tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59146347042186491462024-02-20T22:47:27.076-05:00Unity College in Maine Internship ProgramNicole Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04658918240553847342noreply@blogger.comBlogger361125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-17568917606168438522018-05-11T16:41:00.002-04:002018-05-11T16:41:38.251-04:00Last Week (5/7-5/11)<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This was a really busy last week, but my time at Waterfall Arts has taught me so much about art and how it affects small communities like this one. I sat in the gallery nearly every time I went in this week, and I got to talk to some of the visitors and observe a class of 4th/5th graders talk about their favorite pieces of art in the show. It's really amazing to get to see how much this community surrounds itself with art and takes part in things that Waterfall provides for everyone. It's kind of sad to think I won't be coming back, but I hope that I can get chances in the future to come back and see how this little community has morphed around the wonderful world of art.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-58502954299715607252018-05-11T16:35:00.002-04:002018-05-11T16:35:39.941-04:00Interviews 4/30-5/4<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">As my time at Waterfall is nearing the end, I've been trying to get artist interviews finalized and ready to be posted in the blog. I got to meet with another of the artists in person, Gianne, and I was also assigned another artist to try and interview, Tom Ventura. I haven't heard back much from other artists, though Mary Faith is really excited to meet me in person if we can ever find a good time! I also was upset that for the Bread & Puppet event last Friday I was too sick to go out and attend, so I not only lost a good opportunity for hours, I lost an opportunity to interact with community members and see how much this event is enjoyed by so many. Though I missed out on this, I've been sitting in the gallery mostly, and that's a good time to get to talk to people that come in to look at the art.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-15523945176195957932018-05-11T13:52:00.003-04:002018-05-11T13:52:57.734-04:00Bread & Puppet Week (4/23-4/27)<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This is an exciting and busy week for Waterfall Arts as they prepare for one of their bigger events, Bread & Puppet, coming up this Friday 4/26. I've been given a lot of paperwork that the office needs entered in spreadsheets to keep track of all their records for things like scholarship applications and class evaluation sheets. This paperwork is a really nice task to have because I can take it back to Unity with me and enter the data from there as well. Things are starting to get a lot more busy with the semester coming to an end, but my projects at Waterfall are coming along still (though it is a slow process).</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-47731341556803910332018-05-11T13:46:00.003-04:002018-05-11T13:46:45.239-04:00Getting Close to the End (4/16-4/20)<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This week I got some more interview questions answered by artists, though I'm still waiting for more replies and more chances to meet with the others (or hopefully run into them around the building). The information for the summer classes is almost finished being entered! I am also looking forward to an event that's happening next Friday called Bread & Puppet. It's supposed to be a really good show according to many locals that I spoke to about it as I went around town putting up flyers for the event. It'll be a good opportunity for more hours in addition to communicating with the public, photographing, and event set-up. This will be my first time seeing this event as well, so I can't wait!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-61031433995366294942018-05-11T13:37:00.001-04:002018-05-11T13:37:32.942-04:004/9-4/13<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This was a slow week at Waterfall, I'm mostly waiting for more interviews to be scheduled to happen so I sent follow up emails to all the artists. Most of this week was spent doing some office tasks and trying to meet up with artists/gathering info for the upcoming website. I continued to enter information on summer classes for the website as that info is still being updated and finalized.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-61097720541178291652018-05-03T20:10:00.000-04:002018-05-03T20:10:00.901-04:00Second to last post- Audubon Internship
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Annica and I are beginning to collect volunteer submissions
for the 2018 remote pond/ coastal stream survey. The Brook Trout Project report
for 2017 is awaiting publishing, as we have finished all our data entries and
sent the document off to MDIFW (Maine Dep. Of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife). After
editing this report, originally written by another author, the extreme importance
of detail-attentiveness was proven to me yet again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is so easy to miss very small details, and
