Recent Participants

Ariel Drehobl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent last summer at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California, helping to develop a Google Earth video and other educational programs.

I was drawn to the unique opportunities that the Field School offered, both academically and in the field. I learned a lot about U.S. policy and resource management, and also learned some information related to my senior thesis on nuclear environmental history visiting Golden Gate's Nike Missile Site.

I was really inspired by the beauty and fascinating aspects of the natural environment of Golden Gate. These are some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and their beauty inspired in me the desire to protect and preserve them.

I helped develop a Google Earth video that allows viewers to learn about the effects of climate change on 11 different sites in Golden Gate and San Francisco. I also contributed to a podcast with the program Earth to Sky, and helped with other educational programs in Golden Gate.  You can watch the Google Earth video here.

Hannah Schwalbe

 

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I was placed in Glacier National Park as a biological technician, doing flora and fauna research. My internship focused on gathering data about the locations and growth of invasive plant species in the park. Glacier's goal is to better understand the flora and fauna in the park and how to best combat issues facing the park such as invasive species, climate change, and visitor use.

A typical day included spending time in the field hiking Glacier's trails and completing a plant survey. I also helped in entering data in the office, organizing citizen scientists who gathered data for the park, and helping other park interns with their projects including mountain goat, pika, and loon research.

My internship kept me outside exploring the over 700 miles of trails in Glacier and the amazing scenery of the Rocky Mountains, and occasionally visiting Canada's Waterton Park. During my free time I was able to do some backpacking, biking, canoeing, and swimming.

 My time in Glacier increased my love for the outdoors and my interest in conservation. I may have learned more during the summer of 2011 than I have during my entire time at Northwestern. I returned to Northwestern with a thorough knowledge of fieldwork, leadership skills, and an understanding of the National Park Service, as well as enthusiasm for traveling, which I hope to take with me for the rest of my life. 

 

Dan Sloan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent this past summer at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, located in the city of San Francisco and its surrounding counties. Golden Gate is relatively unique among NPS units for its urban location and for the variety of its natural and historic resources. Prior to the establishment of GGNRA, the land had a long history of use by the military, and so in addition to protecting ecosystems, the park also is charged with preserving this cultural legacy. My boss Laura is the park’s Sustainability Coordinator, and my project for the summer was creating guidelines for renewable energy projects within GGNRA. Accordingly, I spent my time researching renewable technologies and interviewing park staff to learn how such projects could avoid adverse impacts to the park’s natural and cultural resources. I wrote up my findings into a document with sections for natural resources, cultural resources, and logistical considerations. Additionally, I spent some time helping Laura plan for updating the park’s infrastructure for electric vehicles. In the course of my work, I was also able to take trips to see many of GGNRA’s scenic and historic properties, from redwoods in Muir Woods to WWII coastal gun batteries to Alcatraz Island. My coworkers were incredibly hard-working, intelligent and kind people who took an active interest in my work and in my life at the park.  In my free time, it was amazing to explore the city of San Francisco. All in all, working and living at the park was an amazing experience, and I’d recommend the Environmental Field School program to anyone with an interest in the environment. 

 

Taylor Jang

  

 

Aloha! In summer, 2010, I worked at the USDA Pacific Basin

Agricultural Research Center (PBARC) as a student researcher, in Hilo

on the Big Island of Hawaii.  My research focused on sustainable

agriculture, consisting of two parts.  For the first part, I

researched an integrated pest management (IPM) program, which reduce

the amount of pesticides sprayed on agricultural fields through a

multi-pronged approach.  I experimented with the augmentation of

populations of parasitoid wasps to control the melon fly infestation.

For the second part, through established USDA contacts I conducted a

series 12 of interviews evaluating the future of sustainable

agriculture on the island, speaking with some of the most prominent

and innovative growers in Hawaii. I traveled to their farms and

learned about their practices, market strategies and outlook on the

compatibility of environmentalism and agriculture.  Moreover, I was

often gifted freshly grown produce (I still dream about the mangoes

and pineapples!).

My experience was personally and professionally valuable. The reality

of living in Hawaii is very different from visiting and I came to

appreciate a unique ‘local’ culture. During downtime, I learned how to

surf, hiked the trails of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and visited

the world-renowned observatory on Mauna Kea.

