Interns continue work at local nature preserves
By Vanessa Lenz
SLN Staff
This summer a group of four New York City interns has called Wisconsin home through a program that strives to give urban teens a personal experience in nature.
In addition to learning about plants, wetlands and things they’ve never seen before, the East Coast students made fast Midwest friends working side by side with interns from Wisconsin high schools to help the Nature Conservancy manage its land at its Lulu Lake, Crooked Creek and Newell and Ann Meyer preserves.
Their visit marked the second year in a row a group from New York spent a month in the Mukwonago River area as part of the Conservancy’s Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future program.
A total of eight interns, four from New York high schools and an equal number from Wisconsin, spent many of their days together surveying and removing non-native invasive plants that threaten native plants and wildlife in Wisconsin’s lands and waters.
They also monitored bluebird populations and cleared trails.
“I’m always impressed about how much these young people are able to accomplish,” said Jerry Ziegler, the Conservancy’s Southeast Wisconsin Land Steward. “Our Wisconsin and LEAF interns work incredibly hard and are a tremendous help to us in protecting our lands and waters.”
Teshawna Smith, originally from Guyana, followed in her sister’s footsteps as a LEAF intern.
“She was my inspiration and she’s the reason I did it because she said she had such a great time and it was a such great experience to do something she’s not used to,” Smith said.
The 17-year-old Brooklyn student said one of the most memorable parts of the internship was helping Tim Gerber, a biology professor at UW-LaCrosse conduct research on Lulu Lake.
“It was scary for me because it was my first time on a lake,” said Smith.
With the support of the other interns, Smith was able to step out of her comfort zone and traverse some lily pads through a swarm of bees to get to a desired location on the lake to do work.
“One of my goals when I came here was to face my fears so I was like ‘I’m going to do this.’” Smith said. “I feel proud of myself that I did it.”
Gaviota Compres attends the High School for Environmental Studies in New York City, but said her studies didn’t prepare her for work like pulling invasive species from Eagle Spring Lake.
Compres and the other interns were tasked with inspecting boats and advising boaters on how they can help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.
The New York City girls said they relished in a chance to be in the country.
“In New York, it’s kind of like a concrete trap. There’s not much in the way of nature except for Central Park and for like what 50 blocks?” said Lily Wolf. “Here everything is nature and I feel like I didn’t know what I was getting into, but that expectation of being immersed by it was what drove me to do this internship.”
Wolf has always considered herself a nature girl and hopes to be a nature therapist one day.
“Most of my close friends tease me and call me a tree hugger,” Wolf said.
Maggie Wu said she quickly grew to love Wisconsin and its peaceful surroundings versus the busyness of New York City.
“I definitely have a greater appreciation for nature and for plants,” Wu said.
Wu learned about the LEAF program in biology class at the High School for Environmental Studies.
“At first I wasn’t feeling it. The last thing I wanted to do was get dirty during the summer. I just wanted to kind of be relaxed, but then something about the program really captured me,” said Wu.
When she heard she would be working in Wisconsin, Wu thought she was going to be milking cows all summer long.
“Wisconsin is the Dairyland, but obviously that wasn’t the case,” she said.
Teaming up with the East Coast students has allowed the Wisconsin interns to share their love with nature.
“I find out how it’s important since I basically live in the woods half the time,” said avid hunting and fishing enthusiast Frank Gorichanaz of Dousman.
Lexi Rakowski of Dousman grew up as an outdoorsy kid in green space.
“My entire life I could walk outside and be in a forest essentially within a matter of minutes,” Rakowski said. “They’ve come here and not really known a whole lot about nature and how it works and why it’s important to battle invasive species. It’s just interesting to know if you educate more people a lot more change can happen.”
Rakowski learned about the Nature Conservancy after taking an AP environmental science course at Mukwonago High School.
“Through that we had to do a lot of work outside the classroom in the community,” she said. “A lot of the work I did was at the Nature Conservancy and these preserves. I really just fell in love with it,” Rakowski said.
Kristi Martinez of Mukwonago wants to be a marine biologist, but her experience as a Nature Conservancy intern may have sparked a slight career change.
“The day that we went snorkeling on Lulu Lake just to kind of explore the different species and look for the Eurasian watermilfoil was really incredible and it just kind of opened a new idea for me to possibly go into aquatic botany,” Martinez said.
Sarah Wetley of Mukwonago, who wants to pursue a career as a veterinarian or in environmental studies, said she appreciated everything she learned over the summer.
“You can sit in a classroom and read about this stuff in a textbook, but you really can’t replace the experience of it,” Wetley said.
The Wisconsin students are part of the Conservancy’s local summer internship program, which has been providing hands-on conservation skills and experience for the past 14 years.
Since 1996, LEAF has inspired scores of teens to learn more about conservation and launch careers in science and conservation.
LEAF mentor Marissa Maggio, a high school teacher in New York, said the internship program is a great experience for urban kids who don’t have direct contact with the environment on a regular basis.
She said her group totally unplugged while in Wisconsin.
“They’ve had no cell phones and had maybe two hours of Internet time this entire month,” she said.
Even during off days the New York students spent their time going on hikes and touring places like Milwaukee and Madison and walking around.
“They all now have a great appreciation for nature and if they aren’t going to go into the field, they are at least going to be donors or be volunteers or they might take some more of those classes so that they get a deeper understanding and I think that’s what we need from our youth especially our urban youth,” Maggio said.
