Meet the 2014 IAE/NPSO interns!


The 2014 field season is gearing up and the IAE Conservation Research crew will be back on the road to conduct annual monitoring and research on plant species and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest.  Projects scheduled for this year include monitoring and researching management techniques for the Cook’s desert parsley, surveying for Cusick’s lupine in eastern Oregon, out-planting native species at Horse Rock Ridge, creating propagation protocols for bartonberry, and monitoring populations of Kincaid’s lupine throughout its range.  Keep an eye out for new blog posts about these projects (and many more!) from this year’s NPSO interns, Emma MacDonald and Amy Comstock.

Emma MacDonald

Emma received her B.S. in Environmental Science and Management as well as a minor in Biology from Portland State University in June of 2013.  During the summer of 2013, she worked as a back-country ranger with the Olympic National Park on the Washington Peninsula. Through the fall and winter for 2013-14, she lived in Seattle, and volunteered with the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center as a clinic assistant and animal caretaker. Emma’s academic interests include wildlife conservation and zoology as well as habitat restoration and management. Emma is working with the IAE to gain professional experience in conservation research and would like to gain a wide variety of hands-on experiences working in the field and lab before pursuing a higher degree.

Amy Comstock

 Amy received her Bachelors of Zoology from Oregon State University in 2009. Since then she has done a variety of field jobs including Hawksbill sea turtle conservation in Hawaii, songbird surveys in the Coast Range and the Sierras, and habitat restoration on Fern Ridge Reservoir. She is currently working on setting up a graduate project at Oregon State in order to obtain her Master’s Degree in Fisheries and Wildlife. She is originally from Indiana, but her love of the outdoors has compelled her to stay in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  

In addition, this is the fifth year that we will be participating in the Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering program through Saturday Academy, and our team will welcome a high-school student intern in June.  We are looking forward to an exciting field season!