposes it, or, as in the past, anyone who wishes to speak? This issue is fascinating from a political standpoint. The recently deposed government may have taken bribes from Petrobras to grant them the environmental license to drill for oil. This is also a zero-sum game, in that there is no way in this situation to achieve economic growth, environmental protection, and respect for the rights of the indigenous population at the same time. In this sense, the issue of oil drilling in Yasuní is particularly important to this desperately poor country, and public opinion within Ecuador at large is divided on the issue, though the Huaorani have received favorable press coverage in the Ecuadorian media.

We worked with this issue all summer and gained both national and international press coverage for the Huaorani. Our group initially supported roadless oil drilling in the park, employing an offshore drilling model, which would allow for economic development but avoid the ill effects of roads, which include habitat fragmentation and colonization of indigenous territory. The Huaorani, however, consider everything about their land, including what is under it, sacred, and they are adamant in their claim that they alone have the right to speak for their territory and whether or not oil drilling may proceed there. My boss was never really able to resolve this tension, as we were working with a number of environmental groups with varying positions, and it was a fascinating insight into the debate over who gets to speak for pristine areas inhabited by human beings.

The issue of oil drilling in Yasuní pits many interests against one another. Environmentalists, indigenous rights activists, and the Ecuadorian government all want different things, and the Huaorani themselves are divided. Everyone’s interests are incompatible with everyone else’s. When pressure from international financial institutions and the government of Brazil are also considered, the situation becomes even more complicated, and things are not made simpler by the thousands of foreigners, including conservation biologists who do research in Yasuní, the members of the group I worked for this summer, and the guy at the gas pump, who also feel that they have a stake in the situation. The Huaorani, or at least most of them, want to begin an ecotourism industry in their territory, which is incompatible with the waste and noise of oil drilling. With the global panic over oil supplies, it seems unlikely that they will ever get the chance.

I had been planning to concentrate my major in the design of biological reserves in Latin America, with an eye toward examining indigenous populations and their role in the landscape, but I was not really aware of the Yasuní project before I came to work at Save America’s Forests, so I was lucky to arrive when I did. I was able to watch events unfold in real time, speak with the leaders of the Huaorani groups resisting oil development as well as indigenous rights activists, lobby Congress (we did get two representatives to write a letter to the IMF expressing their concern over the issue), and get a sense for what this kind of work is like on the ground. My hope is to secure funding next summer to go to Huaorani territory and develop what I have already learned about the situation into my senior project. The issue captivated me, and I have a feeling that it will continue to do so well beyond my undergraduate education.

My work on activities related to the Act to Save America’s Forests was less interesting by comparison but allowed me to analyze and comment on forest plans and develop sections of a major report on the issue of American forests. I was dismayed, though, to discover that environmental groups, as much as industries, manipulate data to suit their purposes; having always believed that environmentalists are on the right side of these debates, it surprised me to learn that both sides abuse science in the name of their particular agendas. Straight facts, I realized, are not necessarily very valuable in Washington, and it reinforced in my mind the necessity for scientists of being politically savvy in order to keep their work from being distorted by groups with broader goals than the plain truth.

On the whole, my internship was an extremely valuable experience. I gained important insights and experiences from nearly everything I did this summer, and I am immensely grateful to the Environmental Internship Program for making it possible.

Top

The Role of Anadromous Fish in the Diets of Breeding Birds in Coastal Connecticut
Christopher Dalton, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '06

This past summer, I used my Environmental Studies Internship to conduct field and laboratory research on my senior thesis and to expand my knowledge of field ecology methods as a lab assistant for David Post. My senior project is on the relationship between an anadromous fish, the alewife, and a predatory bird, the Double-crested Cormorant. I worked towards quantifying the types and amount of food consumed by cormorants nesting near a particular alewife run in eastern Connecticut. I did this by analyzing pellets regurgitated by these cormorants. I collected pellets from a cormorant nesting colony in Long Island Sound in early May. In the lab, I dissolved pellets in sodium hydroxide and retrieved diagnostic ear bones, called otoliths, for species identification. I also prepared osteological specimens for identifying pellet-derived otoliths, collected observational data on feeding cormorants, and conducted thorough literature research on cormorant diets. My work on the identification of fish otoliths in pellets and the quantification of cormorant diets is ongoing and will continue into the Spring of 2006.

As a lab assistant in the Post Lab, I helped graduate students with their research on other aspects of alewife biology. Several students were studying the effects of anadromous and land-locked alewives on algae, zooplankton, and other fish. For them, I served as an extra set of hands, and in return I learned a great deal about ecological research. I helped conduct night surveys of young-of-year (YOY) alewives using a 30-m purse seine and day-sampled the same lakes for zooplankton and abiotic lake profiles. I also helped monitor a mesocosm experiment in Linsley Pond where alewives were stocked into large bags so that their effects on community structure could be monitored over time.

In general, my experience in the Post Lab this summer was tremendously rewarding. Taken alone, the experience of working on my research was extremely valuable. Not only did I accomplish a great deal for my senior thesis, but I also saw what life as an ecologist is like. This experience was one that will help guide my career choices in the coming years.

Top

Investigating the Ecological Impacts of Anadromous Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) Restoration in Connecticut
Rachael Doud, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '07

For ten weeks this summer I worked with the Post Lab, exploring the potential effects of anadromous alewife restoration in Connecticut. Damming of rivers and streams has huge effects on the environment and related biological communities. One significant effect is that dams often prevent anadromous fish, which spawn in freshwater and then migrate via streams and rivers to the ocean, from leaving the freshwater lakes and ponds. Alewives from some lakes and ponds have been cut off from the ocean and have developed separate landlocked populations. Over time, landlocked alewives have become quite distinct from anadromous alewives, so much so that they may no longer even be the same species technically. Removing dams in Connecticut would restore populations of anadromous fish to environments from which they have sometimes been absent for as much as a century. Anadromous alewives would be introduced both to environments with no existing alewife population and to environments with landlocked alewives.

This summer, I was involved mainly in monitoring a mesocosm experiment in Lindsley Pond and collecting samples to be analyzed for genetic, morphological and life history data on local alewives. Field work included sampling lakes and ponds during the day, catching alewives at night, and collecting data from the mesocosm experiment.

Day sampling, which did not feel like work at all since we spent most of the time on a boat on beautiful lakes, included taking temperature and dissolved oxygen readings from the water at various depths. This data, which will be analyzed during the year, can give insight into differences between lakes with and without alewives and into changes over time in the aquatic environments. We also took water samples which were filtered and will be used to test productivity, i.e. algal growth, in the lakes. Plankton samples which we collected are used to assess the density and variety of the plankton population in the lakes. Both plankton population and algae density are closely linked to the alewife population. Algae are consumed by plankton, which are in turn the food source of alewives. Therefore, measuring algae and plankton density reveals the effect of the alewife population on the environment and differences between lakes with and without alewives,

For night sampling, we left in time to arrive at the lake at sunset. It must be dark because the alewives, which spend the day too far down in the water to be caught with our pursein net, come to the surface at night. The darkness also gave us a chance to measure the number of chaoberus, another kind of plankton, since chaoberus also come to the surface at night. We sampled two lakes per night, setting the pursein three to five times per lake. We counted the number of alewives caught in each set to determine the size of the alewife population and took some alewives for samples. The samples will be analyzed during the year to determine their diets and size distribution as well as genetic differences between landlocked and anadromous alewives. When we first started sampling in the beginning of the summer, the alewives had just hatched. Landlocked alewives tend to hatch a couple of weeks after anadromous alewives, so the landlocked alewives in particular were so small that it was difficult to catch them. It was interesting to observe the growth of the alewives over the summer. The growth rate seemed to be particularly affected by temperature. The alewives were unusually small in the beginning of the summer, during a cold spell, and grew very quickly once the weather became hotter.

The mesocosm experiment was initially supposed to include both anadromous and landlocked alewives. It was performed in Lindsley Pond, which currently has no alewives but will have anadromous alewives after dams are removed. Alewives caught in one lake with an anadromous population and one lake with a landlocked population were to be placed in bags in the pond. The bags were originally filled with water from the pond. We monitored the conditions in the bags for a few weeks before introducing alewives to determine the conditions. After alewives were introduced to the bags, we would be able to determine the effect that the alewives had on the environment and any difference in the effect of anadromous and landlocked alewives. The most pronounced difference was expected to be in which plankton the alewives ate. Landlocked alewives tend to be significantly smaller and are therefore expected to eat smaller plankton. This trend is observed in the plankton densities in the lakes. In lakes with a landlocked population, smaller plankton are depleted faster as the alewives hatch and grow.

Unfortunately, we ran into an unexpected problem which prevented the experiment from proceeding as planned. While there was no problem catching anadromous alewives and keeping them alive long enough to put them in the bags, the landlocked alewives died almost immediately after being caught. We experimented by adding salt and keeping them cooler to reduce shock and adding a chemical to remove their waste, which we thought might be poisoning the fish. These attempts were to no avail, however, and the plan for the experiment had to be revised. This glitch and the solution which we developed to deal with it was one of the most interesting and educational experiences of my summer. We ended up performing the experiment with different numbers of anadromous alewives in different bags. While we were not able to contrast the effects of anadromous and landlocked alewives on the bag environments, we were able to analyze the effect of anadromous alewife density. The conditions in the bags became very different due to different numbers of alewives.

Our failure to keep landlocked alewives alive also prevented Eric and me from performing an experiment which we had planned in the aquarium. We were going to observe landlocked and anadromous alewives in the tanks and measure the difference in the plankton they consumed. As Eric said, though, part of being a biologist is developing many experiments in case some of them don’t work out. Fortunately, the alewife project has many components and the failure of one was disappointing but not devastating to the project.

The data that we collected this summer suggested that landlocked and anadromous alewives are very distinct from each other. Their sizes are very different, and landlocked alewives were much more fragile and difficult to keep alive outside of their natural environment. Based on the plankton which we found in the lakes, anadromous alewives tend to eat larger plankton. Based on the differences between anadromous and landlocked alewives, lakes which now have landlocked alewives would be drastically affected by the introduction of anadromous alewives once dams are removed. The anadromous alewives, which are bigger and heartier and spawn earlier, might out compete the landlocked alewives or even eat the immature landlocked alewives. It certainly seems very unlikely that anadromous and landlocked alewives will spawn together. Lakes which now have no alewives but will have anadromous alewives after dams are removed face different but also very significant change. Once alewives are introduced, depending on the number introduced, they will wipe out a significant portion of the plankton population. The results of the mesocosm experiment made this evident. Bags with a significant number of alewives were very quickly depleted of plankton. This will in turn affect other fish in the lakes and the algae growth and alter the entire food structure of the environment. Analysis of the rest of the data we gathered this summer will provide more insight into the potential impact of alewife restoration. DNA analysis of the alewife samples we collected will give conclusive evidence as to the actual genetic difference between landlocked and anadromous alewives.

I learned a lot this summer and really enjoyed working at the Post Lab. Most valuably, I was able to experience the process of developing experiments, collecting data, analyzing it, and dealing with any problems that arise. I also learned important techniques for sampling, which was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to be so involved in the lab’s project. Also, I would like to look more into the effects of temperature on the rate of fish maturation in the future. I truly enjoyed the summer and feel that I got a lot out of my work. I would certainly recommend taking advantage of the Environmental Internship Program to other students.

