Welcome PWA Crew Leaders!
Please join us in welcoming Heather Zimba and Adolf Zollinger as this year’s Project Wild America Youth Ambassador crew leaders! Heather and Adolf will be leading our high school ambassadors throughout the summer as our natural history studies and educational outreach continues within the city of Jamestown. They are both excellent students involved in Jamestown Community College’s environmental science program and each have worked with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in the past. Adolf worked as a crew member during last year’s iteration of Project Wild America and...
Read MoreProject Wild America Youth Ambassadors 2016
Hi all! It’s been a while since I last wrote…there has been so much going on! First, let me catch you up a bit on what is coming up for this summer. I’m admittedly sharing things a bit out of order, as I have lots to tell you about our how well our hemlock woolly adelgid surveys went, the wrap up of our snowmobile cell phone tour, another recent publication, winter raptor surveys and a great winter season with some fantastic interns. I’ll be writing about all of these things shortly, so please stay tuned! Spring is upon us now, and we are looking ahead and setting goals for our summer...
Read MoreProject Wild America Youth Ambassadors: Chadakoin River
During 2015, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute launched its Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors program employing six high school students and two college aged students. Throughout the course of the summer months, the PWA students worked alongside RTPI conservation staff to evaluate the Chadakoin River Corridor in the City of Jamestown. This urban river was found to be recovering from its long history of factory pollutants, channelization and overuse. It hosts a variety of flora and fauna including some that are quite rare within the state of New York. Species such as the Spiny Softshell...
Read MoreMeadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus)
We had a squee moment a couple weeks ago when our Project Wild America students came across a pair of baby meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) in our path along the Chadakoin River. According to an old wives tale, handling baby wildlife will deter the mother from returning, due to the human scent, ultimately leaving the little ones for dead. Thankfully, these tales are far from true. While it is best practice to leave little ones where you find them, picking them up isn’t a death sentence. Our students were alerted to the voles as they were squeaking from within the grass clump they...
Read MoreProject Wild America Wrap Up
It’s 7am and about 55° on the morning of our last turtle trapping day with our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors. I roll up to the Riverwalk to find all our students ready to give things a final go. All of us are beat from a long couple weeks of intensive trapping efforts and exploration of various sites along the Chadakoin River. However, we each feel accomplished with how many different species we have found and the impact we have made on the local community through the sharing of our findings and experiences. There is a dwindling optimism as we deploy our 35 foot seine net,...
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