Spending summer break as intern leader in the Abbott Marshlands by Emma-Lee Lazo.
This summer, I had the opportunity of interning at the Abbott Marshlands alongside four other college students. I served as Intern Leader in the Jack Graham Internship provided by the Friends for the Abbott Marshlands. This program brought a great chance for exploring the natural world in ways of trail work, educational trips and tours, as well as spending time walking the trails of the Marshlands.
As an intern, I was able to gain knowledge about a native environment so near to home for me. With lots of our time consisting of guided walks through the various Abbott Marshland trails, learning about the wildlife around me became a part of my day that I welcomed. Even if the walks meant trudging through mosquitos and other bugs, I was grateful for the time spent outdoors seeing hands-on the flora and fauna of the land. On these walks, my fellow interns and I were encouraged to acknowledge the life around us – both big and small. Whether that meant watching for the large herons that would soar over the marsh or looking into the water of the marsh itself for tiny macroinvertebrates, our discoveries furthered my desire to see the beauty of the life around me.
Besides these walks through the marsh, we spent a fair amount of time getting our hands dirty with trail work. The main project that I was able to help complete during this summer was the creation of a “turnpike” on a trail in Northern Community Park. It was an effort that the interns and I (under the assistance and guidance of Deb Brockway) worked hard at to complete. Despite the long hours we spent hauling stones, sawing through logs, shoveling soil, digging trenches, and more, the end result proved worth it all. Being able to walk through the beginning of that trail and seeing how our work had changed the experience while still maintaining a natural look – as well as effectively redirecting water off the trail – was one of the most satisfying moments in my time at the internship.
This internship also provided a chance for many enjoyable trips and tours. I was able to explore a different point of view of the Abbott Marshlands through a kayaking trip that the interns and I participated in through Blacks Creek in Bordentown, NJ; seeing the trails that we had previously walked from below. We were also able to walk through a guided tour of the Isaac Watson House – the oldest standing house in all of Mercer County – that detailed the historic lifestyles of those in the 1700s that made the Abbott Marshlands their home long before it was recognized under that name. My favorite trip, however, had to be our adventure to the NJ State Museum. We saw an entire exhibit on the Lenape people that call the Abbott Marshlands their native lands. It was truly eye-opening to make the connections between Lenape history on the land and the ecology we had learned on our walks through the marsh.
The Jack Graham Internship at the Abbott Marshlands brought a lot of joy to my summer along with the privilege of gaining real world experience in my chosen field of environmental science. The Friends for the Abbott Marshlands are an amazing crew to work alongside and very member that I crossed paths with during the internship was so passionate to share their own joys of the marsh with me and the other interns; as well as indulging in any of our own questions or interests that we shared.
Emma-Lee Lazo, Intern Leader