Top

Introduction of Higher-Yield Rice Farming Methods to the Philippines
Sara Enders, Geology & Geophysics '06

I visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Baños in the Philippines as an “International Scholar/Intern.” My work focused on an investigation of community based irrigation system management in conjunction with the transfer of technology for water savings in rice production at the site of a newly installed deep-well groundwater pump on a hillside at Canarem. I was interested in how a switch to controlled irrigation (CI) from the practice of continuous submergence would differently impact farmers with fields under conditions of different topography and hydrology. In particular, I was interested in the relationship between farmers’ irrigation practice and their elevation on the hillside. The slope of the hill appeared to impose an “upstream-downstream” relationship of neighboring farmers’ fields. I was curious about the extent to which “downstream” farmers’ fields might be recipients of irrigation water and nutrients via seepage from “upstream” farmers’ fields, and whether such a relationship would be reflected in patterns of decision making with regard to irrigation and fertilizer application to the fields. Understanding the dynamics of water and nutrient flux in Canarem farmers’ fields is particularly important in light of two characteristics of the Canarem site: 1) Farmers’ recent adoption of CI and 2) Farmers’ collective organization in the form of an Irrigation Service Cooperative (ISC) established according to the principle of that the costs and benefits of the water supplied from the deep well groundwater pump be equitably shared by the membership. If there was significant exchange of water and nutrients between fields across the elevation gradient, the adoption of CI could be expected to change the content of such fluxes (in the form of less water and different constituents of nutrients due to changes in the oxidation-reduction potential of the soil). If this resulted in some farmers receiving greater benefits than others from either CI or membership in the ISC, this could have implications for the long-term viability of either one of these at Canarem.

To address these questions I made use of data on physical field conditions and social demographics of the farmers available at the National Irrigation Administration branch headquarters in Tarlac, my interviews with farmers at the field site, and irrigation scheduling records obtained from the logbooks of the pump operator. These I used to perform spatial analysis of decisions with regard to quantity and timing of crop irrigation. Decision making with regard to fertilizer use I analyzed anecdotally. While some spatial patterns were apparent, I think this analysis is potentially of most use as a baseline from which to compare changes in decision making as farmers practice CI for years to come.

I found my summer research experience to be an extremely valuable one, and IRRI to be particularly well suited to my goals for my summer project.

Top

Identifying the Origin of Captive Galapagos Tortoises: Implication for the Interactive In Situ / Ex Situ Conservation Management
Miles Farmer, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '07

I spent this summer working on conservation genetics projects at the Caccone lab at Yale. Although I originally applied to the Environmental Studies Internship to go further with research on Galápagos tortoises I had been doing during the school year, I actually spent most of my summer doing work on the highly endangered Amur tiger.

The Amur tiger, scientifically known as Panthera tigris altaica has been reduced to a small population of about 700-800 individuals. Their range, which once extended through northeast China, Korea, and most of the Russian far east has now been reduced to a much smaller area of about 150,000 square kilometers in only Russia. This reduction was due to a combination of human caused problems. Rising human populations in their natural range caused a large amount of habitat destruction. In addition, many tigers were poached, and cubs were stolen and put into circuses and zoos around the world. At their most vulnerable state, it is estimated that only 20-30 Amur tigers remained. Due to a variety of protective legislation imposed to protect the dwindling population, Amur tigers have managed a successful rebound during the second half of the twentieth century, increasing to their current numbers. However, because of the bottleneck they have passed through, the genetic diversity of the wild population was greatly decreased.

The purpose of my research project was to measure the impact this reduction has had on the tigers at a genomic level. In order to do this, I sequenced the mitochondrial control region of their DNA for as many tigers from the wild population as possible. This helps to give a better estimate of their genetic diversity. In addition, the project aims to gather genotypic data for many microsatellites so as to refine this estimate. This data will then also be gathered for the captive population of tigers, and compared to that of the wild population. The majority of captive tigers were captured before the large bottleneck, so it is currently thought that the captive population is probably more diverse than the wild population, but the degree to which this is so is unknown. In addition, the project aims to get a more accurate measure of the sex ratio of tigers in the wild population.

In order to sequence their mitochondrial control region, I extracted DNA from scat, which was collected throughout the range and shipped to our lab from Siberia. I then amplified the DNA using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequenced the samples for which amplification was successful. This proved difficult because scat contains a large array of inhibitors which make it difficult for the PCR to function. In order to achieve the highest success rate possible the PCR had to be optimized. The reaction was attempted many different times. Each time I adjusted a different parameter until the success rate of the reaction was acceptable. In order to optimize the reaction, I used different combinations of reagents, adjusting the amounts of BSA, MgCl2, primer and TAQ polymerase. I also varied the temperatures at which the reaction took place, as well as the number of cycles and time per cycle which the reaction went through.

In addition to the inconsistent quality of the DNA due to inhibitors in the scat, it was also difficult to sequence the individuals because in order to obtain the entire sequence, I had to sequence three separate fragments and then assemble them. This meant that sequences could only be obtained for individuals for whom the PCR worked for all three fragments. After all these complications, sequences were obtained for ~60% of individuals.

There is still much work to be done on the tigers. Although DNA has been extracted for as many of the wild individuals as possible, not all of these have been sequenced for the mitochondrial control region. In addition, data needs to be gathered for the microsatellites. The sex also still needs to be identified using molecular methods. In addition, none of the captive population has been measured. This summer we sent out collection tubes to all of the zoos in the US that house Amur tigers. As soon as they send back the scat samples for analysis, further work can be done.

Overall, the Environmental Studies Internship helped me to gain experience working in a biology lab. I learned a lot about conservation genetics and was also able to further conservation efforts for the Amur tiger.

Top

American Indian and Colonial Human Ecology in Tidewater Virginia
Shani Harmon, Environmental Studies / Anthropology '06

In anticipation of my senior essay, I completed a summer research project examining the climatic and ecological changes in Tidewater Virginia from the arrival of American Indians in the region until 1800, the end of the colonial period in United States history. I researched the ecological and climatic factors that led American Indians to select tidewater Virginia as location for settlement and subsequent American Indian land use. Then, I examined the period of American Indian expansion and ecological as well as factors that may have led to the prominence of the Pamunkey Tribe, and in particular their leader Powhatan, that led to the unification of tidewater tribes into the Powhatan Confederacy. Finally, I researched the period of colonial invasion and settlement by Europeans, looking for factors that may have made the Powhatan Confederacy susceptible to European invasion and a subsequent collapse of civilization. While disease and European firearms definitely played a huge role in the demise of the Powhatan Confederacy and the success of Europeans in settling in Virginia, I wanted to examine climatic and ecological stresses as well as the spatial locations of American Indian civilizations and European settlements on the landscape of Virginia that may have contributed to downfall of the Powhatan Confederation.

The Environmental Studies Summer Research Fellowship enabled me to travel to Virginia to do some research first-hand rather than rely on secondary sources. During my research trip I visited the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). With the Assistance of Angela Haggins, I was able to take advantage of the grey literature on research projects done by SERC, the United States Geological Survey Chesapeake Bay Science Program, the state of Virginia, and a variety of research institutions. Among other topics of interest, I was able to gather data on Holocene climate variability of the Chesapeake Bay, abrupt climate changes associated with the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, paleosalinity trends and early Holocene sea-level rise and origin in the Chesapeake Bay, and archaeological records on early American Indian occupation of the Chesapeake region.

I also visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian in the interest of historical, archaeological and anthropological resources. The trip to the Smithsonian museums allowed me to observe archaeological artifacts of Powhatan civilization firsthand noting their radiocarbon dates, the location in which they were found, and the period of Powhatan civilization to which they correlated. I was also able to gather information about geological periods, in particular the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs and correlating fossil records.

I also traveled to the Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia’s reservation on my summer research trip. On the reservation, I visited the Pamunkey Museum. The Pamunkey Indian Museum had numerous artifacts from different periods of Powhatan civilization as well as the results of the archaeological experiment in Werecomoco in the 1970’s when a Late Woodland settlement was simulated so that the Pamunkey Tribe and archaeologists could gain insight into how the Powhatan of the sixteenth century lived. I was also able to observe the ecology and landscape of the region once ruled by the Powhatan Confederacy.

Finally, I visited the Jamestown Rediscovery Center on my trip to Virginia. The Jamestown Rediscovery Center is managed by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The Jamestown Rediscovery Center is located on the actual site of Jamestown. The Jamestown Rediscovery Center renewed excavations of Jamestown sites in 1994 that continue today. The Jamestown Rediscovery Center is also in the process of historically recreating the settlement of Jamestown in anticipation of the four-hundredth anniversary of the creation of Jamestown in 2007. Visiting the Jamestown Rediscovery Center allowed me to get a firsthand account of the archaeological excavations at Jamestown, the ecology and geological setting of Jamestown, and a history of the colonial settlement.

Top

Alternative Strategies for Sustaining Tropical Ecosystems: School for Field Studies Course in Costa Rica
Caroline Howe, Environmental Engineering '07

Thanks to the Environmental Studies Internship, I was able to spend the summer in many parts of Costa Rica investigating the varied approaches to conservation used across the country and examining their effectiveness. This study began in Atenas, in central Costa Rica, where I studied for a month with the School for Field Studies, in a college credit course that focused on parks and reserves and the varying levels of effectiveness that they meet. We visited three of the largest National Parks and conducted interviews not only with tourists and park rangers inside the parks, but also the residents of “gateway” communities. For these individuals, their ways of life have been transformed by the flow of thousands of foreigners through their towns without stopping to give back to these communities. Such interviews provided an excellent framework for looking at alternative aspects of conservation, as fencing in an area and calling it a “reserve” is certainly not the only, or the most effective, approach to ecosystem protection.

With the School for Field Studies, I also did independent research on the trapping of the black-faced solitaire, a songbird that is kept in captivity in many Costa Rican homes for its metallic call. This tradition was legal for many years, as long as birders kept no more than two birds in their homes. Though there has been no scientific study to date about bird populations, officials suspected higher levels of poaching of late, so the capture of such birds was made illegal in January. Despite this, even the rural police expected to enforce these laws were not made aware of the changes, and the birders now caught have no idea that they are breaking the law. We conducted interviews with biologists, police, bird-owners, and government officials to see how to improve the situation as well as the relations between government and communities.

Following this, I aided in one of the many conservation programs in Costa Rica, and investigated the growing popularity of conservation or volunteer tourism. ANAI works with local communities and international volunteers to protect turtle eggs from poaching. Until the project’s beginning, at least 90% of all eggs were poached in a species whose natural survival rates are between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 from egg to reproductive individual. I was able to help collect the eggs of a leatherback turtle, recreate a nest inside a 24-hour guarded hatchery and move these eggs inside it. I was able to watch leatherback, green, and Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings find their way to the ocean.

Farther down on the same beach, two permaculture farms were established, also relying on the support and work of international volunteers. Punta Mona is a self-sustaining farm which looks more like a true forest than typical row crop agriculture. Pinapples grow under the shade of plantain trees, and at least 20 types of bananas are harvested from trees around the property. Birds nest in the trees and share the fruits and flowers with the farmers, while Blue Morpho butterflies fly overhead. Howler monkeys shriek in the distance, enjoying the neighboring secondary forest, protected by Punta Mona and the local communities. At any given time, around 30 men and women from all over the world (I met people from American universities, Puerto Rico, France, and England) live together in a community where breakfast is harvested before eating it and where the chocolate is made by hand. Punta Mona is completely off the grid, running totally on solar power and using composting toilets. Money is brought in not only by the volunteers to pay to participate in this small-scale sustainability, but also by tourists and school groups who come for lunch and a tour, or to use their snorkeling gear to explore the reef.

