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Summer Internship with the Harris Center for Conservation Education

Story By:
Will Wrobel | Videographer/Producer
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The contrast of high-visibility vests against the rural backdrop of Route 123 in Stoddard, NH, would normally be an unusual sight for passing drivers. For seven weeks in the summer, a group of Keene State Environmental Studies students who don the protective clothing and walk the area are a common view.

Will Holden, Bryan Mindermann, Elizabeth King, and Meaghan O’Dwyer, are interns working with the Harris Center for Conservation Education and Professor William Fleeger to document the impact of roads on wildlife and the environment in Southern New Hampshire.

They seek out and document every case of road kill possible in order to identify hotspots and problem areas, which often requires the interns to get up close and personal with the remains of animals. The work may sound unsavory, but the implications of the study are important to the mission of the Harris Center.

“This is a project that we’ve been working with the Keene State interns for three summers on. In this region the Harris Center has protected nearly 22,000 acres of land from development, and much of it is bisected by roads. We’re wondering how roads impact the wildlife that use our protected lands and whether we can make the roads more wildlife-friendly through signs or infrastructure changes like tunnels or fencing,” said Brett Thelen, Science Director at the Harris Center.

Twice a week, the interns walk five transects of land, a total of four miles, with a spreadsheet, a whiteboard, a GPS location device and a camera. For each animal encountered (either living or dead), they record the species and location and take a photograph. This data is then entered into a database that will give a snapshot of the location of problem areas or areas commonly frequented by wildlife.

“There’s a greater purpose as to why we walk these roads. The road will be paved again in a few years, and the road crew can know where the hotspots are so they can build infrastructure like tunnels under the road that help animals and amphibians cross safely,” said Will Holden.

For the Harris Center staff, work of this nature is ordinary. For the four Keene State College interns, it’s an opportunity to get out and put the skills learned in the classroom to good use. Additionally, the firsthand experience with working in the field gives the interns an idea of what’s to come after leaving Keene State. “It’s hands-on, so it’s awesome. It gives you a taste of a few different roads you can take with your degree based on what you might be interested in,“ said Lizzy King.

The road mortality study is as much an exercise in independence and teamwork as in the scientific.

“We’re training them in species identification and data collection, but then they’re really out here on their own as a team. I see a lot of growth happening in them. It’s pretty amazing, they come in and they’re excited, but they don’t know a lot yet. And they mature so much in such a short period of intense work,” said Thelen.

For many people, the smells associated with the world would be an immediate disqualifier, but for these four students, it’s almost a badge of pride. “My other job is to scoop ice cream, but I’d rather pick dead frogs off the ground,” said King. “Yeah, I like to tell people my job,” laughed O’Dwyer.

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