A letter from the Hendricks SWCD 2015 Summer Intern
Although I never had a lot of experience with agriculture and large scale natural resource conservation early on in my life, I am happy that I was able to learn so much, so quickly this summer during my volunteer internship with NRCS and SWCD. Going out in the field for such varied occasions was a huge bonus to just learning and experiencing office and conservation practices. I am very excited to continue my career and passion for agriculture, conservation, and science as I go off to college and continue to learn about this vast and impressive field.
Since I only worked on Mondays and Tuesdays, the work I experienced and participated in involved very different topics and individuals from week to week. As an example, one day I helped with the tillage transect for the northern part of the county and the next week I was looking a cover crop mixes and prices for the demonstration beds that will be constructed. I have been most parts of this county talking, watching, and recording a great number of different things.
While I have focused quite a bit of time and physical effort into organizing and rearranging the filing cabinets and tract folders, it did not dominate my experience. Even in the office, I wrote up the cover crop proposal, articles, flyers, and ideas that Jerod wanted me look into further. I spent a great deal of time learning, on my own, about topics such as no-till machinery, gypsum, and dissolved oxygen impacts on river health. This experience has shown me that I can still be determined and persistent even in the office in learning and becoming better.
In addition to being exposed to new ideas and experiences, I was also introduced to new people from different backgrounds. I met many farmers and workers who were interested in conservation and developing their land to its greatest potential. I shadowed Jack Nelson for a day, visiting past clients whose woodlots continue to grow and develop, a saw mill, and a new client who was working on a harvesting plan with another forester. I met other conservationists as they dropped into the office from other departments and offices from across Central Indiana.
I was able to see some interesting river and riparian areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. I visited several buffer areas and field borders in addition to the stream water quality testing being done for Mill Creek Watershed in Southern Hendricks and adjacent counties. The IDEM/USGS project on Starkey and Maloney’s property really desired physical and usable data and research that could answer and propose questions regarding no-till and current farming trends. Being a part of several groups hearing about the study and the work gone into it helped to concrete my thoughts on entering conservation and science. After spending so much time hearing about grassed waterways and their benefits for water and soil retention, it’s valuable and interesting to see the river in a different way.
Visits to farmers and landowners and other forms of field work were very exciting for me. Speaking to people about their problem and then seeing the process of idea, innovation, and implementation is very practical and cool to see. Those coming in with really strange or unusual issues, like pollinator mixes not working in their drill, wanting to graze on fields meant for pollinators, or major land loss without major explanation as to the reason other than more water. Seeing ideas going through computer simulations and engineering protocol really shows how specific some of these plans and solutions can be to a very general and widespread issue.
With so much that has happened during my time here at the Soil and Water Conservation District Office, it would be difficult for another job to beat it in the near future. This experience has helped prepare me for speaking, self-motivation in the work place, combining science with public interest, and natural resource conservation work as a whole. I hope that I am able to continue in a field with so many excited and knowledgeable people for many years to come.