I left the black sand beaches of the Caribbean coast for the northern cloud forest. Monteverde, well-known for its biological diversity and role in many ecological discoveries, sits atop a winding, unpaved, treacherous road, left in such a condition despite improvements in transit all over the country. Residents of the area protest against any proposals to fix the road, as they know their community, already saturated with tourists and the businesses that provide for them, would be overwhelmed by the influx if roads were to improve. Despite, or because of, the money entering this town to visit its natural resources, many entrepreneurs and residents have realized the direct economic benefit that can come from protection of rainforest areas.

While there, I worked at the Cloud Forest School, an bilingual environmental school for local children, 75% of whom are on partial or complete scholarship. Environmental education and appreciation are a part of the curriculum from pre-school up through 11th grade. Students became aware not only of the biology surrounding them in class hikes through their 220-acre campus, but learned practical skills to protect it. The campus was, up until 20 years ago, a dairy farm, yet over a third of the area was protected as primary cloud forest, much is secondary growth, and now the 25% that remains as fields is being reforested by students and volunteers. I worked primarily on these projects, helping each grade plot their own reforestation area, learn about the trees and which animals would benefit from each, plant their trees, conduct measurements weekly to assess tree growth. I also worked in the native plant gardens, not only selecting appropriate plants for each bed, but also creating labels and educational materials to make the gardens not only aesthetically pleasing, but also educationally beneficial for the students and community members. I also helped students manage the vermiculture system, which helped to compost all food waste from the school, which has a no-waste policy, which means that students bring no packaged food to school and carry everything in reusable containers, making the only waste this compostable material.

While in Monteverde, I was also able to visit a variety of renewable energy systems. I met with the engineers at a hotel powered completely by three small wind turbines and a large upscale resort where hot water in all of the showers and jacuzzis comes from solar water-heating panels. I was able to visit a small farm where methane gas from animal waste is captured and used for all home heating and electricity needs, and discuss the feasibility of implementing this with other farmers. I also spent an afternoon at a women’s cooperative where all of Monteverde’s paper wastes are recycled into thick paper used for envelopes and bags for purchases in many of the town’s abundant art stores. I visited many farms in the surrounding areas, and saw the inner workings of agricultural cooperatives to see their strengths and weaknesses. Living with an incredible local family in the town allowed me to understand the Costa Rican way of life, and without considering and recognizing cultural ideals and priorities, sustainable change is impossible. I was able to discuss their views of development, environment, and general life, which was a truly phenomenal aspect of my experience.

Overall, my time in Costa Rica was truly revelatory. I was able to explore so many different aspects and approaches to conservation and sustainability, and could never have done it without the Environmental Studies Fellowship. The lessons I learned about natural resource management and personal action were invaluable intellectually and emotionally. Most importantly, I was able to witness the sustainability initiatives that developed out of grassroots knowledge, community needs, forward thinking and joint decision-making rather than out of a textbook or a governmental policy. I cannot thank the Environmental Studies department enough for allowing me the chance to have such an experience.

Top

The Environment, Economics, and Ecuador: Internship with the Nature Conservancy in Quito, Ecuador
Charles Iaconangelo, History '07

I volunteered with a grassroots conservation organization, Cerro Seco. The organization was founded and has its headquarters in Canoa, a tiny town along the coast of Ecuador. Canoa, along with the two neighboring cities of Bahia de Caraquez and San Vincente, are burgeoning tourist attractions, for both Ecuadorians and foreigners. Canoa is home to beautiful beaches, mangrove swamps, and tropical dry and rain forests. The diversity of geography, and the unspoiled flora and fauna make it an increasingly popular tourist destination. The goal of Cerro Secco’s founder and director, Marcelo Luque, is to preserve the towns and surrounding countryside, before they become overrun with restaurants and hotels. Essentially, Marcelo’s goal is to establish “eco-cities” that are both economically profitable and environmentally friendly.

To this end, our program organized a recycling program among the store, restaurant, and hotel owners, whereby compostables, recyclables, and trash would be separated. The trash would be collected normally, while the bottles and cans would be collected by a special company that would recycle these products. The compost would be collected by our organization and shipped to the countryside, where it would be used as fertilizer, thus replacing environmentally-unfriendly chemicals. Eventually, this recycling program will expand to include the entire town’s population. The hotel and restaurant owners would then be able to advertise their environmentally-friendly practices to customers, thereby creating good-will and more business.

In the past 25 years, the coast of Ecuador has lost a great deal of its mangrove swamps due to the creation of shrimp farms. This aquaculture was harmful to the environment, and fortunately a great deal of it has ceased to operate, giving local activists the opportunity to take back the land, and conduct an extensive reforestation project. Marcelo (and I) began a reforestation project by first building a greenhouse with netting to protect the seeds from the free-ranging chickens (not for the weather) and then sprouted thousands of mangrove seeds in tubs of ocean water. The local schoolchildren would then visit the center several times a week and Marcelo, several volunteers, and I, would take walks and plant the seedlings.

In the process, Marcelo and the volunteers would instruct the children on the ecology of the region, and why it was important to protect the natural resources that Ecuador has in such great abundance. In fact, this may have been the most important part of the entire project; we were essentially imbuing an entire generation of kids in these towns with a sense of the value of nature. Working to protect the environment will be an exercise in futility if the community does not support and help your efforts. The weekly seminars in the local high schools worked towards this end, but the real effects took place in the minds of the young children who learned what and how a whale ate by listening to Marcelo explain the diagrams on a poster. These kids would eagerly absorb any and all information we provided to them about the environment of their local region. These schoolboys and girls will one day be fighting to protect the valuable eco-systems of the coast of Ecuador, and thus our organization invested a great deal of time in teaching and training them.

Of course, these same kids who were eager to preserve the ecosystem at age 10 would be willing to pave over it by age 20 if it meant the difference between having a job and going without. My original goal in going down to do environmental work was to learn how environmental organizations balanced the competing interests of protecting the environment, and exploiting natural resources for the economic benefit of the local people. Marcelo’s approach was simple: don’t compromise. There was no balance. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it is possible to align the best interests of business and the environment through the creation of eco-tourism. The jungle tours are a good example of how revenue streams can be created in environmentally-friendly ways. For example, land owners used to clear-cut their jungle land in order for cattle to graze. Though this is more profitable than allowing the jungle to remain undisturbed, we must remember the aesthetic and novel sights found in the jungle, things that tourists are willing to pay for. One such animal is the Howler Monkey. Marcelo persuaded the hacienda owners to cut only small paths through the jungle, and to allow him and the local farmers to lead groups of tourists on day trips in the forest to see the wildlife. Part of this fee went to the land owners, and the rest went to the guides. This was a vastly more profitable business than cattle-grazing, and yet it was nearly entirely environmentally safe.

What this experience taught me, then, was that the economic progress of the country is not a simple balancing of the pros and cons of exploitation versus preservation. Progress does not occur in a vacuum; there are existing systems of production, and these are almost always environmentally-unfriendly. Damage is already being done the environment. Change is therefore not something to be carefully weighed and considered, but rather something to be pursued aggressively and implemented immediately. The key is, the existing systems of food production and income are so inefficient that most well-thought out alternatives will make sense to implement from everyone’s point of view.

Another assumption I held that was subsequently changed due to my time in Ecuador refers to money. People generally assume that in order for an environmental organization to create any meaningful change it has to have significant resources such as money and political leverage. Working for Cerro Seco and Marcelo taught me the opposite, that in fact a few determined people can have a tremendous impact on their local communities and cities, even without the benefit of a supportive government or funding. Although it is possible that a strong government would have aided the environmental movement by enforcing environmental regulations and laws, it is just as likely that the wealthy elements of society would have used the government apparatus as a mechanism of control.

Before I left, I gave serious consideration to becoming an environmental lawyer and working to help these organizations in their operations, especially in extending their reach into foreign countries. Yet what this trip taught me was that because there is no government, you don’t need bureaucrats and lawyers and politicians. These countries have men and women dedicated to preserving the precious ecosystems, and although they are successful without any funding, if the large donations could be broken apart and given, even in small amounts, to these grassroots organizations, their effectiveness would show a tremendous leap. The local environmental groups have the understanding of the local government that is needed to enact real change, and so I am not advocating that large organizations swallow up these smaller ones. However, if I were able to serve as an intermediary between people who wanted to donate money for preserving the environment, and the grassroots organizations that are coming up with innovative ways to do it, I believe I would be fulfilling a vital role in the struggle against the destruction of nature. This trip has made me more knowledgeable about what exactly are the problems the international environmental movement faces; and in the future, while at Yale and abroad, I’d like to see if I can act on what I’ve learned. In general, I would recommend working for Marcelo and his program to anyone who is a little more adventurous and is willing to be more of an environmental entrepreneur and innovator rather than hold a desk job. The experience you will get working with the people of these towns will change your perspective and perhaps even your goals in life.

Top

Study of Ecology of Leatherback Turtles and Monitor Predation of their Nests by Mongooses with the Sea Turtle Conservation Group on Vieques, Puerto Rico
Dawn Lippert, Environmental Studies '06

I spent my summer on Vieques, a remote island off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. Vieques is home to a dozen threatened and endangered species, and the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is responsible for their management. Just two years ago the Navy bequeathed its land to the FWS in a hotly contested deal that was the culmination of decades of local protests and civil disobedience. Thus the largest Refuge is the Caribbean was formed, and although it is only two years old its staff has many law enforcement and Navy cleanup responsibilities in addition to species management. The island serves as a nesting ground for four endangered sea turtle species. One of the island’s endangered species is the leatherback sea turtle. I spent the summer studying Vieques’ leatherback nests with FWS biologists and local residents who have created a volunteer group dedicated to turtle tracking and conservation.

The turtle conservation case on Vieques is notable both for its resemblance to similar sea turtle nesting sites throughout the Caribbean and for its uniqueness. No other turtle nesting site was subject to U.S. Navy maneuvers and test bombing for over half a century, just as no other island has been free of infrastructural development on almost all of its nesting beaches. Only one of Vieques’ Beaches, Sun Bay, has showers, a campground, and other tourism amenities that have sprung up along most of the Caribbean’s soft, wide beaches favored by humans and leatherback turtles alike.

I originally planned to carry out an ecological experiment measuring the impact of mongoose predation on leatherback hatchling success. Mongooses are not native to Vieques but have thrived on the island since their introduction a hundred years ago. However, a severe tropical storm in the first days of July ripped almost all of Vieques’ sea turtle eggs out of the sand and left flooded, ragged beaches in its path. The storm did not spare the eggs that were the subjects of my predation experiment, so in the wake of this devastating event my research expanded into a comprehensive study of the threats to sea turtles on Vieques and the management strategy being practiced.

Top

The Effects of Intraspecific Population Variation of Interspecific Ecosystem Interactions: A Class Study of Generalist Grasshoppers (Melanopus femurrubrum) in Yale-Myers Forest
Charlie Liu, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '06

The original plan for my summer research was to collect additional data on intraspecific variation among grasshopper populations from fields with different vegetation. Specifically, I performed a common garden experiment in which I collected grasshoppers from two different fields, and put them in cages housing different types of vegetation in a third "common garden" field. This study on the whole went according to plan and showed very clear differences in population survivorship between grasshoppers from the two different fields when placed in cages with different vegetation types. A series of rains sent many of the caged grasshoppers into hiding during the first two weeks of the census, and I stocked several more cages out of concern that my first batch had died off significantly. Luckily, better weather in subsequent weeks brought the grasshoppers out of hiding, so the experiment yielded useful results. The numbers for the second trial unfortunately proved too small, and the populations in those cages died off too soon to give statistically meaningful data trendlines of any sort. Fortunately, the first batch came through and yielded very statistically meaningful data, which over the course of this coming semester I intend to analyze in the context of scientific literature on the subject. This will hopefully yield some insights worth elaborating as part of my senior essay and possibly a paper for publication in scientific journals.

