Skip to main content
Tag

grants

Jun 25
Love0

Chesapeake Conservation Corps Profile: Connor Liu & The Nature Conservancy

By Blog No Comments

We’re showcasing the unique experience of participating in the Chesapeake Conservation Corps by sharing profiles of Corps member of the 2018-2019 cohort along with information on their host site and descriptions of the work they have been doing.

Maryland native, Connor Liu grew up a few short miles from the Potomac River. Before joining the Chesapeake Conservation Corps, Connor worked at several environmental organizations in Maryland including the Assateague Island National Seashore. Interestingly, Connor also spent a summer in Mozambique researching flora and fauna of the wild African ecosystem at Gorongosa National Park. His Corps service host site, The Nature Conservancy, fits Connor’s interest in restoration, stating that “restoring habitat is work that strengthens the intimate bond that humans should have with the land. One can observe tangible progress and there is little that seems more fulfilling to me.”

Capstone projects are a graduation requirement for all Corps members at the conclusion of their year of service. A capstone project is an initiative designed by the Corps member that advances both an interest of the member and a priority objective of the member’s host site. Connor’s capstone project is focused on monitoring and restoration of red spruce trees in Maryland.

Since The Nature Conservancy began this work in 1996, they have planted over 65,000 red spruce seedlings in western Maryland. Red spruce trees have numerous benefits to forest ecosystems, including providing habitat for native species (such as mice, voles, bears, deer and hares), keeping headwater streams cool (which allows native trout to stay at their preferred body temperature), and providing a carbon sink. Connor set up 27 monitoring sites over a 30-acre area of Red Spruce trees (planted last year) and proceeded to count new seedlings to determine survival and reproductive rates. Connor organized surveying teams in partnership with the Deep Creek Conservation Corps (See Below) to be as precise and efficient as possible. Thanks to Connor’s work, there are data supporting the efforts to bring back red spruce populations in Maryland.

Connor’s project also involved a restoration technique needed to help the red spruce survive called “release.” This part of the project is necessary to balance red spruce trees’ sunlight needs in older forests with denser canopy that does not ordinarily allow enough sunlight for them to grow efficiently. Connor selectively girdles common hardwoods to allow red spruce to ascend to the canopy centuries faster than they would have naturally. Girdling (also called ringbarking) is the act of removing a strip of bark from an area of a tree, which will limit or halt its growth above the area of the girdle. This process has been successful in West Virginia and through his capstone project, Connor has brought it to Maryland. This process is meant to help the overall diversity of the forests as well.

The Nature Conservancy is providing additional trainings for Connor this year, including native plant identification, invasive species identification and removal, GIS mapping, and prescribed fire skills. Prescribed burns are an important part of forestry management. Connor has been trained on the process and conducts them in many areas of Maryland (such as the Nassawango Preserve, Maryland Forest Service, Department of Natural Resource Heritage, Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge). (See Above).

Chesapeake Conservation Corps members hold “All Hands on Deck” days where all Corps members participate in projects at various host sites. Recently, Connor, along with this year’s cohort of Corps members, helped build a “Nature Discovery Area” at Anita C Leight Estuary Center in Harford County. Connor, along with fellow Corps members Olivia Wisner (Chesapeake Bay National Estuary Research Reserve) and Bradley Simpson (Audubon Naturalist Society), are pictured taking a short break after installing a sunken canoe element in the play space. Next month, the Corps members will have one more “All Hands on Deck” experience on Poplar Island with Maryland Environmental Service to conduct monarch butterfly surveys.

Connor hopes to stay with The Nature Conservancy, or take his experience in the program to the Peace Corps after graduation. Connor loves the Chesapeake Conservation Corps program because it allows him to see many environmental projects all over the state of Maryland and network with other recent college graduates with the same interests as him. The Chesapeake Bay Trust is excited to celebrate this year’s cohort and welcome next year’s cohort of Chesapeake Conservation Corps members at the upcoming orientation and graduation ceremony that will take place at Camp Letts in Edgewater in August. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

Oct 11
Love2

Students, Chesapeake Conservation Corp Member Learn about Bay Culture and Ecosystem on Trip to Fox Island

By Blog No Comments
  • Author Morgan Jones with students
  • Copy of DSC_1375
  • Copy of DSC_1931
  • Copy of DSC_1314

(Photos courtesy of Morgan Jones.)

An island with no time, marsh bouquets, and stories by fire light

By Morgan Jones

Barely visible on the horizon, a resilient piece of marshy land sits with a single structure that catches the light of the midday sun. With Tangier Island to its west and Pocomoke Sound to the east, Fox Island rests there quietly in the Chesapeake Bay. The blue-green waters around it are teeming with life. Built in the 1920’s as a hunting lodge, the quaint building on the island is now an environmental educational center owned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). Thanks to CBF, school groups from all around the watershed can visit Fox, as it’s known, for an authentic island experience. In September, I spent three days on Fox Island with a group of students from the Key School of Annapolis as part of my experience as a Chesapeake Conservation Corps member with CBF.

Aboard the Walter Ridder, a 40-foot jet boat, our group motored away from the town of Crisfield on Maryland’s eastern shore and out into the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. As we traveled further from shore, the legendary islands of Smith, Tangier, and Fox began to take form around us. The students were bursting with curiosity and excitement.

Before I knew it, we pulled up to the dock at Fox. Soon after getting settled, we met in the living room to listen to the rules of the island. One rule in particular stuck with me:

“There is a time and a place for everything, and here is a place where time is nothing.”

Adam Dunn, the Fox Island Manager, explained that from now on we would be living on “island time.” He went around the room collecting cell phones and watches from all of the students. Then, he said, “your normal lives are filled with schedules and routines, but out here all of that goes away.” After this, whenever a student asked for the time, the reply was always “it’s island time.”

The next few days were filled with nonstop adventures. Students learned how to bait and set their own crab pots, dredge for oysters, and identify exciting species that frequent the bay such as red beard sponges, lined seahorses, and black-fingered mud crabs. We spent a few hours on the neighboring island of Tangier where the kids were able to meet island locals and observe the similarities and differences between island culture and their own. To let out some extra energy, we went mud muckin’ and collected bouquets of marsh flowers and grasses.

The nights were just as thrilling. Students stared up at a clear night sky bursting with stars, and they tasted the famous Smith Island cake one evening after dinner. Perhaps my favorite experience of all was sitting around a warm, crackling fire listening to Captain Larry Laird tell the story of the “Green Man” and feeling more spooked than most of the kids.

The time I spent on Fox Island felt magical, and I believe that the students felt it too. The environmental education experiences that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation provides to kids, many of which are funded by grants from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, last a lifetime in their memories. Not only does it draw them closer to the ecosystem, culture, and history of the Chesapeake Bay, but ultimately the rest of the natural world around them.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust offers two educational grant programs that can supply funding for similar environmental field experiences for your students or school. The Trust’s Environmental Education Mini-Grant Program, which awards up to $5,000, is open and accepting applications until January 12, 2018, at 5 pm. The Environmental Education Grant Program, which awards between $5,001 and $40,000 per year (with a multi-year option), is open and accepting applications until December 8, 2017, at 5 pm.

To learn more about CBF’s invaluable educational field programs, visit their website.

Morgan Jones is a Chesapeake Conservation Corps member working for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She splits her time between the Environmental Protection and Restoration Department and the Education Department. This position provides her with professional, educational, and social skills to advance in the environmental field. 

Close Menu