 

Michael McGuire

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During the past summer, I had the opportunity to work at Channel Islands National Park, which is located off the coast of Southern California. Over the course my seven weeks in California, I learned about the history of the Channel Islands, the plant and animal life of the islands, the problems that the national park faces, and the strategies and solutions that the park enacts. Because the Channel Islands had been altered by ranchers and the park relatively new, the park is in the process of restoring a variety of the islands’ natural resources. For three weeks, I actually stayed on Santa Cruz Island to work on a wetlands restoration project. Along with two field ecologists and another intern, I removed invasive species and monitored other plant species in the project area. Seeing bald eagles, dolphins, and Island foxes at work and on the way to the island made the trip especially enjoyable. Another one of my main tasks was to digitize off-road tracks from hunting vehicles on Santa Rosa Island. A deer and elk hunting operation currently exists on the island, but the park is shutting down the operation at the end of 2011. The non-native deer and elk are destroying vegetation, and hunters inflict damages by driving over vegetation. Using a high-definition satellite image and GIS software, I mapped the system of trails that hunters traveled on, digitizing over 200 miles of paths in the process. This provided further evidence that the hunting operation was detrimental to the natural resources of Santa Rosa Island.

 

The experience was absolutely awesome and unforgettable. I worked with really cool and interesting people who were willing to share their knowledge and expertise. This program has given me additional perspective for my environmental science courses, and I found it valuable to learn so much outside of the classroom.

 

Casey Brock-Wilson

In Summer 2010, I interned in San Francisco at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, GGNRA for short. GGNRA is like no other, an urban park that covers seven ecological zones in 73,000 acres and provides a place for recreation for 15 million visitors every year. Its urban setting provides an additional set of management challenges, especially regarding public use. A clear cost of such public use is the amount of waste that left in the park, legally or illegally. So, among many projects, I worked to document the current state of the park's waste management infrastructure and then to recommend some changes for the future. Being new to San Francisco, the project was perfect--it took me from the redwoods of Muir Woods to the ruins of Sutro Baths. I saw every area of the park where there was a trash or recycling container. In any extra time I had, I worked to create a building "Energy Report Card" for staff buildings, revamp the staff recycling program and "green" administrative initiatives. 
Working for NPS was a fantastic experience, and there is no better place to do it than GGNRA. I worked with smart and motivated people, who somehow managed to do great things within the confines of a large government bureaucracy. At the same time, I was able to explore a new city, celebrating my birthday on the top of Twin Peaks, climbing Mt. Tamalpais, and getting a behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz. GGNRA is an incredible park in a beautiful city.

Meryl Summers

In summer 2008 I was an intern at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. In this part of Alaska, which is about five hours north of Anchorage, there is nothing but enormous mountains and vast open space everywhere you look. Over the course of two months, I was involved in many projects including filming and writing a script for a Pod cast that will eventually be on the park website, and working on the Tanada fish weir which collects data about sockeye and king salmon to determine if commercial fisheries are over fishing, and also to insure that there are enough resources for the Natives who live in and around the park to live sustainably. I also did a significant amount of research on climate change, and displayed my results on the informational boards in the visitor's center. Throughout my summer, it was alarming to actually be able to see the effects climate change is having on the boreal forest in this area. Trees are falling over due to melting permafrost, and invasive species such as the spruce-bark beetle are traveling further north, turning once-healthy spruce trees into gray, deceased, Dr.Suess-like looking ones. I loved making friends with the residents of the small community of Slana where I lived. Everyone I met had incredible stories of how they came to live in this remote area of Alaska. They all lived, what an urban community would call, an incredibly simple life-style-living off the land by eating salmon, picking blueberries, hunting, and chopping firewood, and often times functioning without running water or electricity. These people are so connected and have such a deep appreciation for nature, which I loved engaging myself in.

Jesse Sleamaker

In summer 2008 I interned in San Francisco's Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). The park is largely in an urban setting and because water, dense city, and roadways separate its areas, park managers are presented with a very different set of challenges than "traditional" national parks like Yosemite or Yellowstone. I was tasked with writing a green purchasing policy at GOGA - the Park's first, and what was hoped to be the most comprehensive in the Park System. My daily routine was varied and exciting. I spent half of my time in the office working on product research and policy writing and the other half outside. One of my main challenges was creating "buy in" from various park staff, which involved traveling and having conversations with people concerning their inventories, philosophies of management, and challenges they were facing in "greening" the park. Highlights were working with the Nike Missile site (a historical cold war era nuclear missile silo) to purchase environmentally friendly hydraulic fluid, visiting WWII-era bunkers in Fort Miley, and doing a presentation to the senior staff of a 4 million + visitor/year park.

The experience was fantastic. I learned a huge amount about NPS and what it takes to design and implement environmental measures within a large government bureaucracy. My work always felt more like concerted advocacy and activism than it did "working for the man". I always felt incredibly welcome in the NPS family. My time at the GGNRA has left me with an understanding of federal natural and cultural resource management, as well as with a more intimate knowledge of the place I was born and raised, and a group of new friends there that I will never forget.

January 30, 2012