The original plan to measure mouthparts of grasshoppers raised in cages after the experiment was in retrospect not well thought out, as dead grasshoppers (and most of the grasshoppers died over the course of the experiment, as expected, due to food scarcity and other less clearly defined natural causes) tend to decompose hidden under the grass and forbs and are quickly unavailable for measurement. On the other hand, the grasshopper collection from different fields of varying vegetation composition surpassed the original plan's expectations. I managed to get over five hundred grasshoppers total, more or less distributed between all five developmental instars and adults and ten different fields with vegetation compositions ranging from fourteen to ninety-seven percent grass. Throughout this semester, I intend to measure the mouthpart dimensions on the entire collection and look for correlations between grasshopper mouthpart shape and field of origin, and if any exist, the instar stage of development at which grasshopper populations from different fields diverge. This will be the core of my senior essay and hopefully, if the data shows a meaningful trend, yield a publishable paper.

In addition to collecting data to analyze for my senior essay, this summer was my first experience pursuing independent ecological research in the field. I found I spent proportionately less time casually hiking and looking at interesting things than I expected. I spent much more time looking at interesting things and worrying about how to wring meaningful data out of the situation and account for/try to "normalize" the numerous environmental effects that exist in the real world. Most importantly, I learned that Nature will, sooner or later, disturb the experiment, and that a researcher must quickly learn to be thoroughly prepared, flexible, and dedicated for the experiment to stand a chance. The experience has given me an understanding of some frustrations and rewards of ecological fieldwork that even firsthand accounts from other field ecologists have not.

I have followed up my research so far by performing a feeding rate experiment with adults from two different field types and a dandelion forb and poa grass. I am also about to resume measurements of the grasshoppers I collected over the summer. I am currently enrolled in a molecular systematics lab this term, and there may be potential for DNA analysis of the grasshoppers I've collected by population, as they have all been preserved in the freezer. If the data consistently shows significant differences between the populations, as the population data from the common garden experiment already has, a possible project to follow up with next summer would be to perform the recent batch of feeding trials on grasshoppers at all stages of development from multiple fields to gain more quantitative insights into the effects of different levels of grass composition on a population's local niche.

Top

Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Italy: How Science and Policy Connect to Address Environmental Degradation
Ariane Lotti, Environmental Studies '06

Industrial agriculture impacts the environment through practices that pollute ecosystems, decrease biodiversity, cause soil erosion, rely on fossil fuels, and disrupt nutrient cycles. In its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Union (EU) has concluded that industrial agriculture is economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. The EU is moving away from a solely production-oriented agriculture towards one that meets environmental standards and plays a role in maintaining rural communities and landscapes. This summer, I worked in Florence in a Department of Agronomy and Land Management at the Università di Firenze that studies the impact of agriculture on the environment through the use of indicators. While I was in Florence, I focused on data collection for insect and plant biodiversity indicators as well as on the analysis of pesticide risks posed by different farms. I also learned how to assess indicators of soil erosion, nutrient leaching/run-off, and hedge and landscape biodiversity. Once agricultural sustainability is measured and quantitatively defined, policies can be designed that decrease the negative environmental impacts of industrial agriculture based on scientific information. The Department works with the regional government (the entity that implements the EU’s CAP in Italy) to develop environmental scorecards and standards that farmers wishing to receive subsidy payments will have to meet in the future. In addition to data collection and analysis, I attended conferences and workshops about the new policies and their implications for the region of Tuscany. I also interviewed farmers to test a survey that I am still developing.

There are many opportunities in Europe to work on issues of agricultural sustainability, and I recommend that students interested in how a community of industrialized states is addressing the environmental impacts of agriculture spend time in a school of agriculture in Europe. The EU CAP reforms are breaking away from traditional production-oriented agricultural policy to include issues of sustainability, rural development, and globalization, making this an interesting time to study policy and the science behind it. Italy is also a country with a rich and diverse agricultural history and landscape, which adds complexity to the definition and implementation of the reforms.

With the advent of industrial agriculture in the 20th century, farming practices have intensified their impact on and destruction of the environment. Industrial agriculture, through its heavy input of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, pollutes waterways and ecosystems, communities and states. These chemicals are applied to monocultures (one-crop systems) that not only decrease crop biodiversity but also present a food security risk; if a pathogen or pest attacks a monoculture, there is a higher chance that the entire crop will be lost. Heavy machinery is used to work and harvest the fields, and many fossil fuels are consumed. Fossil fuels are also burned in the transportation of food from one place to another – California supplies the Northeast with produce, especially in the winter, and we are no longer surprised to eat food that is out of season locally. Along with unsustainable environmental consequences, industrial agriculture can also have negative social and economic impacts on farming communities and regions by displacing smaller farmers and increasing the production costs through the need to buy heavy machinery and chemical products.

The European Union (EU) has recognized the undesirable and unsustainable aspects of industrial agriculture, and has started to move away from a solely production-oriented agriculture to one that views agriculture as playing a vital role in the economy, environment, culture, and natural landscape of a country. Recently, the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has specifically included measures to safeguard the environment and maintain rural communities. With the CAP’s Agenda 2000 and then its mid-term review in 2003, EU agricultural policy is establishing new standards for farmers receiving subsidy payments. One of the terms of the new policy is “cross-compliance,” which states that in order to receive payments farmers throughout the EU will have to meet a minimum environmental standard to be determined by the EU countries and regions.

A policy such as cross-compliance requires nations to come up with ways to accurately measure environmental sustainability of farms. The Dipartimento di Scienze Agronomiche e Gestione del Territorio Agroforestale (Department of Agronomy and Land Management) at the school of agriculture of the University of Florence, where I interned this summer, has been measuring the environmental sustainability of farms throughout Tuscany and the rest of Italy by using indicators. The department is working with the government to come up with environmental scorecards for farms that wish to receive subsidy payments under the new CAP reforms.

There are numerous environmental indicators that are used to measure the state and sustainability of a farm system, including indices of herbaceous plants, arboreal plants, and hedge biodiversity; animal and insect biodiversity; water quality and use; soil organic matter and erosion; pesticide pollution; and nitrogen and phosphorous leaching/run-off. During the month of June, I worked with the researchers in the department on the collection and analysis of herbaceous plants and on the collection of the insects. We collected the plant samples from three farms – one organic, one conventional, and one in conversion from conventional to organic – in the Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany. We collected all of the non-crop specimens present in randomly selected areas with an area of 25cm x 25cm or 50cm x 50cm at regular intervals. This method was also used to collect samples from an organic farm in Montepaldi, just outside of Florence, where fields had been following specific crop rotations. The plants were identified either in the lab or out in the field, and then dried, weighed, and analyzed for their macronutrient contents.

The insect collection occurred on the three farms in the Val d’Orcia mentioned above. The insect traps had been placed at regular intervals throughout the field and near the field edges in order to determine the effects of different types of borders and crops on the abundance of insects (specifically, from the Carabidae family).The insect identification was done by entomologists.

During the month of July, I concentrated my efforts on learning the indicator methodology used in a project that evaluated twelve farms throughout Italy, three of which were in the Val d’Elsa region of Tuscany. When I arrived in the department at the end of May, the department had just finished work on several projects, one of which analyzed the economic, social, and environmental aspects of a dozen farms. The project report focused only on the biodiversity indicators for reasons of funding, and I was given the task of calculating the pesticide risk indicator for the three farms in Tuscany.

The Environmental Potential Risk Indicator for Pesticides (EPRIP) was developed by professors at the Institute of Environmental and Agricultural Chemistry of the Università del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza. The inputs require active ingredient data of the specific pesticide, soil data, climate data, drainage system data, and crop data for each pesticide applied to each crop on each farm. The output is a value that assigns a relative risk to the use of pesticides on a farm by calculating all of the individual risks of each pesticide on each field. The calculation of this indicator took me two solid weeks of work, as well as a trip up to Piacenza to meet with one of the professors who created the program. The results of my calculations, although not surprising (the organic farm had the lowest risk while the conventional one had the highest) do provide a way to compare the relative risk posed by farms, as well as to understand how that relative risk would change with an increase, decrease, or change in the use of pesticides.

I calculated EPRIP for three farms – La Sorbigliana (organic), Poggio ai Grilli (integrated), and I Renai (conventional) – that grow mainly grapes for wine and olives for olive oil. I was able to visit the farms and understand how other indicators were calculated, including hedge biodiversity, soil erosion, nitrogen leaching, and diversity of the landscape.

Beyond measuring agricultural sustainability, my research question focuses on attempting to determine the factors that influence a farmer’s decisions whether to follow more sustainable practices or not. In order to discover what drives a change in behavior, or lack thereof, I started drafting a survey that focused on pesticide use because I had calculated EPRIP. I interviewed the three farmers whose farms I had studied and will need to revise my survey because the questions do not reveal what causes behavioral and attitude changes concerning agricultural practices and the role that policy plays in making those changes. The conversations I had with the farmers, however, were each unique and fascinating and did show that farmers think about issues of environmental degradation and have clear ideas about the role of industrial agriculture in changing the Tuscan landscape.

My two-month stay in Florence in the school of agriculture was productive, interesting, and meaningful. The people in the department were very helpful and willing to teach me indicator methodology and to discuss current issues in the changing agricultural policy. I was also able to attend several conferences and workshops that focused on the development of the Italian terms of the CAP’s cross-compliance as well as Tuscany’s efforts as a region to be more environmentally sound in its energy consumption. It was also interesting to be in Italy this summer because the EU’s agricultural policy is taking steps to enter the global agricultural market while trying to save its rural economies and landscapes, and no one really knows how European agriculture is going to change as a result.

The research I did this summer enables me to answer the first question that will form the basis of my senior research project in the Environmental Studies major. Being able to measure and define sustainability in agriculture allows me now to ask why certain farmers choose certain practices over others and what changes behavior so that sustainability in agriculture becomes the norm instead of an exception.

Top

Communication, Persuasion, and Behavioral Change
Jasmine Low, Environmental Studies '06

During my study at Yale I developed an interest in researching the question: Does information about the state of the environment affect human behavior, and if so, how? This summer the Environment Studies internship has provided me with great opportunities to combine two critical factors that drive people’s actions, that is, their psychology and attitude toward the environment.

“Consequences” is defined in the dictionary as “something that logically or naturally follows from an action or condition”. Hence, what can be logically or naturally beneficial or harmful to the health of the environment is the result of our actions or behavior. Are we conscious about that? And, what hinders our willingness, concern, and ability to preserve the environment?

This summer I spent 3 weeks as an intern at Urban Resources Initiative (URI) and 5 weeks as an intern at Pace Center Psychology Department at Yale University to learn appropriate skills to help prepare me to do research on these questions.

At URI, I was involved in The Urban Ecology Collaborative Multi-City Environmental Education Program Providers Inventory (UEC). UEC endeavors to build a healthy urban ecosystem for urban neighborhoods. UEC promotes and cultivates urban environmental appreciation between human and non-human ecology in the city. The Multi-City Environmental Education Inventory is one activity currently being undertaken by the UEC partner organizations.

According to UEC’s stated project objectives, “The purpose of this inventory is to paint a vivid and comprehensive picture of the programs and resources available for environmental education in the six UEC cities in order to help organizations improve and expand their environmental education programming.”

