I have always been extremely passionate about the environment, and even though I didn’t have a particular job in mind, I felt a career in Natural Resources was the right path for me. I felt even more strongly about this after my internship. This summer, I interned in Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department. Within this internship, I rotated through five different parks/community centers, one of which was the Annie Louise Wilkerson, MD Nature Preserve Park. I was only at Wilkerson for two weeks, but almost every day, I would work on something different than the day before. My three favorite jobs or projects are as follows: turtles, trees, and teaching summer camp.

Turtles

Wilkerson is one of the data collection sites for the state-wide Box Turtle Connection Project. When a Wilkerson staff member comes across an Eastern Box Turtle at the park, they mark the turtle, collect data, and then release it back into the wild. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in this project, and during my internship, I came across eight different turtles. For data, we record the date, the turtle’s mass, number of scutes on its shell (right, left, vertebral, and marginal), its annuli count (number of rings on their scutes), any visible injuries or markings, measurements (length and width), where we found the turtle, and its sex (which can be estimated by eye color and whether a dip is present in the plastron/underside of the shell). Each turtle is also given a unique three-letter ID that corresponds with the marginal scutes (or scales) on its shell and is then marked with that ID. This way, if we come across this particular turtle again, we know we already have its initial data and can now compare the data and see how the turtle has changed or developed over time.

Over the years, the population of Eastern Box Turtles in the United States has been decreasing. The purpose of this project is not only to record data on individual turtles, but to monitor turtle populations for the next 100 years.

Trees

During my time at Wilkerson, I was involved in two different tree projects. The first was Wilkerson’s yearly survey on their Ash Trees. Due to an invasive species of beetle called the Emerald Ash Borer, Ash Trees are now an endangered species in North America. Wilkerson has around 130 marked Ash Trees on its land, and so, each year they take measurements and record the condition of each tree and tag any new trees. Although the population of Ash in Wilkerson appears to be thriving, staff will continue to monitor so they can take immediate action if the beetle is ever spotted.

Wilkerson is one of many East Coast parks facing deer overpopulation. Due to a lack of predators such as wolves or bears, deer populations are able to increase exponentially. Deer at the Preserve are eating many native species of plants to the point where many are not able to reach maturity, causing these native plant populations to dwindle. Wilkerson has developed a strategy to combat this by designating fenced areas that cannot be accessed by deer. These areas allow time and space for native species of plants to grow and mature, where, if they were not protected, would have been undoubtedly consumed by deer. While interning, I was able to help expand the fenced area and give these native species a chance at survival. Within this project, we also reduced the population of Sweetgum trees in this fenced area to increase open canopy space. We chose Sweetgum specifically because this species of tree populates much of Wilkerson. This is because Sweetgum is undesirable to deer and is therefore reaching maturity much more than species that are favored by deer.

Teaching

I also spent time helping teach the Young Naturalist Summer Camp, for kids aged 8-11. Much of my time at camp was spent helping out with crafts and shadowing lessons, but on my last day of camp, I was able to teach a lesson of my own on bats. Some of my favorite camp activities included dissecting an owl pellet, learning about weather and cloud cover, making a sun print, hiking, catching crawfish and salamanders in the stream, and making a sunflower seed greenhouse. I have worked in summer camps in the past, but never in the environmental field. It was extremely exciting to be able to teach kids about a subject that I am so passionate about.

As I continue on in college, I hope to have future intern or work study opportunities within the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department. I felt overall that the experiences and knowledge I gained this summer will be an asset in my future career. The biggest lesson I learned about a career in Natural Resources is to expect the unexpected, and never stop learning and practicing new skills.