Summer Interns Contribute to Research & Stewardship Efforts

In the summer of 2024, the Harris Center hired seven interns from four universities to help with a variety of conservation research and stewardship initiatives, from monitoring conservation easements to drafting forest management plans.

Out of the Classroom & Into the Field

In late June, we wrapped up our eleventh season of the Harris Center-Keene State College conservation internship program, a two-month paid summer internship experience for undergraduate students in environmental studies, biology, and related fields at Keene State College.

This conservation internship program is designed to provide hands-on learning experiences for undergraduates with an interest in environmental studies. Sometimes those experiences involve wading through wetlands to collect data! (photo © Brett Amy Thelen)

Under the mentorship of KSC professor Karen Seaver and Harris Center ecologists Brett Amy Thelen and Nate Marchessault, four motivated undergraduate interns — Lexi Barrett, Chloe March, Carissa Miller, and Irini Stefanakos — explored many facets of the Harris Center’s diverse conservation, education, and stewardship work.

Together, the team surveyed for vernal pools, conducted forest community inventory, pulled invasive plants, monitored Wood Duck nest boxes, checked trail cams, established an emerald ash borer monitoring plot, counted bats emerging from SuperSanctuary roost sites, inventoried the Harris Center’s teaching collection of bird nests, feathers, taxidermied specimens, and more.

“[Every day,] I learned more and more about tree identification, land use history, and the ecology of central New England forests. There is no way that I could have gleaned all of this valuable knowledge from a classroom. The hands-on field experience that this internship has provided has prepared me for life after college. I have the tools to succeed in any direction I choose in ecology and/or  field research.”

— Chloe March

From Birds to Trees…and Many Points in Between

In the spring, Chris Liazos of Antioch University New England served as our Bird Conservation Intern, working closely with Bird Conservation Director Phil Brown on a number of research and stewardship initiatives, including installing 10 new Wood Duck boxes on Harris Center lands with a team of Ducks Unlimited volunteers; building, installing, and monitoring American Kestrel nest boxes; conducting acoustic monitoring of American Goshawk breeding territories; developing a protocol for logging all nest box data via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program; and co-leading several birding outings.

In the summer, Chris returned as our Erik Buxton Land Intern. In that role, he drafted forest management plans for two new Harris Center properties; performed extensive forest and bird community surveys of our  Granite Lake Headwaters property; measured Broad-winged Hawk nest trees; assisted with a new Wood Thrush tagging project; created maps and reports; and helped with invasive plant management and trail maintenance.

Easement monitoring intern Kate McKay uses a GPS unit to navigate through the woods.
(photo © Lucy McKay)

Critical Help With a Critical Task

Once a landowner has placed a conservation easement on their property, the Harris Center is responsible for ensuring that the easement terms are upheld, even if the property changes hands. In order to do this, we must conduct monitoring visits to all of our 130+ conservation easements each year.

It would not be possible to complete this enormous and critical task without the help of hard-working undergraduates Kate McKay (pictured) of Cornell University and Siobhan Day of Belmont University, who were hired as this summer’s conservation easement monitoring interns. Together, they will have monitored more than 100 properties by summer’s end. (The remaining lands will be monitored by Harris Center staff and volunteers this fall.)