My tasks involved calling and meeting representatives of organizations that provide urban environmental education, conducting surveys and interviews, collecting and entering data, and assessing the efficacy of the survey questions. My experience has greatly broadened my views on human perception of the environment. For example, experts in the environmental field have different needs, strength, and experience. Thus, it is important that we are able to recognize, develop, and communicate those areas among the environmental expertise. In addition, understanding the barriers that prevent people from caring for the environment can help these environmental organizations to better design their environmental programs to overcome the resistance towards caring for the environment. Understanding this will influence how I will refine my research and the design of the questionnaires to better understand the human interests and values that ultimately affect behavior toward both urban and natural environments.

The following five weeks, I worked on the “Transition in the Development of Giftedness” study at the Psychology Department PACE Center of Yale University. The goal of the department’s research is to “assess the factors that lead to success in transitions of giftedness” (Sternberg and Grigorenko). To collect the data, the students of several participating middle schools and high schools were asked to complete a questionnaire about hobbies, English and math skills, and life goals. My task in this project was to enter and interpret data and to learn how their survey questions were designed. I also helped to design a rubric to be used in data analysis. The rubric is a list of categories for categorizing the subjects’ goals and their future plans entered on the questionnaire. The purpose of the rubric is to be able to summarize open-ended students’ responses as well as to create a quantitative scale that can be further used in statistical data analysis. I also learned about the rating process as well as the statistical analysis techniques that will be used to check the reliability of the ratings assigned to students’ goals. This analysis ensures that the rating obtained can be used for further accurate interpretation.

At PACE Center, I was mentored by Olia Stepanossova and Nadin Beckmann, two postdoctoral associates with whom I was working. Under their guidance, I have developed my own research ideas on investigating peoples’ behavior toward the environment using survey instruments.

My personal research interest is analyzing the factors that prevent people from recycling. My research focuses on the knowledge that is available to people, and their understanding of environmental principles, as well as how that knowledge affects their behavior. My experience this summer has allowed me to critically evaluate my research questions:
1. What prevents people from recycling?
2. Does information promote recycling?
3. What factors prevent people from recycling even though they may have been informed about the benefits of recycling?

Thus, my summer internship has been fruitful. It has provided me with valuable opportunities to expand my research experience. I will fully use all the skills I have learned through this internship to develop a survey instrument to better understand human behavior toward the environment so that we can foster a healthier and sustainable environment for both human and wildlife.

I would highly recommend doing an Environmental Studies Internship to any student who is interested in developing practical research techniques and experience. I enjoy and benefited a lot from my learning experience at PACE Center and URI. Thus, I also highly recommend more students to join these two organizations if given the opportunity. They will not regret it.

Top

Unearthing Samoa's Mysterious Moorhen: A Proposal to Survey Birds in the Upland Forests of Savai'l, Samoa
John Mittermeier, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '08

Top

Large Carnivore Research and Designing Improves Telemetery at the Karongwe Ecological Research Institute in Tzaneen, South Africa
Molly Montes, Biomedical Engineering '06

A typical day in South Africa at the Karongwe Ecological Research Institute base station, began early. The alarm sounded at 5:30am, giving me just enough time to throw on layers and grab a quick breakfast. Then out to the pre-sunrise dark to commence ‘drive’. With another research team we split up the area of Edeni reserve and began checking the hotspots. At high points and main crossroads we stopped our ‘bakkie’ or truck, climbed on the back, lifted up the antenna of our radio telemetry device and listened carefully, hoping to hear the beeps that would signify an animal wearing a radio collar or transmitting implant was within range. The animals outfitted with radio collars or implants included lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, wild dogs, and elephants. Set to specific frequencies, our antenna picked up the radio waves constantly emitted from the transmitting devices and a small data processing system converted it to audible beeps that changed in pitch and volume as we approached the animal wearing the device. Learning how to use the telemetry equipment and track an animal was definitely one of the more challenging tasks to learn at K.E.R.I.

The Karongwe Ecological Research Institute is a non-profit organization aimed at developing management research for small reserves and facilitating academic research of wildlife species and ecological interactions. Our twice daily drives to look for species on the reserve allowed us to collect consistent, intensive data. Ideally during our drives, we would have a visual of each animal and be able to make detailed observations which included location, activity, a ‘full-rating’ and any kill data for the predators. On a small, fenced-in reserve such as Edeni, prey do not migrate in and out, and predators, excluding the tree climbing leopards, cannot cross the boundaries. Thus, it is very important to monitor predator-prey interactions so as to sustain the diverse populations that inhabit the reserve. Obtaining kill data was particularly helpful as it enabled us to identify the specific prey that predators were targeting. Sometimes we were lucky enough to see a hunt in progress or observe the animals on a kill. In other cases, we tried to walk the area where we thought a predator had made a kill and look for evidence after the predator had moved off to a new location. Although we were out on drive for 8-10 hours a day, it was still difficult to know about all the kills occurring on the reserve. ‘Full-ratings’ provided an additional assessment tool. These were observational estimates of the size of the predator’s stomach ranging from a 5 for an engorged, full belly to a 1 for an animal looking skinny and hungry. This allowed us to at least know how frequently the species were eating.

One example of the effect of our research on management is the case of the African Wild Dogs. This pack-oriented species prefers large range sizes of which Edeni could only provide limited space. When I arrived in June, much of the pack had already been relocated to other reserves and the remaining four males were being held in a ‘boma’ or fenced–off section on the reserve. From previous kill data, it had been found that the wild dog pack on the reserve preferred hunting pregnant waterbuck. The effect of the dogs’ predatory behavior was significant because they were not only consuming the current reproductive population but also limiting the pool of future reproducing waterbuck. This data along with the issue of the dogs’ range size being constrained by the boundaries of the reserve, convinced the managers to find more suitable homes for the wild dogs. I was fortunate enough to be present when the remaining four males were darted with tranquilizers and relocated. Additionally I also got to participate in the dartings of two subadult hyenas and a lioness. Any time an animal is darted, whether it be for relocation purposes or a change or removal of its radio collar or implant, the research team at K.E.R.I. takes the opportunity to perform measurements. Everything from the length of the teeth, tail, and foreleg as well as all the dimensions of each paw are carefully measured and recorded. This information is used for identification as well as to make observations of growth and the level of variability within intraspecific characteristics. I was thrilled at the opportunity to be up close and personal which such magnificent creatures.

The less glamorous work at K.E.R.I. occurred in the office. I would input the data into an Excel spreadsheet and then transfer it into a GIS program so as to visualize the locations and movements of the animals on the reserve. Actually this job wasn’t at all dull, I truly enjoyed learning how to use the program and exploring its features. Near the end of my eight weeks in South Africa, I did a brief study of cheetahs. I compiled the data collected from the year and produced territory maps for each cheetah or cheetah coalition with the GIS program. I also spent a full day walking with a male coalition of two cheetah brothers. Unlike the rest of the study species on the reserve, we could do ‘walk-ins’ to the cheetahs who, while still dangerous wild cats, do not hunt adult humans. This pair of brothers was particularly habituated to people and did not appear to mind me tagging along as they moved from one termite mound viewpoint to the next. That day was a highlight of many.

Wildlife research is an ongoing process; there is always something more to understand and learn. Eight weeks was only time enough for me to get a small sampling of what it involves. Nevertheless, I am pleased with what I learned, proud of the work I accomplished and happy to know that it will be used in the annual report to the managers of Edeni reserve. Furthermore, I am eager to report that the director of research at K.E.R.I. plans to set up a database for the information collected on the reserve and share it with other organizations involved in wildlife management. Owners of other reserves would be able to access this data and make more knowledgeable decisions about how to monitor the populations of various species on their property. With a better understanding of predator-prey balances, it is more likely that biodiversity can be protected and maintained. I hope that I have made a contribution, albeit small, towards this goal. In the near future I plan like to return to South Africa and see the progress of this endeavor.

Top

Agroecology Internship At C.E.T.A.S. in Cienfuegos, Cuba
Charles Munford, English '06

Top

Field Tropical Biology Course in Costa Rica - Organization for Tropical Studies
Michelle Quibell, Environmental Studies '06

Top

Field Tropical Biology Course in Costa Rica - Organization for Tropical Studies
Victor Ramos, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '07

A summer abroad in Costa Rica was a worthwhile experience that truly accentuated the intricacies of ecology and how humans can affect a system. More importantly however, it clarified the reasons why humans knowingly harm an ecosystem. I believe it was necessary to understand the hardships of living in poverty in a third world nation before lasting environmental progress will be made. Ultimately, it is the local populace that maintains an area, and not an “enlightened” scientist. If they are unwilling to comply to a government policy protecting the land then the Costa Rican Forests will just continue to shrink. Living in the country helped me to understand this.

My actual research was less convoluted than the relationship between poverty and the destruction of the rainforest. As such, it yielded results of greater clarity (although possibly of less overall importance). Originally, two projects were undertaken in a group of five. This was an important exercise in learning how to work with your peers. Everyone has an opinion on how the study should be performed and presented. Thus, we had to learn to make compromises. However, these were merely one day experiments or studies and need not be expounded upon.

My individual research was an evaluation of “Worker Efficiency in Subcastes of Eciton burchelli”. E. Burchelli is a rather famous and successful species of army ant. The massive swarms of these ants, sometimes consisting of millions of individuals, have titillated the imagination of humans and thus I thought they would prove to be an interesting topic. My hypothesis was that the species was partly so effective because the division of labor increased the foraging efficiency of the colony. In my experiment foraging efficiency was specifically measured as the rate at which the ants could return food to the Bivouac (a colony made up of a cluster of ant bodies). Therefore, I believed that the faster ants would be the ones to return food to the bivouac.

Firstly, I measured out a specific distance of the foraging column. I then used a timer to time the speed of unladen ants as they left the bivouac, and laden and unladen ants as they returned to the bivouac. I calculated the speed of the ant as the distance over time. After a specific ant was timed I collected it so that I could later determine the ants’ caste and measure its leg and body length. I accomplished this by freezing the ants to lower their metabolism, and then using a dissecting microscope.

I did find significant differences in ant speed based on their caste and the length of their legs. It would appear that one caste, the submajor, is responsible for a disproportionate amount of the hauling of prey items back to the bivouac. Altogether, I must say that the ants were fascinating creatures that were well worth the time it took to study them. Although, I can attest that they sting, having been on the receiving end.

While I enjoyed the experience of studying tropical biology I personally don’t have any intention of making it a vocation. I verify that it is an amazing experience that acquaints a student with the intricacies of a tropical ecosystem as well as gives a solid grounding in the different types of field work done. Overall, a student walks away with a solid footing in general ecology and with a knowledge of birds and arthropods specific to tropical climates. I recommend the course to anyone interested in conservation and ecology. I stress conservation because of the national effort of the Costa Rican government to preserve its forests and the reasons for which it has chosen to do so.

Top

Changing Climate, Changing Tactics: Understanding the Media as an Essential Tool for Environmental Campaign Success
Randall Rubinstein, Environmental Engineering '06

Through the environmental studies summer internship program, I had the opportunity to intern at Environmental Media Services (EMS) in Washington, D.C. I was working on the toxics program, where our main goal was to bridge the gap between scientists and journalists so that new science would be reported and the coverage would be accurate.

When I arrived at EMS, the office was bustling with activity. I had a little time to settle in, but soon found myself bombarded with the summer plans. I got started immediately by editing a grant proposal to the Wallace Genetic Foundation, and then was asked to work on two final reports. The Science Communication Network, a network of scientists organized by the toxics program at EMS, had just held two teleconferences to release new studies. Teleconference one released Fred Vom-Saal’s meta-study on the correlation between funding and results of bisphenol-a research, while teleconference two released Anna Soto’s study on bisphenol-a and Shanna Swan’s study on phthalates in humans. The final report for each teleconference was a compilation of all the news articles that appeared because of the teleconference and pre-teleconference work.

