The Student Experiences in Conservation summer internship program at Shirley Heinze Land Trust is over, and it was fantastic. It’s truly amazing what these students were able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time. While it would be far too exhausting to draft a comprehensive narrative capturing the full breadth of their experiences and the depth of their impact, below are a few programs and experiences that offer a glimpse of what the Summer Internship program looks like.
Two interns focused extensively on water quality work–collecting samples in the field, processing samples at the National Park Service lab, calibrating equipment and creating content for an online course for Chesterton High School. You can read more about our commitment to water quality monitoring on our website. Through water quality monitoring, SHLT not only collects data and provides important educational resources to community stakeholders, but it’s also a way in which we partner with other regional conservation organizations to deepen the impact of our work in northwestern Indiana.
On the stewardship side of the organization, interns supported both core stewardship activities and project-based work. Throughout the summer, two interns were dedicated to the stewardship team and worked on the field crew managing invasive species and maintaining trails on our preserves. Additionally, they conducted monitoring of invasive plants using ArcGIS software. Such monitoring activities are used to create a baseline establishing the presence or absence of invasive species that will be targeted for treatment over the next four years. These monitoring activities are used to draft long-term management plans on our preserves and are only possible with added capacity we gain through the summer internship program. One of the project-based programs involved several interns who visited multiple SHLT preserves and mapped infrastructure (i.e. bridges, boardwalks, and signs) using ArcGIS. This project helps stewardship not only by creating an up-to-date inventory of the infrastructure present on our preserves but also an assessment of its condition.
Though the work described above was the main focus of the summer internships for these students, the interns came together once a week to participate in Field Experiences. Most of these experiences were hikes on Shirley Heinze preserves, but we visited other places too. These Friday excursions were times when the interns could come together to learn about the incredibly special ecology found in the northwestern Indiana—an education usually facilitated by Eric Bird (Stewardship Director) or Doug Botka (Stewardship Ecologist)—and build relationships with their peers who are also pursuing careers in conservation.
These interns were with us for only 10 weeks, but the projects and programs they supported have helped to advance the engagement, water quality, agricultural and stewardship strategies of the organization.