News & Events
*Link of the week*
50 Percent of Food is Wasted Causing Water, Food and Hunger Crisis - a recent report by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute.
New internship opportunities for EPC students
The Program on Environmental Policy and Culture invites students to apply for an internship at one of three different adjacent sites in Northbrook--the Somme Prairie Nature Preserve, Somme Prairie Grove, and Somme Woods, for fall quarter. These three forest preserve sites include prairie, savanna, and woodland communities. This is a great opportunity for EPC students to get involved in an important local environmental project.
Each internship requires about 10 hours per week, additional readings, and a paper for course credit.
The internships may combine indoor and outdoor work, and may include one or more of the following assignments, depending on the student's interests and Somme priorities:
1. Trails: mapping the boundaries and existing trails of the site (and the management units) using GPS equipment. The student will be trained to use the equipment. Some eroded trails need to be resurfaced in some way. The intern will research the best ways to do this in a dedicated Illinois nature preserve. Somme Prairie
2. Restoration: The goal for these sites is to restore natural processes so that the area will become as self sustainable as possible. The work involves removing invasive species, gathering and sowing seeds, and documenting changes. All sites
3. Weekday work days -- manage school and other groups who wish to visit and work at the preserve during the week. For the fall season these groups would collect the seed of the rare wildflowers and grasses. All sites.
4. Coordinate the preserve's butterfly, bird, and dragonfly monitors. Help them organize monitoring data into an easily accessible form. Arrange a meeting of the monitors to share findings, examine the effects of restoration efforts on various populations, help establish new goals. SommePrairie
5. Create a map of all the big old trees (especially the bur, white and swamp white oaks -- the key trees of this ecosystem). Somme Woods
6. Complete the work of chipping the trail to "the Mighty Acorns opening." (a conservation project for grades 4-6). Somme Prairie
7. Construct and install wire cages for protecting rare plants from deer. All sites
8. Create a data base of the various studies that have taken place at the Somme Natural Preserve, possibly a website for monitoring current studies and findings. Somme Prairie
9. Create an outreach program, work with neighbors, local groups, and on the Northwestern and other schools campuses to develop awareness of Somme and its needs, and bring more volunteers to help with restoration and monitoring activities. All sites
10. Research the history of ownership and management of Somme and and write a more complete history of the preserve. All sites
11. Shrubland restoration. Learn to distinguish among eight species of shrubs (some pests; some natural). Map, plan for, execute and document shrubland restoration (an emerging discipline).
12. Photography (for a student who has equipment, skills, and interest.) Somme Prairie
Requirements: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior year student, responsible and independent. Independent transport to and from location (around Dundee Rd. and Western Ave. in Northbrook, about 13 miles from campus)
To apply for Fall quarter please email the following information to Professor Wolinsky
y-woli@northwestern.edu by 9/2/2008 (a different deadline will be announced for winter and spring quarter internships at these sites):
1. statement of interest (up to 500 words)
2. list of relevant courses
3. preferred assignments
4. year in the program.