Not really knowing what bisphenol-a was, nor how to spell or pronounce phthalates, I searched for articles in local, national, and international newspapers, and on news websites, and for transcripts of radio and television clips. One week and many news articles later, I had about 300 pages in final reports and knew what a phthalate was (now pronounced th-a-late). This was my first experience in learning how a non-profit works, and it would soon become one of my main insights from the summer.

In theory, I had learned that foundation-funded organizations needed to report back to their funders, but it wasn’t until I was helping with that process that I fully understood what it entailed. Everything that the organization did was with the funders in mind; we were always asking, what would the funders want us to do? Would they want us to spend our time and their money on this? Will this increase or decrease our chances for funding next time? And what can we create that we can show the funders later? In this vein, I worked on grant applications at the start of the internship and completed final reports during the summer. When everything came to fruition at the end and we received the grant, it was fulfilling to know that I had helped the organization in its yearly struggle to survive, but at the same time it made me realize that a lot of the non-profit’s time and money resources are spent ensuring its future instead of directly achieving its mission.

Nevertheless, not all my time was spent for the funder’s sake. Many of the EMS projects are long term (on the scale of months), so I got to work on a number of on-going projects including the release of a supplement to the American Journal of Public Health, raising journalist’s awareness for upcoming science on toxicogenomics, and increasing traditional environmentalists’ interest in environmental justice. However, my main project for the summer was preparing for the Centers for Disease Control biennial biomonitoring report, a large-scale study on determining which industrial chemicals are in U.S. citizen’s bodies, and at what levels they are there, and an analysis of historical levels based on the two previous studies.

For this project, I attended coalition strategy meetings and got to experience first hand the theory that I had read about for class. Coalitions are tough since everyone is more bent on having his or her own group get the glory. This meant we had to keep control of the meeting, not disclose too much (fortunately the CDC has the same policy so we didn’t actually know all the details, such as when the report would actually come out), and not rely too heavily on any particular group’s influence. We decided that we would try to hold a teleconference with a few of our scientific experts with different expertise.

Then problems arose. First, we wouldn’t know when the study was coming out until a week before it was going to, so it was difficult to ask the experts if they would be available during that unknown time. Second, one of the coalition members decided to preempt the study with a smaller biomonitoring study of their own. Since we had gotten some word that this would happen, we decided to send letters to the key journalists who might cover one or the other story, not both. In those letters, we informed them of the national import of the CDC study, offered renowned experts for interview, and gauged interest. Then we decided to wait and monitor who was reporting on the preemptive study to decide if we would hold a teleconference or not. In the end, we had our experts talking to reporters about an hour after the report came out to decipher what it actually meant.

Being involved in this strategic planning made me more aware of what people in media relations think about when making decisions about when to release something, how to release, and to whom. A form of thinking that is important in any setting since the considerations are sometimes psychological, sometimes logistical.

Of course we could not forget our funders, so we created a final report that really spelled out the crux of EMS and its goal. We compiled all the news reports of the CDC report but then separated them into two camps: those written by reporters we had contacted and who had talked to one of our experts, and those written by reporters who simply listened to the CDC press conference. There was a drastic difference in the coverage which really showed me how much effect sending out information to journalists and offering experts for interview actually has. It was, in a way, a quantification of “what we would get if this organization, EMS, were not here.”

Nevertheless, the most interesting aspect of the internship was the science. I had the opportunity to listen in on calls where leading scientists in their fields divulged their latest, often not-yet-complete, research. This research was almost wholly in the field of endocrinology and epidemiology, fields in which I had no prior experience, but in which I am extremely interested now. This experience culminated in the science communication network’s board meeting, since most of the board members are leading scientists in the endocrine disruptor field. During the board meeting, I got to personally meet Tyrone Hayes, a leading researcher on Atrazine and its effects on frog development, and am now attempting to do my senior project work on chemical effects on frog development.

In all, the internship was a valuable experience. It helped me understand how non-profits function, how organizations with a board function, and sparked my interest in endocrine science. I also learned about the issues scientists and activists face when communicating science to the media, and learned that media work is not where my future is headed.

Top

Water Quality in the Pangani Basin, Tanzania: Internship with Pamoja and GTZ
Laura Schewel, Literature / Environmental Engineering '06

Summary and Findings: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact on health made by the a water pipeline built in 2000 by GTZ in Uchira Village, Tanzania to characterise health in the village, and to make recommendations for ways to further improve health. In general, the study found that the pipeline did improve health, but that the health benefits had been overestimated by many leaders and by the villagers. The pipeline drastically improved village life in respects other than health, and the failure to fully cure all health problems is not indicative of some major failure, merely a demonstration that health is dependant on many factors beyond water, such as hygiene. This observation has been made across Africa and the world (Esrey, 1996; UNICEF, 2000; Duse, 2003; Tumwine, 2003). The pipeline management still has the power to fix some of the problems. In other words, the pipeline is very good, though not perfect. If everyone expects and believes the pipeline to be perfect, it will be less effective than if people accepted its limitations.

This study involved extensive reading of relevant academic literature and documents relating to Uchira, laboratory tests, interviews of leaders, government officials, teachers, and healthcare providers as well as observations and formal and informal surveys of the villagers. All conversations, except with some regional and district government officials, were conducted in Kiswahili by the researcher with the help of Raymond Mfinanga, a local young man, in difficult Kiswahili translations, Kipare, and introductions. The study took place from May 23, 2005 to August 10, 2005.

The water is contaminated with faecal coliform bacteria ranging from “intermediate risk level” at the source to “high risk level” at several of the public taps. This contamination is probably due to natural presence of faecal bacteria during the rainy season in groundwater and evident cracks in the structure, especially visible at the breakpoints and storage tanks. The protected Lyambala source had less than one third the number of faecal bacteria as the unprotected Lyemshi spring, showing that the concrete structure and other measures are having a very positive impact. The use of rubber hoses at taps increases bacterial content. Water in household drinking buckets had more bacteria than water from the nearby tap, indicating that contamination also happens in the home. (Second round of tests to come.)

The environment of Uchira village, especially the central Uchira Chini hamlet, is contaminated with garbage. Garbage pits are badly maintained, infrequently burned, and people often fling garbage by the side of the path instead of in pits. Almost all villagers have pit latrines and these latrines are frequently made of impermanent materials like dung, unclean, too full, and left with the door ajar.

Malaria is the main health complaint, followed by respiratory infections. Water-born and sanitation-related diseases are always present (about 20% of all cases, combined). The two are interrelated, and water quality alone cannot be expected to fix all a village’s health problems. Analysis from Uchira Dispensary (the free, most popular dispensary) show a drop in water-born disease directly after the pipeline was built, but the diseases have climbed back since. Sanitation-related disease showed no relation to the pipeline.

A huge percentage (87%) of the villagers believe that the water is treated, even though it is not. The milky colour of water under pressure, local talk, and affirmations from the WUA that the water is safi na salama (safe and sound) contribute to this misunderstanding. As a result, villagers claim they do not feel a need to boil water and use soap as frequently.

The villagers boil water, wash with soap, and use mosquito nets far less frequently than would protect their health. Villagers cite time, money for nets and charcoal, habit, and “already safe” water as reasons not to boil or use soap and nets. Most villagers know it is “better” to do these things, and so frequently claim good behaviour to researchers, especially mzungu researchers. But observations and discussions with leaders suggest that the villagers exaggerate greatly. This indicates that the various efforts at health education have been heard, but failed to change behaviour. Villagers most frequently say their health education comes from school and being “around in the environment” (40 and 30%, respectively). Radio and television programs, elders, and healthcare providers are also common sources of education (35%). Leaders and healthcare providers attributed the failures of past education attempts to habits, insufficient health curriculum in schools, and poverty.

Many villagers understand the large-scale pathways of disease (e.g. “if you leave food uncovered, you might get sick”) but do not understand the small-scale mechanism (e.g. “flies will go from faeces to uncovered food and leave germs”). As a result, they don’t understand the reasons behind some health recommendations.

The leaders, teachers, and healthcare providers recognize that the village latrines are in a sorry state and the scourge of malaria. They all had various suggestions about improvement.

The health situation in Miwaleni hamlet, which does not receive the piped water, is far worse than in other hamlets. Water-born and sanitation-related disease rates run higher, latrines are in execrable condition due to bad use and floods, and villagers’ education and sanitary behaviour lag behind their counterparts in other hamlets. Miwaleni, visibly the most poverty-stricken hamlet, is 7.5km from the free dispensary.

Impact: Because of my report, GTZ has pledged to give money for a chlorination tank, to be run by the Uchira WUA, and a progressive education project that I helped design, to be led by Pamoja Trust, a local NGO. These projects will begin in October. The Uchira WUA will also submit a proposal to build latrines in the market place and to provide VIP latrines and handwashing facilities for schools. GTZ will decide later if they have enough funds for this project. GTZ could not fund health care in the Miwaleni hamlet, because their funding is confined to the water sector. Therefore, I privately worked with a Catholic priest and district health officials to arrange a mobile health clinic using the doctors and car from a nearby catholic clinic which has very few patients because they must ask for payment. The car visits Miwaleni once a week. I got funding from groups in my hometown of Richmond VA. The clinic, which we expected to serve 50 a month, is serving about 100 a week now, so we struck an important niche.

Personal Impact: I learned three very important facts. 1) In a developing country, the issue of public health develops too. For example, cars—because of pollution and because of dangerous driving habits and bad maintenance—are a huge and ever growing threat to environment and public health in Tanzania. 2) Development is a series of trade-offs. Some health workers I met urged villagers to boil water to cut down disease, using charcoal. They hadn’t yet considered the fact that the massive deforestation caused by charcoal harvest was degrading the soil, decreasing agricultural yields and contributing to the poverty and hunger that itself feeds disease. 3) Environmental Engineering must consider much more than technology. All the high tech systems mean very little if the people don’t know how to use them, or don’t want to accept them.

I am currently writing a Fullbright proposal to go back to Tanzania and study the paths of knowledge and language that surrounds the integration of modern science and technology into the developing world. My proposal grew directly out of my experiences this summer. I also believe that the same question—how people digest and incorporate technology/science—into their lives is crucial to understanding developed nations. For example, why do so many educated Americans behave in environmentally detrimental ways when it would be simple not to? Why are so many turning against evolution? What scientific “proofs” are people willing to listen to when discussing global warming? I hope to pursue these questions as my environmental career continues.

Recommendation: I couldn’t recommend my experience more. The opportunity to be on my own, with only the loosest oversight, applying my knowledge, was intoxicating. I highly recommend that other students look for summer opportunities where they can have a concrete affect on what they research.

Top

Environmental Effects of Tobacco Growth, manufacture and Disposal: Internship with Institute for Global Health in San Francisco
Sarah Jane Selig, Environmental Studies '06 

Working this summer with the Institute for Global Health of the University of California at San Francisco, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Thomas Novotny. Dr. Novotny used to work as one of the head negotiators of U.S. international tobacco policy. After stepping down due to current administration policy, he began working with the World Health Organization and other international anti-tobacco groups. His passionate interest in this subject has led me to want to focus on tobacco and the environment for my senior thesis for the environmental studies major.

This summer I worked on two separate projects. The first project was helping rewrite and update the research for a paper on Chinese women and smoking. The idea that has evolved from this research is that women in China are being targeted by tobacco companies using similar strategies as those used on American women in the early nineteen hundreds. Accordingly, I also researched the techniques used to attract American women. These included marketing cigarettes as a status symbol by associating them initially with wealth and later with education. Currently the tobacco companies would like to target the hundreds of millions of Chinese women. In China cigarette companies are doing things like sending recent female college graduates free packets of cigarettes. While Chinese men have had high rates of smoking - in most places over 50% of men smoke - the Chinese women have tending to have rates of smoking well under 10%.