takes several revisions to ensure consistency… Particularly if you’re not
writing something first-hand. I’m sure I will run into report revision/editing
again, and this work served as a valuable lesson in ‘taking out a microscope’
when re-reading scientific lit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I completed my presentation in Dr. Jack Hopkins’ class this
week, and it was exciting to be back on campus. I am so happy to have had the
chance to engage with Dr. Hopkins throughout this internship. He is a wealth of
knowledge, extremely supportive and eager to learn about what we were up to
over at Audubon. I extend to him my utmost appreciation for being my sponsor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Annica and I are continuing to work together even after my internship
is completed. I am so happy I can maintain this amazing partnership. Annica
inspires me to be my best and is very encouraging in every way, the ideal
person to have in your life after graduating college. I’m so lucky to have had
this internship and can’t wait to see what comes next! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-83960453764868171322018-04-24T14:24:00.001-04:002018-04-24T14:24:20.137-04:00Updates from the last two weeks at Falmouth Audubon. It has been a crazy past few weeks! The season is ramping up and anglers are signing up for different ponds and streams. We are completing the reviews for Wildlife Roadwatch and ensuring all backlogs are caught up on as we begin to focus our attention on new volunteer opportunities for incoming citizen scientists. In between data entry and volunteer coordination, I'm working on little journal entries of wildlife observations as interesting ones are posted on the roadwatch page.<br />
<br />
More to come! I have a presentation with Jack Hopkins next week as my internship wraps up. Stay tuned. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QFL220l3xnY/Wt92QTbB_CI/AAAAAAAAABM/1TnkLHvpOcY3Y-QbTB-B5_6XZpJNoGXdACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0710.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QFL220l3xnY/Wt92QTbB_CI/AAAAAAAAABM/1TnkLHvpOcY3Y-QbTB-B5_6XZpJNoGXdACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0710.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-23409146282933551792018-04-08T17:55:00.000-04:002018-04-08T17:55:49.102-04:00Return from Break<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This was a pretty good week back at Waterfall Arts. I worked on getting all the info for the upcoming summer classes organized and formatted for the website. I got to meet with Ando Anderson and complete our interview for the blog, so next week I might begin to post in the WA blog. On Friday the 6th, I was introduced to two residents of the Waterfall Arts building who also have a boat that they live on. Meg would like me to interview them as well for the blog, and I can't wait because they are really interesting people and fun to talk to! The open-call event "Oceans" opened that night as well, and I took photos of the event and counted attendance. I also ran into Maxwell Nolin, one of the artists I'm going to interview. He had a beautiful piece in the show, and we connected about the interview and had a nice conversation. All in all, it was an eventful week, and the next one is going to bring more interviews and blog work. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-47978418704887340662018-04-07T13:17:00.001-04:002018-04-07T13:19:14.011-04:00Audubon: Busy season & notes from the State House. Things are getting busy with Audubon and we have just released our final report on the Brook Trout Survey from 2017 that I have helped finalize with Annica for Inland Wildlife and Fisheries. We are still working out some kinks now however because IFW had some data we were not privy to, so we are just now updating a few inconsistencies before Audubon publishes the report. Beyond that, Annica is gearing me up to start taking survey requests from volunteers and signing up these folks for ponds and coastal streams. We have had a few requests come in so far, and citizen scientists are eager to start angling again. <br />
<br />
In other news, I attended Conservation Lobby Day with Audubon on the fourth of April, and it was fantastic. We were lobbying in support of some Water Bonds due to hit the state house this year. We were hoping to get our senators and representatives to voice their support on behalf of their constituents (us). In addition to educating about these water bonds, we were coincidentally present the same day as the veto-override vote on LD1444,<strong> 'An</strong> <strong>Act To Prohibit Gross Metering’.</strong> Unfortunately I have just learned the veto from Governor LePage was upheld, meaning people who live off the grid will be metered and charged via CMP for their power usage, regardless of the fact they are not connected to the grid. Read below.<br />
<br />
