For eight weeks this past summer I worked as a research intern at INFORM Inc. located on Wall Street in New York City. The position enabled me to gain valuable experience working for a non-profit environmental research organization and exposed me to varied areas of the environmental field.

I had been first attracted to INFORM because of their ground-breaking research on the future of hydrogen fuel cells in the transportation industry. However, when I arrived at INFORM, I was assigned to the Sustainable Products and Practices Department, not the Alternative Fuels Department. Under the supervision of the Senior Research Fellows in the department, I was asked to further the development of a Workplace Waste Prevention Database which now contains information on waste prevention programs instituted by nearly 300 U.S. and international businesses. My task was to establish contacts at each company and to write summaries of each waste prevention program based on INFORM's previous research, various EPA publications, and my own Internet-based research. In expanding the database, which will eventually be posted on INFORM's web-site for use by waste prevention specialists, I learned a great deal about business and the interaction between environmental issues and the economy.

INFORM's Director of Research, Nevin Cohen, insisted that I work on other projects in the Sustainable Products and Practices Program in order to gain a well-rounded view of INFORM's work in this area. Although the database was my main project during the summer, nearly half of my time at INFORM was spent on various other projects. For example, I wrote an extensive article summarizing INFORM's most recent report, tentatively titled "Focus on Campus Food Service Operations: Waste Prevention", which will be published in the September issue of the Journal of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services.

The project I worked on which interested me the most dealt with the future of Internet commerce and the potential environmental implications of this new form of commerce. Mainly working on the Internet, I gathered information about the growth of commerce over the Internet in both the U.S. and the world, and prepared a summary of my findings. My work will be used in an upcoming presentation INFORM will give to representatives of Proctor & Gamble concerning the ways they can develop their Internet commerce strategies with the environment in mind. For example, my research indicated that the growth of Internet commerce may lead to changes in the packaging industry. If many consumers purchase goods, such as groceries, over the Internet, packaging will no longer need to serve an advertising function. Further, if consumers receive goods by delivery, reusable packaging becomes more practical.

Overall, my internship was a wonderful experience. Living in New York City, working with people of like-minds, learning about different areas of the environmental field, and contributing to the organization's goals were all made possible by this fellowship.

Fire, one of mankind's earliest tools; was used by hunting and gathering societies around the world to shape their environment. From the Great Basin to Australia, aboriginal populations used fire to maintain pasturage for wildlife. The end result of pasture fires set in the Great Basin, on the steppes of central Asia, on the veldt of East Africa, or on kangaroo ranges in southwest Australia, was to reduce woody species and stimulate growth of more nutrient-rich grasses for wildlife or livestock.

Fires kept the woods and grasslands from becoming choked with brush thus improving forage for game and facilitating hunting. Bison, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope that were once common either no longer occur or have become rare in many subregions of the Great Basin. These species all prefer grassy portions of the sagebrush zone. Decrease in grassy habitat due to modern fire suppression and intense livestock grazing has lead to a decrease in the numbers of these animals.

Using historical and scientific literature on fire in Great Basin environments, I was responsible for documenting a report examining the past and possible future role of fire in managing lands of the Great Basin. I compiled most of the bibliography (80+ sources) during the month of June at the University of California at Berkeley BioSciences, Anthropology, Natural Sciences and Bancroft rare book libraries, as well as the Stanford University Library of Natural Resources. I worked on the literature review at Mono Lake, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the northwestern Great Basin. This location afforded an opportunity to consult with individual scientists, as well as members of the U.S. Forest Service and Mono Lake Committee who supervised the production of a useful and comprehensive report.

The records of 19th century archaeologists and ethnographers indicated that fires were far more frequent prior to European settlement. At that time the vegetation of the Great Basin was primarily a sagebrush-grassland, unlike the monotypic brush-lands commonly seen today. Next, the effects of fire on the flora of the Great Basin was examined. Generally fire favors grasses for several years, then sagebrush reestablishes itself. The effects of fire on fauna, from the carnivores at the top of the food web to the herbivores and rodents near the base, were considered. Generally, the result of fire in Great Basin ecosystems is to enrich wildlife and increase faunal diversity. The increased grasses lead to greater numbers of herbivores (who cannot base a large portion of their diet on sagebrush). The increased numbers of herbivores support greater numbers of carnivores. The evidence we examined clearly shows Great Basin ecosystems burned over every few years are more productive in terms of numbers and species of wildlife, than areas without fire.

It is impossible to summarize the pyrecology of Great Basin ecosystems in one page without generalizing broadly. Fire is destructive when used improperly. Many factors, such as season, how much fuel has accumulated, topography, soil chemistry, and moisture, to name a few, must be considered prior to burning. We assessed the potential good and bad of burning in different ecosystems of the Great Basin with such considerations in mind. In the vast majority of cases, with the exception of badly deteriorated lands, fire is an inexpensive natural way to help restore and maintain floral and faunal diversity in much of the Great Basin.

Whether in the form of lightning or human ignitions, fire has long been a natural part of ecosystems in the Great Basin. If plants and animals had not evolved and adapted to fire, they would not have survived. After fire suppression for just 150 years, the Great Basin landscape has become far less diverse and productive. The reintroduction of fire is essential for restoration of floral and faunal diversity to this region. The final report summarizing the presettlement history of fire in the Great Basin will be forwarded by the Mono Lake Committee to land managers at the Bureau of Land Management and the Inyo National Forest (U.S. Forest Service) and should help further the development of a prescribed burn program.