The importance of updating this paper and getting it published is clear. It is much more effective to prevent people from starting to smoke than trying to get addicted smokers to quit. Also, the most current health research on tobacco shows that even people who stop smoking still have health risks. Dr. Novotny has plans to publish a set of papers on this issue and present them at the world tobacco conference in Washington D.C. next summer. I will continue to work with him to prepare for that conference, which I hope to attend next summer.

The other project that I was working on was research for a paper on tobacco and the environment. Surprisingly, there have been only a few papers published on the subject even though tobacco is a huge crop worldwide. I researched the specifics of pollution from tobacco processing plants, deforestation, litter of cigarette butts, fire causation, and worker health issues related to tobacco. This research culminated in a paper regarding the current information about these issues and suggestions for future field research.

Both of the papers are now in the process of being edited and will be submitted to Tobacco Control within the next six months. In terms of future follow up, Dr. Novotny has invited me to be involved in another related piece on smoking in China which he will be working on this fall.

I also had the opportunity to meet at the end of the summer with Dr. Yach, head of the Global Health Department at the Yale School of Public Health. He put me in touch with a researcher in the United Kingdom who might be able to help me with further research on environmental issues. He gave me the insight that the main papers would be located in either the U.K. or in the actual countries growing tobacco. He suggested that future research could be focused on Malawi, a country that remains poor and heavily dependent on tobacco production. Even though the country has high tobacco production, there continues to be low levels of smoking among the population. This combination means that tobacco has a great influence on the country, but that a study of these issues could be reasonably limited to the environmental and political effects of tobacco. With these issues in mind, my senior thesis could focus on the political, environmental, and social effects of tobacco growing on the country of Malawi.

Overall, I had a great experience in my internship. I plan to continue doing research on tobacco for my senior thesis, focusing on the issues related to tobacco growing in Malawi. It was interesting working with the academic side of public health related to environmental issues. I came away with some important questions about the importance of research versus policy, which I will definitely consider with regard to my future career.

Top

Marketing Renewable Energy Use in India: Internship at the energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Dehli
Mirko Serkovic, Environmental Studies '07

India’s per capita energy consumption stands well below the rest of Asia and is one of the lowest in the world. Data shows that per capita energy consumption in India is about 30 times less than in the United States and about 5 times less than the world average. This low level of per capita consumption is not due to overall low energy consumption levels, as India ranks sixth in the world in terms of energy consumption. Rather, this figure reflects India’s large population and the inequity in energy supply within them. While economic activities and standards of living boom in India’s most vibrant cities, over 700 million rural poor have either limited access or no access to electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or other non-traditional fuels. 65% of all rural households in India still have no electricity and depend on inefficient fuels such as wood, biomass and kerosene.

As an intern with The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, I spent this summer working on a project that aimed at using Solar Photovoltaic systems to bring energy to villages in rural India that had been identified as ‘unelectrifiable’, meaning that reaching grid-based power supply to them is not viable. A total of 18,000 villages in India fall into this category. Solar photovoltaics provide a decentralised and cost-effective way of providing energy to rural households, as well as promoting individual and community ownership and management of energy services. The Government of India’s approach to RETs dissemination and popularisation has been highly centralised, target-oriented, and subsidy-based. It has had limited success due to various barriers in planning, implementation, capacity building, publicity, allocation of resources, and technology adaptation to local needs. By introducing alternative and supplemental approaches of a decentralised nature, TERI’s ‘Uttam Urja’ project is attempting to overcome these barriers.

My work focused on ways to strengthen the solar photovoltaic market and to make it commercially sustainable, thereby promoting brand competition between different systems and independence from government subsidies which have proved to be ineffective. The basic objective of the project is to free the consumer from problems of high upfront costs, maintenance, and replacement, which have been so far responsible for limited penetration and impact of solar photovoltaics and other renewable energy technologies in rural areas. I conducted study in the field in the town of Bikaner, Rajasthan where solar photovoltaics have been commercially disseminated for more than 4 years. I prepared a report on ways the market for solar photovoltaics could be improved through the increased availability of micro-credit schemes to purchases these systems. Current financial options available to this project include only banks, as it is too risky for NGOs and dealers to become involved, and other moneylenders have the negative image of charging high interest rates. The problem, however, is that an average farmer is denied such a loan because of his small credit worthiness. This greatly limits the purchase of solar photovoltaic systems. To solve this problem, I suggested ways in which TERI could establish its own micro-credit loan system that would involve the participation of local NGOs and Self-Help Groups.

Being in India and realising the urgency of these issues was a real eye-opener. I would highly recommend other students to do an internship in India. I did not only feel the urgency of environmental issues there, but also a great force and motivation for change. India is changing extremely quickly and environmental issues are a very high priority. Being a minimal part of that movement greatly developed my sensibility and awareness of environmental issues, especially when these are critical for the well-being of such large numbers of people. I benefited greatly from this internship as it confirmed my interest for energy issues and it inspired me to carry further energy-related projects in the future and possible develop a career out of this.

Top

Maine's Shellfish Mariculture Industry: An Investigation of Impact and Expansion
Karen Stamieszkin, Environmental Studies '06

This past summer I examined the sustainability of oyster aquaculture in the Damariscotta River, Maine. I worked closely with faculty and staff at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center, as well as the three co-owners of Pemaquid Oyster Company. Using field experimentation, I investigated the river’s carrying capacity for oysters in terms of growth rates, grazing rates and primary production. This work involved both field-based experimentation and lab work; my skills developed drastically in both categories.

I also explored the politics and issues that surround the industry, as well as the management schemes currently used to monitor and control oyster farms. A number of individuals from Maine’s Department of Marine Resources exposed the challenges that they face with regard to the oyster industry. These issues range from aesthetic to ecological. DMR’s management of the oyster industry (and aquaculture industry) in Maine represents a model example of how government can attempt to work with an industry and the general public to properly manage the industry’s growth and impact.

I have yet to finish collecting and analyzing my data. However, after experiencing oyster farming and the Damariscotta River this summer, I hypothesize that carrying capacity has not been reached and that ecological impacts on the river by oyster farmers are slight.

As an environmentalist I aspire to contribute to a body of knowledge that will enhance peoples’ lives, while at least maintaining, if not improving the environment where the activity takes place. This project allowed me to experience doing the type of work that could fulfill that career goal. My summer experience helped me out of the ‘Yale bubble.’ I realized how many interesting people are working on interesting things throughout the country and world. I began to understand how to access those projects and become a part of a scientific community. This summer directed my career focus toward marine sciences and made me question my desire to stay at Yale for the fifth year of the F&ES 5-year program. Now, rather than going directly into another year of school, I will try working in the field, and then returning to school to earn a higher degree of greater specificity.

Other students interested in learning about and doing field experimentation ought to consider a project like this one. However, having a good deal of previous experience in field and lab sciences is important. While I enjoyed learning by doing, and failing, and doing again, I found that having more extensive experience before this summer would have proved most helpful.

Top

 A Comparative Evaluation of Strategies: researching Environmental management of malaria at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland
Leanna Sudhof, Environmental Studies '06

This summer I spent ten weeks working under the supervision of Drs Mohammadou Cham and Jacob Williams in the vector control team in the Roll Back Malaria Department at World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Cham, a Senior Adviser in the Malaria Strategy & Policy Team, had suggested two main projects before I arrived. The first was a multi-country study on the acceptability of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets (Olyset Nets), and the second was to write a review of larvicides available for malaria vector control. The multi-country report is still under review; the review of larvicides I was unable to complete in the time I was there. I plan to complete it once materials that are being shipped to Yale have arrived.

In the weeks at WHO, I also interviewed professionals in other departments, both to get a better idea of the workings of WHO and to establish contacts for future reference in the writing of my senior essay. The interviews were with people in environmental management, the pesticide evaluation scheme, evidence and information for policy, monitoring and evaluation of country health indicators. The interaction with people from different departments showed me how little communication there is between departments in WHO. I also had the opportunity to aid in the last-minute drafting of a grant proposal to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: this gave me a good idea of the politics within the members of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and status of malaria advocacy in general. Furthermore, I participated in a joint meeting with UNEP, of which the aim was to draft a global plan to phase out DDT. The extensive debates over tiny nuances in wording, which was already extremely broad and unspecific, amazed me.

The most important part of the internship was the long report I wrote on Olyset nets. The ten country reports from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand and Zambia varied widely in quality and content. The aim of the study was to assess the social acceptability of Olyset Nets for malaria prevention in different socio-cultural settings in Africa and Asia. Insecticide treated nets have been demonstrated numerous times to be effective. The three main obstacles impeding implementation are access to rural communities, re-treatment of the nets and compliance of the local populations. The combination of these factors has, thus far, prevented the attainment of the Abuja target of 60% for ITN coverage in most African countries. Only Eritrea has reached the Abuja target of 60% ITN usage (World Malaria Report 2005). By solving the problem of retreatment, the technology of Olyset nets has mitigated the obstacles of cost-effectiveness and access, which are critical in the deployment of traditional ITNs. Acceptability or compliance remains a cross-cutting factor, however. There exists an urgent need to evaluate the perceptions of the targeted populations that are recipients of these nets. The feedback from this study is supposed to help guide future strategic planning involving the deployment of Olyset nets in communities where malaria is endemic.

After sifting through the information and extracting the acceptable or valuable data, I made the data as comparable as possible and summarized the cross-country results. In the write up, I learned a lot about WHO style, the politics of neutrality, the relations between WHO Headquarters and member countries, and the ramifications of facilitation and global policymaking. I now have the advantage of being an outsider with a more experienced eye and somewhat of an insider after this summer. I have come to better understand the path from research to policy in RBM, and then from RBM to implementation on the country level. In the process, I obtained many contacts that will help me explore the current status of malaria vector control in my senior essay. The immersion in the malaria problem also helped me direct the focus of my senior essay away from the technical side of vector control to the implementation side, where the real problems lie.

Top

Renewable Energies within an Emissions Trading Scheme: Internship with EEFA in Muenster, Germany
Teresa Tapia, Environmental Engineering '06

This summer my research on the emissions trading and renewable energies began in the middle of June at the researching headquarters of EEFA, Energy and Environmental Forecasting and Analysis, Munster Germany. I spent about 10 weeks at EEFA and learned various methods of analyzing energy issues and energy policy. I worked on a 4 research projects while I was EEFA, dealing with diverse issues such as the development of specific renewable energies in Germany, and determining strategies for various countries under the emissions trading scheme. The following paragraphs will detail these projects and the knowledge that I came away with.

AT EEFA I was under the guidance of Bernard Hillenbrand, Jean-Mark Behringer and Michaela Beoyel. As soon as I arrived, I began working on the analysis of the European emissions trading scheme in order to become more familiar with the process. I read a couple of allocation plans for the emissions trading scheme in which I played specific attention to the rules set for the energy industry and the development of renewable energy. Surprisingly the countries that I researched during this stage (Greece, Italy and Poland) had greatly diverging energy policies, and allocation methods. While the EU directive clearly outlined rules and guiding principles for allocation, combining the diverse economies into a common CO2 trading market is much more complicated than I ever foresaw in the research that I did within the United States.