<em>"<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "geneva" ,; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The bill, </span></em><a href="http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/SP049903.asp" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #006600; font-family: Roboto, Geneva, sans-seriff; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; transition: color 0.3s; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="parent"><em>LD 1444</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "geneva" ,; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><em>, would prevent the Public Utilities Commission from charging Mainers with solar installations for the electricity they produce. According to Beth Ahearn, political director with the group Maine Conservation Voters, defeat of the bill means those who have solar power will be required to have new electric meters, too."</em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "geneva" ,; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong>Please read more <a href="http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2018-04-06/energy-policy/override-of-solar-bill-veto-fails-in-maine-legislature/a62093-1">here (click)</a>.</strong> </span><br />
I am troubled by this but I know it's not the end, I can't believe that the public will stand for this. <br />
<br />
In relation to the upcoming water bonds, I was able to speak with my Representative (Kevin Battle) from South Portland and hear his slant on some new water bonds in the works that could help update a backlog near $24,000,000 of infrastructure repairs for my city. I did not meet my Senator (Rebecca Millet), which I was hardly concerned by because she has a 100% score on Conservation Maine's 'Environmental Policy Score Card', which means she's voted towards every pro-environmental bill/bond that's come her way. Representative Battle is an independent, who is retiring this year to become the Maine Harbor Master, so I hope clean water is important to him. Annica was able to speak with her ultra-conservative senators who are not usually environmentally aligned, and successfully confirmed their attendance to a conservation law forum happening this upcoming week. I do hope they go!<br />
<br />
I have rescheduled my presentation date with Dr. Jack Hopkins and will be on campus in May, doing a little show and tell in regards to the citizen science initiatives Audubon is responsible for. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-89936546744055402462018-04-03T18:35:00.001-04:002018-04-03T18:35:59.943-04:00Over Break<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">The past two weeks have been spring break, and I couldn't stick around in Maine, otherwise, I would have stayed and kept going into Waterfall Arts. However, I did get to make follow-up emails to board members and local artists for the interviews. I got responses the next day and was able to work out times to meet with some of the artists, as well as get some interview questions answered via email, though we still want to meet in person. I was also introduced to the next project that can be done from my own computer: organizing/adding information on the summer classes at WA to be put into the website format. I was also told that there is an event coming up April 6th, which I will happily help out with to get some more experience and hours! Now that I'm back, I look forward to spending more time completing my projects and meeting new artists.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-47587903816214189252018-03-17T18:38:00.002-04:002018-03-17T18:38:59.241-04:00Week 5 at WA<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">I didn't get to make it into Waterfall much this week, but on Monday I went in and did some filing/organizing of a bunch of posters and postcards from past events. I talked with Meg about what to do over spring break since I was going home. Updates are being made to the WA website, and I will be getting access to a google doc soon that will allow me to put in information on upcoming classes at WA onto the website format. I also intend on making some follow up emails to the artists I will be interviewing and the board members, as I only have two photos and one bio for the website right now. Hopefully I can fit a lot of hours in over break!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-84225150696686433482018-03-17T18:32:00.001-04:002018-03-17T18:32:29.325-04:00Week 4<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This week was pretty mellow, I'm slowly getting email responses from board members and I might be taking a few of their bio photos. I still haven't heard from Maxwell Nolin, but I went ahead and emailed two other Waterfall artists, Ando and Lisa. I have questions made up for them that I included in their email. I started gallery sitting today, if anyone comes in to look at the art I take a tally for the day. Looking forward to doing these interviews soon!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-3551244187492261892018-03-16T11:14:00.001-04:002018-03-16T11:14:42.818-04:00Audubon 3/14/2018<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
Annica and I are working on finalizing all the documents for the Brook Trout Survey volunteers before open water coming up in just two weeks. I am combing through our data and notes with a fine-toothed comb, and cross referencing all our material with IFW and<span> </span>Maine Audubon volunteer sheets. All in all, spending a lot of time on Excel and finding out how to deal with wonky<span> </span>entries. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
