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Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum Internship

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Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum Internship

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I will be doing an internship at Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. I'll likely be weeding invasive plant species, and doing some trail maintenance among other things to help out.

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My mentor for this internship was Garrett. He was very helpful and flexible throughout the whole process, and also just a fun guy to work with!

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This is the building where the refuge has its staff offices. It was fun to get a peek at the behind-the-scenes inner workings of a nature reserve.

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This gives a pretty good overview of the refuge:

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Throughout my time at the refuge I spent a lot of time weeding the pollinator gardens around the visitor’s center. These are plots of land that the refuge planted with native plants, but they are fairly overrun with a number of invasive weeds. Mugwort and bird vetch were some of the most common weeds that I had to deal with. Removing the bird vetch was especially urgent since it’s in bloom right now, so removing it before it reproduces and spreads even further is important.

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My mentor and I planted holly trees along social trails (unofficial trails through refuge land created by repeated foot traffic) to try to deter people from using them. In the photo below is the equipment we used.

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Here's a video presentation overviewing my whole experience.

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I drew four posters to mark activity stations for an educational event that the refuge planned for May 22nd. It was a nice change of pace to get out of the heat and do some work indoors.

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The refuge is preparing to conduct a study on turtle nesting, specifically on how much of a toll predation is taking on new generations of turtles. To prepare for this my mentor and I kept our eyes out for signs of turtle activity. Tracks in the muddy parts of the wetlands are great clues, but what we found here was almost certainly caused by a different animal.