For many young adults, knowing what career to pursue and how to get there can be daunting. For those interested in environmental fields, internships provide an opportunity to gain valuable experience with on-the-ground conservation work. Agencies and organizations benefit from motivated individuals able to assist with many monitoring, restoration and environmental education projects. It’s a win-win situation for the interns and for wildlife! Here’s a snapshot of some of great work that interns at the Chesapeake Bay Ecological Services Field Office were involved in this year.
Julia Moya, Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps Intern
Julia spent time in the field with many biologists. She assisted Chesapeake Bay with annual winter muskrat hut surveys in restored wetlands located on Poplar Island in Chesapeake Bay. She spent time in the field with biologists performing wildlife and vegetation surveys, including the annual winter muskrat hut survey in restored wetlands located on Poplar Island in Chesapeake Bay. Julia also assisted with songbird banding and acoustic bat surveys at the Masonville Cove Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership in Baltimore.
Not only did Julia work hard in the field, she also applied her talent to educating the public on important issues. Julia Moya hosted a table at the Fort Meade Earth Day Celebration, presenting posters with information on bird collision mitigation and pollinator awareness. She also represented the Service at the Patapsco Heritage Greenway's Festival del Rio Latino Conservation Day event at the Patapsco Valley State Park presenting information on native plants and how benefit pollinating insects, but also improve water quality. A poster was displayed with information in both English and Spanish.
For her Capstone Project at Masonville Cove Urban Wildlife Refuge in Baltimore, Julia demonstrated container pollinator gardening using native plants (that she grew at the USGS Patuxent Bee Lab from seed). She also added herbs used by pollinators as host plants to show co-benefits and educated participants how they can use small spaces to conserve pollinators. Julia created the flyer for the event and a sign that will be installed at Masonville Cove next to the container garden with information and project ideas.
Estela Garcia, Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Intern
Estela Garcia’s internship focused on creating and updating GIS data for habitat protection and restoration. Estela worked closely with the Coastal, Partners for Fish and Wildlife, Endangered Species and Urban Wildlife Refuge Programs to complete a variety of projects. Estela created a step-by-step guidance document for staff unfamiliar with ArcGIS Pro to easily gain access to ArcGIS Online At-Risk Species data layers. Using existing GIS layers, databases and a marsh restoration model, Estela produced a GIS layer of priority urban salt marsh salt marsh
Salt marshes are found in tidal areas near the coast, where freshwater mixes with saltwater.
Learn more about salt marsh restoration locations in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s Counties in Maryland. She also created an engaging and informative panel for the Poplar Island Motus Wildlife Tracking System tower to enhance public understanding and appreciation of bird monitoring efforts on the island. Finally, Estela compiled results of a confiscated turtle housing needs survey into a report documenting turtle care and rehabilitation facilities needs and created a PowerPoint presentation depicting the most important information from the survey.
In addition, she helped biologists with various other projects. Estela assisted with mussel surveys, mapped invasive thistle species on Poplar Island using ArcGIS Field Maps App, assisted with monitoring osprey nests on Poplar Island, guided nature walks groups in Spanish at the Festival del Rio in Patapsco State Park and volunteered for weekend activities with the Masonville Cove Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership including: community shoreline clean-up, bird house building event at Brooklyn Branch Library and planting a native species pollinator container garden.
Follow Up
Julia Moya has gotten a position as an Environmental Specialist for the Maryland Environmental Service on Poplar Island doing outreach and education, technical writing and field monitoring work. Estela Garcia is back at North Carolina State University, finishing her last undergraduate year majoring in Environmental Science with a concentration in GIS. Estela is still part of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program.