Annica and I are also discussing the upcoming loon count survey, which sounds to me has quite the cult following. The volunteer coordination for that survey is a BIG task. Furthermore, we're thinking about how USM has integrated some of the Maine Audubon initiatives into their bio curriculum in the past, and how<span> </span>we might start involving more schools with citizen science projects. In gist, we're spending a lot of time planning and getting everything in order in preparation for the busy busy busy season up ahead! Of course, I am also signed up to join Annica on conservation lobby day, where we will take on the roll of lobbyists at the State House and try to speak with our representatives about current water bonds and other pressing environmental issues that will be voted on this year. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
Here's some info incase you'd like to learn more: <a href="https://protectmaine.org/epc">https://protectmaine.org/epc</a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-13669119800856091822018-03-08T11:21:00.000-05:002018-03-08T11:21:10.320-05:00Week 3: First Event<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This week at Waterfall Arts I was assigned another project to work on; I am coming up with questions to ask local artist Maxwell Nolin that will be put in a blog on the WA website. This project is ongoing, after Max I will interview other artists at Waterfall and hopefully get a nice collection of interesting blogs. On Friday, I stayed late to help prepare for the Young Artist Gallery Takeover event. Art made by children ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade was displayed throughout the gallery, and my job was to photograph as much of the artwork and the people attending as possible. There was a short break during this event when a few girls from the after-school program at WA decided to put on a mostly impromptu play for everyone, which involved them running around dressed as kittens looking for mittens they lost. Overall, this event was really successful and it was a good way to start getting experience photographing events.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-86652563186291131732018-03-01T11:53:00.000-05:002018-03-01T11:53:27.751-05:00Audubon 2/28/18The internship is going smoothly and we are just working on logging data from the wildlife roadwatch project and are reaching out to the Brook Trout unlimited team as we enter the transitional phase of the remote pond/stream survey project. I am hoping to touch base with the biking coalition in Portland to see if anyone wants to get on board for some of this survey work in the spring. I'm utilizing some social media platforms to garner some interest. Annica sends me additional little projects throughout the week to help with workflow. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-4325282960096788772018-02-26T11:01:00.003-05:002018-02-28T13:23:58.926-05:00Falmouth Audubon 2/16 update. <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have been invited to participate in the Conservation Lobby day on April 4th. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">here is some information on the event from the Environmental Priorities Coalition website: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Over breakfast, you'll learn how to lobby your legislators with tips and tricks from our experts and hear about the Environmental Priorities Coalition's bills still in play this session. We'll focus on two water bonds that are critical to protecting clean water across Maine!</span><br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.9); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0b294f; font-family: proxima-nova, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then we'll head upstairs so that you can talk to your legislators about the environmental issues that matter most to you. Lobby Day will wrap up by noon, and then we'll hold a Clean Water Rally!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">I'm really looking forward to this event! Audubon Coordinator, Annica, and I are prepping research and questions for our legislators regarding these clean water bonds and maintaining a healthy environment for all of Maine. </span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-63076858117213410852018-02-24T20:54:00.000-05:002018-02-24T20:54:24.235-05:00Week 2: Waterfall Arts<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">This week I finished up the photo archive project; though there is one album left that contains 501 photos, but there seems to be a problem when trying to download it, so now I'm working on finding a way to fix this issue or get the photos from another employee who may have them in a folder. Aside from this, I was tasked with the job of emailing each of the WA board members about the updates that are being made to the board member page of the website. The following week I will work on the website update, and I am being introduced to a WA artist to write a blog about. The only other new task I did this week was fill out a few labels for some art pieces made by 8th graders that are going to be displayed in the gallery.