This month I’ve been in the field half of the time and the other half in the office. Right now is time when birds from the north start migrating down to our preserve. It’s our job to prepare our wetlands so that these birds have the proper habitat they need to forage and rest. The typical preparation process starts with “resetting” the pond. What this mean is that we mow and disc “problem” areas within the pond before we flood it up. Areas with unwanted plants by birds are associated as “problem” spots. Once we reset the pond, we can start next step of pumping water into the ponds. Before we run the water pump, we check the water control structures (WCS) and make sure that it sealed tight before any water is added to the pond to prevent wasting water. We then open the valve associated with that pond and check other adjoining valves to see if they are closed since some are connected via underground piping. Once the proper valve(s) are opened, we initialize the connecting pump and double check that water is flowing out of the intended valve at the proper rate of speed. This process repeats approximately 43 more times by the middle of December since we have 44 ponds to manage.

During this time of the year, we also monitor the bird use within the ponds that we flood up. This means that as we flood additional ponds throughout the season, the workload increases as well. In addition to the new workload, we have to manage eight special ponds for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). USGS is conducting an experiment to test how well our wetlands absorb naturally occurring toxic methylmercury. Since these eight ponds are a part of the experiment, we have to treat them differently in accordance with USGS expectations. All eight ponds are to be filled up at the same time and specific instrumentations are to be placed within the WCSs.

Flooding up the ponds is my favorite part of this job. It allows all the plants and macroinvertebrates to thrive and with that an abundance of birds such as Canada geese, the popular sandhill crane, and black-necked stilts. Seeing these birds reminds me what kind of difference this job can have.

Another neat part of my job assignment this month is helping with grant proposals so that we can restore habitat for the federal-listed endangered giant garter snake (GGS). Since I have some GIS skills, I was tasked with creating maps to supplement the grant proposal text. The goal was to create a set of maps that could tell the entire story of what we were trying to accomplish with the money. It had to contain information such as proposed restoration sites, relevant habitat corridors, and urban infrastructures. The process of creating these maps took numerous edits and revisions; an important, but somewhat tedious task. I was also asked to create a literature cited page by using some existing sources from the previous Environmental Enhancement Fund (EEF) grant. Utilizing my previous education in engineering, we also calculated some dimensions of the proposed wetland restoration site. By helping our staff with this grant proposal process, I learn a lot about what applying for a grant entitles. It’s something I like to be more involved with later in the future of this internship, if possible.