It’s another hot summer in Albuquerque though thankfully it’s not 115 F° for a week like last year. Regardless of the sun melting me away every day, I have been pretty busy this summer. The USFWS Region 2 Early Career Conservationist just wrapped up and it was a blast! Interns from the FWS Southwest Region (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas) gathered in Albuquerque for a few days to present their work and learn more about the intricacies of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The first day, the workshop spent the day at the SW Regional Office and got to hear from FWS staff. The full-time employees gave really encouraging speeches about their career paths, their work and the importance of early career conservationists like us. We also spent time visiting different departments within the office to learn about their unique responsibilities and day-to-day work. Even though I work at the regional office there are still departments I haven’t visited and staff I haven’t met.
The second day, we got to visit the University of New Mexico and talk to partners with the FWS. Interns got to present their research and work in PowerPoint presentations. It was really interesting to hear about the other intern’s experiences. As a Remote Sensing Intern, I primarily work in the Albuquerque Regional Office on the computer, so it was fascinating to learn about all the field research other interns are contributing to. Everyone was friendly and really excited to meet up and learn about other interns’ research. There was also a poster session which I contributed to. Kameron, my fellow Remote Sensing Intern, and I made a poster about our recent work with detecting orphan oil and gas wells on National Wildlife Refuges. We also are working on preliminary analysis of environmental justice and socioeconomic data of communities surrounding wildlife refuges. Orphan wells can leak methane and pollutants into the air and water respectively contributing to bad air and water quality. So, we are interested to know if these neighboring communities experience any environmental or socioeconomic disadvantages. We utilized the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to analyze data metrics of communities surrounding refuges. We analyzed data like wastewater discharge, asthma rates, particulate matter concentration in the air, local poverty and low life expectancy rates. We hope that our future data analyses will help Fish and Wildlife staff prioritize orphan well surveys and remediation in areas that are disadvantaged on top of living near old orphan wells.
The third day of the workshop was spent in Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge here in Albuquerque. We got to spend some time walking around the refuge and speaking with the refuge staff about managing a refuge and collaborating with local neighborhood and indigenous groups to work together to make Valle de Oro a welcoming place. The refuge was built in an area that has a lot of industrial complexes and factories, so it is a little oasis of nature in this city and crucial to local environmental and human health. Afterwards, the workshop had a little dinner party to celebrate this week. I had so much fun during this workshop and met so many amazing FWS staff and interns! I really look forward to possibly working with them in the future!