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-59238526259701081512018-02-19T14:24:00.003-05:002018-02-19T14:24:44.259-05:00Week 1 at Waterfall Arts<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">My first week at Waterfall Arts was very low-key. I began my first ongoing project for them this semester, organizing their photo archive. For this project, I download photo albums from WA's Flickr website, then upload them into dropbox so they can better manage their photos. The only other small project I did this week was hang up posters and postcards around downtown Belfast to promote an upcoming event at WA. Next week I will most likely begin work on the creative blog project.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589099548460590851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-22767229969368830502018-02-19T12:54:00.001-05:002018-02-28T13:23:18.104-05:00Falmouth Audubon 2/2-2/9<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "segoe ui" , "segoe wp" , "segoe ui wpc" , "tahoma" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I have started administration tasks on the Wildlife Roadwatch page and will be working on cataloging a backlog of data from volunteers. Annica and I have also discussed my roll with the last stages of the Brook Trout Survey, which will slowly be passed off to the Trout Unlimited organization. There will be some data-plugging going on with that project as well, though Annica is waiting to hear back from a specialist on the TU team. We are also hoping to coordinate some student involvement and find ways to engage more volunteers, particularly with the budding endangered turtle survey project that Audubon is developing. In the meantime my 'homework assignments' have consisted of getting familiarized with the organizations we will be affiliated with throughout some of these projects, and also learning a little about a smartphone app Audubon hopes to start utilizing as a tool for citizen scientists to submit data. This app, called iNaturalist, will largely function as part of the endangered turtle project, which will look a lot like the wildlife roadwatch survey. Volunteers will submit mapped data, photos and descriptions of turtles found in or around roadways, dead or alive. I am working on getting in touch with a biking coalition in Portland, to try and find interest in this project amongst bikers in the Southern Maine area as well. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "segoe ui" , "segoe wp" , "segoe ui wpc" , "tahoma" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Annica and I also discussed some potential for visiting the statehouse and attending some meetings over environmental bills and laws being passed. Clearly, we have a lot planned and hope to make headway on some of these projects over the next few months! I am very excited to be working with Audubon, and it is great to see how some of these projects have grown. I highly recommend any interested students check out the iNaturalist app too! It's very cool and a great community-based science app. You can see all the cool wildlife people are seeing and photographing in your local area!</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-44779064875197601252018-02-19T12:51:00.002-05:002018-03-16T11:18:18.365-04:00Falmouth Audubon (1/26-2/2) Introduction.<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: "segoe ui" , "segoe wp" , "segoe ui wpc" , "tahoma" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">This Spring I will be working with the Falmouth Audubon, contributing to a few projects they currently have underway there. Annica Mcquirk, Audubon Project coordinator and Unity alum, is currently overseeing aspects of the Audubon Brook Trout Survey, Wildlife Roadwatch, and other citizen science initiatives. I will be collaborating with Annica to log and review survey data, organize volunteers, and administer project webpages. I have volunteered with the Maine chapter in the past, and spent a couple years working on these very same projects. The surveys have evolved and grown, and it's awesome to see how much progress has been achieved throughout all of them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "segoe ui";">For a little background on these projects, I'll quote some descriptions from Audubon's Brook Trout survey page. The survey itself has been divided into two titles: The Remote Pond Survey and The Coastal Stream Survey. The remote pond survey is described as "A collaborative effort by Maine Audubon, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) and the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited (METU). The goal is to recruit volunteers to identify previously-undocumented wild Brook Trout populations in remote Maine ponds. Maine contains over 6,000 lakes and ponds, and close to 1,000 of those waters had never been surveyed by fisheries biologists prior and have no records of any past stocking." The Coastal Stream survey is similar in nature, and described as "A collaborative effort by Maine Audubon, MDIFW, METU, and most recently