{"id":26697,"date":"2016-01-26T13:36:51","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T18:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=26697"},"modified":"2016-11-10T10:53:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T15:53:01","slug":"fall-internship-in-yosemite-national-park-helps-sustainability-graduate-gain-more-fieldwork-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/fall-internship-in-yosemite-national-park-helps-sustainability-graduate-gain-more-fieldwork-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall internship in Yosemite National Park helps sustainability graduate gain more fieldwork experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s just of few of Bryce Yoder\u2019s highlights from his first \u201csemester\u201d out of college working as a vegetation and ecological restoration intern in Yosemite National Park in California:<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s just the highlight reel. You could safely say that he took advantage of all Yosemite had to offer.<\/p>\n The 2015 草莓社区 graduate opted for the post-graduation internship to gain more experience in his field \u2013 and also because of the opportunity to spend time in yet another spectacular national park. While studying environmental sustainability<\/a> at EMU, the Harrisonburg native had volunteered at Shenandoah National Park.<\/p>\n Three months in the high Sierras gave him memories of lifetime, but also valuable experience that he\u2019ll carry in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing is to get experience,\u201d Yoder said \u201cI know a lot of people say that in their lines of work, but it\u2019s definitely true. Get as much experience as you can before and after you graduate, even if it\u2019s not 100 percent the direction you want to go. Employers can tell who has worked in the field and who hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Due to the extreme specificity of most field research projects, it\u2019s hard to train for an exact line of work, said Yoder, who chose an environmental science concentration to his degree in environmental sustainability. But he now has a a variety of skills necessary to conduct field work.<\/p>\n In Yosemite, Yoder worked with the Student Conservation Association<\/a>, a non-profit organization that places young people in national parks and other natural spaces, contributing labor and learning skills as they help maintain and protect.<\/p>\n Yosemite is a major tourist attraction, with over 4 million visitors in 2014 alone.<\/p>\n \u201cThere tends to be a lot of erosion caused by visitors walking off trail and in non-protected vegetated areas,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cThe main goal of our branch was to reintroduce native vegetation back into eroded areas in order to restore the natural ecosystem of Yosemite.\u201d<\/p>\n Yoder and his crew planted more than 700 plants, and the process was much more complicated than simply sticking seeds in the ground. After selecting seeds, crew members cleaned off the chaff, or nongerminating material. Then, the seeds were sent to a third party that initiates young plant growth. The plants return to Yosemite as juveniles and are grown in nurseries until they mature. Finally, the crew plants them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe park scientists are extremely careful about keeping the delicate balance of the park’s ecosystem in check,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n The natural ecosystem impressed Yoder daily throughout his internship. \u201cThe vistas in this park are world renowned and should not be missed.\u201d Yoder said. \u201cI feel honored to have contributed to its overall beauty…this is a giant playground for people who love the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n Challenges came in living in a remote area, where even buying groceries required a major excursion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst experience was when one of the other interns who I usually got a ride with had car issues \u2026 I was more or less unable to find rides to the grocery store for a few weeks,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cThankfully though, this was at the end of most employees’ seasons, so a lot of people were giving away their extra food to the poor interns.\u201d<\/p>\n Yoder decided to apply for an SCA internship because he\u2019s enjoyed the opportunity before, working in Shenandoah National Park with an SCA crew on a fish population study. His prior experience with expensive field equipment and another SCA crew helped.<\/p>\n At EMU, his study of environmental sustainability presented early opportunities for fieldwork.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked closely with professors Jim Yoder<\/a> and Doug Graber Neufeld<\/a> on the Bergton stream restoration project<\/a>, which was awesome, \u201cYoder said. \u201cThe two of them have provided me with great advice and support in terms of my career in environmental science, and I\u2019ve also just learned a ton from them.\u201d<\/p>\n He also some fun collecting data, mountain biking on dirt roads to collect stream water samples.<\/p>\n In the future, Yoder hopes to move back to the West as a full-time employee of the National Park Service. Graduate school isn\u2019t out of the question either, once he hones in on what he wants to study.<\/p>\n But at least for this next \u201csemester\u201d of his life, Yoder has other things to keep him busy. He will be the interim manager of BruCrew<\/a>, a student-owned landscaping and maintenance business, while junior Jordan Leaman is on his cross-cultural to the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cI am also volunteering with the Valley Conservation Council<\/a> in Staunton about once a week to help organize data and convince more farmers to fence off cattle from their streams,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s just of few of Bryce Yoder\u2019s highlights from his first \u201csemester\u201d out of college working as a vegetation and ecological restoration intern in Yosemite National Park in California: uprooting ... read more about Fall internship in Yosemite National Park helps sustainability graduate gain more fieldwork experience<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5643,17571],"tags":[10566,10709,15184],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-26697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-environmental-sustainability","category-internship","tag-doug-graber-neufeld","tag-jim-yoder","tag-jordan-leaman"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/a>Restoring eroded areas<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Fieldwork opportunities as an undergraduate<\/h3>\n
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