During this stage of research, I can highlight three particular aspects that especially caught my attention. The first is a government’s consideration for development at the individual level and at the sectoral level. Another is the repeated set of complications within the energy sector which is the most responsible for CO2 emissions. This is due to the fact that in the late 90s, Europe also began working to deregulate the energy sector in order to make it more competitive and thus efficient. Thus, it appears that transitioning into a more competitive energy market and at the same time transitioning into a CO2 market is especially a difficult task. This is due to the fact that deregulation will force the dynamics of the energy system to change and thus assigning allocations on the basis of the current system could curtail the goal of reducing specific CO2 levels. Finally, the last interesting notes on my le the authorities that were assigned to oversee the trading and allocation of permits in each country. For some, the administrative role was played by a ministry of economic affairs while for others this role was fulfilled by a ministry of the environment which evidently resulted in different allocation methods.

The next couple of weeks I dedicated to doing a case study of Denmark. Denmark is a rather special country in this emissions trading scheme because it has a fairly successful renewable energy supply from wind. During this part of my research, I looked at data of wind production, wind costs, annual wind supply distribution, reports for potential wind development and policy statements by both the Danish Government and the wind energy association. It is quite evident that the marginal costs for producing more renewable energy are quite high for the wind energy industry. Thus, its strategy for participating in the emissions trading scheme is completely different from the strategies used by countries such as Greece and Spain which have great potential for renewable energy development. Furthermore, Denmark’s renewable energy development scheme was changed in 2003 from a Feed-In Tariff system to a Tradable Renewable Energy Certificate Scheme. This development raises several questions, and many are especially waiting to see how a TREC and a CO2 market will manifest themselves together. In addition to renewable energy development, Denmark highlights issues of energy export. The country is a huge participant of the Nordic Energy Trading Market and in fact has exported a significant amount of energy over the past years. Thus, when developing its allocation plan, Denmark had to make sure it did not negatively affect this part of its economy.

The next half of my internship, I focused on Germany and its renewable energy as forecasted by EEFA in the next 20 years. Specifically, renewable energy costs under a feed in tariff system and a quota system based on tradable renewable energy certificates. We did this by acquiring production forecasted, current investment costs, RR costs, production costs of various capacity levels of energy installations of all renewable energy production in Germany. WE also did analysis of RE technologies not currently installed or developed in Germany such as Solar Thermal energy. This part of my research gave me more insight into the factors that affect price, development, and the differences between a quota system and a tariff system. From our research, it is quite evident that a quota system is much more economically efficient and economically sustainable than the current feed in tariff system. This is primarily can be attributed to the very success of the tariff system of quickly developing renewable energy. Denmark, Germany and Spain have been extremely successful at developing renewable energy with the feed-in tariff model which guarantees a certain price in the market for a good number of years and thus creates a lot of confidence in the technologies. However, as soon as the RE percentage reaches 8% or 10% and in the case of Denmark 20%, it becomes increasingly difficult for the government to subsidize these technologies. Furthermore, efficiency is not necessarily maximized due to excess profits when the actual price of production falls due to better RR costs. During this time, I took a trip to Berlin where, I accompanied Dr. Hillebrand to the German Ministry of Economics, for his presentation on the work done over the summer.

The last two weeks, I spent focused on the various possibilities of renewable energies within the emissions trading scheme. For example I investigated which countries were planning to invest on renewable energy programs outside of their country in order to attain tradable credits. These included Spain and Denmark. I also researched renewable energy strategies for Greece, and Spain who will also focusing on developing renewable energy due to their low percentages and therefore higher rates of return. It is interesting to note, that having no significant amount of renewable energy, makes for the development of renewable slightly more cost effective. This is due to the fact that other countries in Europe have already learned to produce renewable energy in much more economic ways. Thus, with the technology available, the RR costs of producing renewable energy are lower.

My experience was further enriched with various activities to strengthen my German speaking skills, as well as my ability to discuss environmental and energy issues in German. My summer was incredibly enriching because I gained a lot of knowledge about a very special development in Europe. Specifically, I learned how to predict and determine the economic viability of renewable energy technologies, the background basis for the emissions trading scheme, and the various renewable energy policies that will affect the development of renewable energies under an emissions trading scheme. While I was in the United States, this topic seemed simpler than I now realize. This is especially true when one puts environmental and energy concerns in the context of the current crisis of the European Union and the conditions under which the emissions trading scheme was initiated. While my main objective was to research and gain work experience analyzing energy issues, another important aspect of my journey was to immerse myself in the German language, culture and politics. I am happy to report that both of these objectives have been for the most part fulfilled.

Top

Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Southern Mexico: Internship at Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Cuernavaca, Mexico
Vicente Undurraga-Perl, Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Track) '06

Top

Field Study with the Wrangell Mountains Program in Alaska
Scott Zhu, Undecided '07

The Environmental Studies Internship made it possible for me to attend the UCSB/Wrangell Mountain Center’s Wildlands Studies program this past summer based in McCarthy, Alaska. As a computer science major, the experience was incredibly rewarding by allowing me in-depth and hands on exposure to the world of Ecology, Geology, Environmental politics, and nature writing. In addition, the memories and experiences of living and hiking in Alaska will always remain with me and be remembered fondly as two months in which everything seemed to be in its place and the world finally made sense. What I learned this summer included both tangible and intangible skills and lessons. Tangible skills such as recognizing geological and ecological processes, identifying plants, birds, and animal tracks, backcountry skills, and intangibles such as the confidence built after 26 difficult days in the backcountry, or ideas formed and lessons learned as a result of extensive introspective journaling in the forms of essays, poetry, and art. The program challenged every aspect of my mind and body. Although I left Alaska 15 pounds lighter, I gained instead new knowledge about how nature works and insight into our place in it.

During the weeks prior to the start of the program, I received the reading packet we were to use that summer. If it wasn’t clear to me before, it was certainly clear then that I was about to either struggle academically the whole summer or learn a heck of a lot of new material. Thankfully, it was the latter. The program descriptions were fairly vague about the exact structure of the program, stating only that roughly half the time in Alaska will be spent in the backcountry and half in McCarthy. I arrived in Anchorage the night before our scheduled departure from the hostel to McCarthy, but didn’t meet other participants till the next morning. There were 16 of us students total, and 4 instructors. We set off for McCarthy in the morning squeezing into a van that looked and felt as if it was going to fall apart at any moment (it eventually did). I could tell right off the bat that these people were unlike any of my current group of friends by the conversation that went on in the van. They talked enthusiastically about what we saw outside the windows, using terms I’d never heard of and explanation for things I’d never thought of. I asked a lot of questions, and I continued to all summer. I was relieved to hear that they were also unsure of what to expect from the program but we were all eager to find out.

The rest of the report is separated into 3 sections:
1) Living and learning in McCarthy
2) Backcountry trips
3) Final Project

Living and Learning in McCarthy
The program was based in the small town of McCarthy Alaska. It was basically a one street town that consisted of an inn, bar, gift shop, a local air company and an old hardware store. The hardware store is the home of the Wrangell Mountains center, which hosts people involved in all aspects relating to the environment. For the first couple weeks of the program and whenever we were not in the backcountry, this is where we spent most of our days. We divided up chores amongst ourselves that included: breakfast, lunch and dinner, gardening, etc.. During our time at the Hardware Store we attended classes on basic ecology, geology, floral identification etc.. We did various day hikes to nearby sites to apply the skills we learned in the classroom. Down time was spent reading, listening to those of us with musical talents and chatting. Dinner was always fun to make. Personally not being the greatest cook in the world, I learned a lot of great recipes that didn’t involve a microwave or tons of grease. The best days were when we had enormous king salmons to eat! At the end of the day, we’d all walk to our “tent-city” on the outskirts of the town, crawl into our tents, tie a bandana around our eyes (or whatever other method people used to keep out the light) and go to sleep in our sleeping bags.

I was amazed by the energy and passion of the students and staff for the work they did. Students were always eager to learn about a new plant or read a new piece of nature writing. This energy and sense of curiosity was intoxicating and I naturally made it a habit of engaging each person in conversation, picking their brains for knowledge (which they always shared with enthusiasm).

The pace of life in the town was a refreshing change to city life. We did our chores, learned exciting new things almost without another care in the world. How could we have any other cares in the world? We woke up every morning to be surrounded by snowcapped mountains and a view of the Kennicott Glacier connecting to Mt. Blackburn. There was nothing we could possibly have asked for … besides maybe a hot shower and some meat.

Backcountry Trips
As a part of the program, we went on two backcountry trips. The first one was a 6 day trip which purpose was mainly to prepare for the longer 20 days trip. On days that we hiked, we hiked around 8 hours a day. We were each assigned to be a botanist, geologist, or zoologist for each hiking day. At the end of the day, we would gather after reading discussions and present to the group what we observed that day. The botanists for the day would describe the landscape, what flowers they identified, etc. The geologists would give a presentation on the geological makeup of our route, how it was formed, when, etc. And the zoologists would recall the characteristics of wildlife we came across that day. The information for these presentations we would accumulate throughout the day by asking instructors and each other questions and by referencing the books we brought along (one book in particular, an encyclopedia of all flora in Alaska we took turns carrying!). Another example of an activity we did was called “reading the landscape.” When we got to a place the instructors thought was interesting, we’d stop and they would ask us what the place looked like 50 years ago, 500 years ago, 5 million years ago. We’d divide into groups and search for clues that will tell us the age of the current landscape and clues to what it use to look like. These activities were particularly intellectually stimulating for me, and I always looked forward to them. I was slowly able to develop my own theories as my knowledge of the science increased, which was very satisfying.

A very important part of the program was our individual journals that we all kept. We were required to have extended entries (essays, poetry, art), Field research entries (detailed accounts and descriptions of a certain plant or animal), Species accounts (detailed descriptions of our interactions with a specific animal), as well as a daily trip log which was kept in Grinnell style of journaling. Looking at my journal entries now and reading my thoughtful entries brings back many memories.

For both trips, we were split into eating groups and tent groups. The competition that developed between eating groups over who could eat all their food etc. resulted in many funny stories. We all carried group gear that included tents, mega-mids, cooking gear, food, bear fence, books, etc.. All this gear sometimes resulted in boys carrying over 80 pounds and girls carrying over 50% of their body weights!

The places we went and things we saw were simply spectacular. We hiked and camped on everything from glaciers, to alpine meadows, to rock glaciers, to hunter’s trails etc., just about every terrain you could imagine. The beauty of such places simply took our breaths away. There is no better way to learn about the subject and to learn to love the subject of environmental science than being in nature itself and seeing it in all its splendor. What we accomplished through the rain, cold, river crossings filled us all with a sense of pride and confidence that is invaluable to our personal growth.

Final Project
In addition to a final exam, which consisted of hands on tests outdoors, we were required to put together a final project. Topics for the projects ranged from Moraines, to fungi, to ground squirrels, to park policy. I personally chose to do my project on park policy. I dove into readings on park management in Alaska, and eventually decided to do a focused project collecting backcountry data and evaluating the system set up in the draft of the Denali Plan for collecting such data. It was exciting because the plan is still being revised and evaluated by the State of Alaska. I was reading responses by government officials, Non-profits and the National Park Service that were hot off the presses.

I collected data during the second backcountry trip and upon return dove into evaluating the data and hand writing my report. We all worked long hours for the last week in McCarthy to finish our projects. In the end, I felt that I had put together a report that could be of use to the State of Alaska and the NPS, and added to the sense of accomplishment I gained this summer. 

Concluding Remarks
This summer was a truly amazing experience for me both academically and personally. The only way it would have been possible was through this fellowship. Please feel free to contact me for any further information, pictures, or excerpts from my journal, I’d be more than happy to share. Thank you to everyone who was involved in this fellowship process and I am glad future classes will be able to take advantage of this opportunity for amazing summer experiences.