the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition (SRBTC), the Coastal Stream Survey is a separate project that was added in 2014 to recruit volunteer anglers to gather data on wild Brook Trout in Maine’s coastal rivers and streams. Brook Trout that live in coastal streams may spend part of their lives in saltwater and come back to freshwater to spawn, a life history strategy called “diadromy.” Currently, the distribution and life history of coastal Brook Trout in Maine is poorly understood. Diadromous populations of Brook Trout appear to be declining throughout their range. There has never been an intensive survey of Maine’s coastal Brook Trout populations, so their current status in Maine is uncertain. Data collected by volunteers will be provided to biologists to inform future fisheries management decisions."<br />
The Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch is a "web-based map and database designed to record your observations of road-side and road-killed wildlife.<br />
Information about where wildlife attempt to cross roads, what animals are involved, on what kinds of roads are collisions frequent, and other data can help inform policy, management, and financial investment in reducing road-kill and habitat fragmentation. Maine Audubon scientists will use the data to improve our collective understanding of where wildlife attempt to cross roads and what we can do to reduce road-kill and increase safety for people and wildlife."<br />
<br />
We are starting on reviewing a backlog of data, and have discussed other opportunities arising in March and April. </span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-85429835475076804992018-01-05T15:51:00.001-05:002018-01-05T15:51:25.578-05:00Done at Green Chimneysmy last day at GC was on the 30 of December the time from the 17th to the 30th was a no kid and packing time. Overall the time I spent at GC will impact me greatly in my future career.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-67387284193475750442017-12-17T15:55:00.002-05:002017-12-17T15:55:33.070-05:00GC week 16This past week we had our holiday party, there were awards given out to the different sections of Green Chimneys. I got to met others from these areas and exchanged names, there was food and drinks, as well as dancing overall very fun. Today I went on a trip with some of the younger kids, we went to a nutcracker play/ performance. We had no problems and the kids seemed to brighten at the idea of doing it themselves. Overall it was a very good week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-55153873775159674492017-12-12T18:40:00.003-05:002017-12-12T18:40:55.262-05:00GC week 15This past week we helped to kids through the deaths of the two farm animals, some kids heard and they were good, others heard and couldn't deal with the news. The other day one child asked "do you work with corkscrew", I responded "who?" The child said "Quirky, I call him corkscrew, how is he?"<br />
I was then stuck in a situation the horse quirky had gone back to his original owners farm, because he wasn't doing well here (that happened a month or two ago). I don't think the kid knew this even though we announced it, So I said "hes doing well, but I don't work with him". He muttered "ok" and that pretty much described the rest of my week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-62558750565876970102017-12-02T12:45:00.001-05:002017-12-02T12:45:23.130-05:00GC week 14This pass week we put down two animals Otis the goat and Sophie the sheep, I got to experience it first hand. When the kids ask we tell them they were old and they passed away during the night, some kids know what we do and tell us that they know, we then can confirm it or if we feel the child could go into crisis hearing about it, then we will turn it around.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5914634704218649146.post-40612622349305093312017-11-27T12:49:00.002-05:002017-11-27T12:49:51.657-05:00GC week 13This past week we had thanksgiving which meant that the kids were able to go home on Wednesday and theres had have no school till Monday. This allowed us to focus on the animals needs, and plan for December. I redecorated the teaching barn in my free time, Alexa one of our llamas was being a little weird after eating her food, she was just walking around with her mouth open lips loose. Since there were not any kids around there really wasn't that much that happened this week<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dhIDwVQPjVU/WhxPbZGSkPI/AAAAAAAAADI/mOWYCQv5fjYQaBirqtSz8bxtXfjvRoCjACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dhIDwVQPjVU/WhxPbZGSkPI/AAAAAAAAADI/mOWYCQv5fjYQaBirqtSz8bxtXfjvRoCjACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_4033.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="240" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TFsMX9Xtabs/WhxPWP5Gg2I/AAAAAAAAADE/41lSLHet10wRlnqtduF8UT3YimakcfM3wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_3918.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TFsMX9Xtabs/WhxPWP5Gg2I/AAAAAAAAADE/41lSLHet10wRlnqtduF8UT3YimakcfM3wCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_3918.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0