Prairie Partner Intern 2005
Current position: Botanist, Department of Natural Resources
For me, the internship was an introduction to field work: invasive species control, seed collection, prescribed fire, plant identification, rare species monitoring, parsnip burns, and poison ivy rashes. But it was also an introduction to what high quality prairies and savannas look like and why it’s so important to manage and protect them. It was a crash course in the technical and philosophical sides of conservation. And what a place to learn! Goose Pond, Faville Grove, Pleasant Valley Savanna, and the other sites we worked at were the best classrooms in southern Wisconsin. Out on the prairie I built friendships that I maintain to this day and learned from professionals that are now colleagues. Every job I have had since then has been an offshoot of that summer with MAS. Kevin is a botanist with the Bureau with a focus on rare plants.
