Summer Internship Week 1 at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Reserve

By Michael Carson
Environmental & Plant Biology internship at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Reserve, Huron, OH

I arrived at the Old Woman Creek National Estuary Research Reserve a week ago today. The first week was pretty slow since I had to read up on some papers concerning the surveying of aquatic plants in the estuary itself, something I do not have experience in, so I mostly had to familiarize myself with estuary and the area overall.

However, in my free time I got to hike all the beautiful trails they have here, and I also went kayaking a few times on the estuary itself to get a firsthand view of the areas I will be surveying. Like I said, I did not do a lot of exciting things the first week, but it is amazingly beautiful here, not just the plants but wildlife as well with a wide range of insects, to beavers and muskrats, and the most spectacular birds in Ohio, herons, egrets, and bald eagles.

This week I will begin doing some preliminary work in the estuary. I will be going out and putting PVC pipe at the spots I will survey and link them up to GPS system. That is all for my first week I will post again when something worth taking home happens.