In the spring of 1998 I applied for funds and proposed to spend the summer filming a documentary project on growth and development in Boulder County, Colorado. I was able to negotiate the film as my combined senior project in Women's and Gender Studies and Studies in the Environment (my concentration for Women's and Gender Studies is film) and also received the support of the Film Studies department. The funds were approved as a Studies in the Environment summer research grant, and so I came to spend the summer living in my dad's basement, researching, interviewing, photographing and filming.

The roots of my project are found in a multi-generational family feud between those who do and don't subscribe to the dogma of the City of Boulder, Colorado. (Boulder, I came to learn primarily after leaving, is something of a model of careful and ecologically-sound city planning; I tended to see this fact in tension with the kinds of planning and development correlation between water and land-use decision-making and environmental values. Despite some Boulder residents' framing of the debate as an Environmentalist/Non-environmentalist dichotomy (or really because of it), both sides are effectively contributing to the same end: out-of-control, ecologically unsound development. While this argument remains at the heart of my thesis, over the summer I became more sympathetic to the individual human struggle at a moment of phenomenal changes to the landscape and social structures. I became particularly interested in the social and interpersonal consequences not only of the scale and types of developments being built, but also the rate at which they are being built and the sense from all sides that it is somehow inevitable, even uninteresting.

I returned to New Haven with over 20 rolls of film, 12 hours of videotaped interviews and footage, a box of books and files, many contacts, and access to several video and still photo archives. I will review the material and edit the project over the next two semesters in the documentary film workshop of the Film Studies Department. Although I have plenty to work with, it is important to me to keep the process alive, and I have applied for an additional grant to return to Colorado in November to conduct more interviews and document the changes to the landscape. I suspect that May 1999 will not mark the end of my engagement with these issues, and I have already begun to think of how I will continue to work and broaden the context, as the questions facing Boulder County become the questions that are being, or will soon be raised in communities across the West.

This summer I spent two months in South Africa, primarily in Capetown, interning for the Southern Africa Environment Project (SAEP). Before this trip, I felt that I had a strong academic background in the Sub-Saharan African region in general, but knew very little about the anomaly that South Africa presents. But in the time I spent in the country this summer, I was briefly introduced to the complexity and dynamism that characterizes South Africa and makes its various peoples so passionate about "their" home.

SAEP is a non-profit environmental organization founded and run by an American lawyer. Africa is a current hot-spot for non-profits, and as I was reminded this summer, not all are equally viable. Unfortunately I found SAEP to be less than effective as an organization, but learned important lessons in how not to run a non-profit, particularly as a foreigner in a rapidly developing nation. My work there, however, was by no means useless. I was fortunate to live and work next to the University of Capetown where I developed some valuable contacts.

The University's "Energy for Development Research Centre" (EDRC) was particularly forthcoming in assisting my investigations of economic and environmental aspect of the South African mineral and energy sectors, which are quite significant and influential. This area of study was indirectly related to my senior essay research in petrostate economies and provided a useful comparison. Through the EDRC, I had the opportunity to speak with researchers there and to attend a parliamentary hearing regarding the future of South Africa's regionally-significant and politically powerful electric company, Eskom. Observing this interface between the (often blurred) public and private sectors of a developing economy was interesting and helped me identify important questions about corporate/governmental interactions that I will need to address in my senior essay research. In addition, by doing academic research in Africa I discovered (or was pointed towards) resources on this region that otherwise I would not have known . In the course of my internship, and based largely on my findings at the EDRC, I produced a paper for SAEP entitled "Reconciliation of Interests: Environmental Regulation in South Africa's Energy Sector." Though this work will not be directly incorporated into my senior essay research, it was a useful exercise in methodology in this area of study.

Much of what I learned in South Africa (environmental and otherwise) took place outside the auspices of my internship. Though I spent most of my time in and around Capetown (a beautiful area), I did have the opportunity to take several short trips to other parts of the region. Several times I visited a family (loosely affiliated with SAEP) that runs the Knysna Elephant Park east of Capetown, between Knysna and Plettenberg. Long-time residents of this beautiful and less-developed region of the country, the Withers run their small family business with the goal of environmental education in mind. Much of their clientele is tourists who visit the beautiful beaches, but they also host school groups and train teachers.

In the course of an eight-hour drive, we traversed at least four biome types. We began in the dense Knysna forests, where Ian Withers described the ecological history of his home region, pointing out the extensive invasion of exotic species in the area and finding a few examples of the indigenous species that prevailed several years ago when the "Knysna elephants" were still in existence. From there, we crossed dramatic (and narrow!) mountain passes at high altitudes and eventually ended up in the Karoo Desert, a rainshadow desert on the far side of the mountains that line the Knysna region. On our return, we followed a stretch of beach along the Indian Ocean famous for its surfing conditions... and subsequent shark attacks. Never have I seen such beautiful scenery and extensive biodiversity in such a geographically small area. Having knowledgeable guides, who told us about the geology, vegetation, climate and folk history of each area, really made the experience unique. The night sky there is the most impressive that I have ever seen. In the virtual absence of light pollution, the Southern Hemisphere views of the Milkyway and Southern Cross were stunning.

I made one brief final trip into the surrounding southern African countries of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. One Zambian guide asked me to explain the American tendency to mix in the affairs of Africans. "I don't mean to sound rude," he prefaced by saying, "but how can American officials tell us how to manage our wildlife populations when they have perhaps never even seen a wild elephant and know nothing of appropriate population sizes for this species in this region?"...I met passionate people who love their country and see it changing rapidly. The incredible diversity in the landscape, ecosystems, and cultures of Southern Africa make this rapid change even more complex, and I will now follow the process much more closely.