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Each year, the NCF Science and Stewardship Department hires a few lucky and talented people to help us through the field season with all of our various research, monitoring and restoration projects. We try to hire individuals with a passion for botany and the natural world and each year we are excited to meet and learn about our new co-workers who can come from close to home or as far as California.

This year we have a really great field crew and they want to introduce themselves over the blog. If you see them out on our properties or around the island this summer – please say hello! Stay tuned over the season as they check in to talk about the work they are doing on Nantucket.

Corrina Marshall and Alex Etkind in Squam Swamp

Corrina Marshall and Alex Etkind in Squam Swamp

 

Corrina Marshall:

I hail from the great state of Michigan where I grew up and gained a B.S. in Environmental Science and Spanish at the University of Michigan. Initially, I studied environmental policy but once I encountered biology it was clear that was the right field for me. At the University’s Biological Station I narrowed my interest to ecology and fell in love with botany and field work. While in school, I worked for U of M’s Arboretum and Botanical Gardens to manage and monitor restoration projects such as prescribed burns, brush cutting, pulling invasive species and native plantings. I have used my botany knowledge working as a surveyor for a Floristic Quality Assessment, measuring foliar mercury in forest stands, and assisting in a research project on Pennsylvania Sedge reproductive characteristics. I also gained botanical experience working for U of M’s Herbarium, mainly focused on fern collections.

Corrina enjoying her field time!

Corrina enjoying her field time!

I am excited about the position with NCF for many reasons, the foremost being that it will expose me to many different types of science projects and ecosystem types that I haven’t encountered yet. I recently visited a salt marsh for the first time in my life and am learning new species that grow in coastal habitats. I am also learning more about wildlife by assisting in bat monitoring and horseshoe crab surveying! This summer will be a great time to learn and explore the many different conserved properties on the island and see how science gets put into action to inform conservation and restoration techniques. I am having a great time getting to know the island and seeing all the happy dogs at Tupancy!

 

Alex Etkind:

Growing up in coastal Massachusetts, I have explored the region’s unique natural communities as long as I can remember. While my involvement in land conservation and stewardship began as a passion for the natural world, several years working with land trusts in southeastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod enabled me to transform this passion into practical knowledge and experience. Land stewardship is fulfilling work, and I have enjoyed the challenges that come with managing conservation areas with a diverse range of management goals, from forever-wild wilderness and rare species habitat to intensively used public forests and beaches.

Alex exploring rare plants!

Alex exploring rare plants!

In addition to my experience managing conservation lands, I developed botanical field skills working with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) to collect ecological data for use in their Critical Habitat Atlas, an online mapping resource for local town planners, land trusts, and conservation organizations. My contribution to this project entailed identifying and mapping uncommon natural communities on Cape Cod, as well as reporting occurrences of rare natural communities and rare plant species to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP). While mapping the remnants of Cape Cod’s sandplain grassland and heathland communities, I kept hearing the same refrain from the other botanists I was working with: “You haven’t really seen these communities until you’ve seen them on Nantucket!”

Over the past year living in the Boston area, I have continued to build upon my botanical and ecological field work experience as a Biological Science Technician with the National Park Service on the Boston Harbor Islands. One focus of my work on the Boston Harbor Islands was implementing a long-term vegetation monitoring program to evaluate the results of ongoing wetland restoration and re-vegetation projects. I am currently working to expand my background in natural resource management and ecology as I pursue a Master’s Degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management at Harvard University Extension School. I’ve recently moved from the peninsula of Nantasket to the island of Nantucket, and I am very excited to be joining NCF’s Science and Stewardship Department for a season of botany and ecology work!

 

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation is a private, non-profit land trust that depends on contributions from our members to support our science projects, conservation property acquisitions, and land management efforts. If you are not already a member, please join us!

 www.nantucketconservation.org

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