Conservation Interns arrive at SERC

Winter Harbor — Fourteen interns from the United States, Belize, South Africa and Canada will arrive at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Acadia National Park on July 11 to take part in the inaugural 2011 Acadian Internship Program. This innovative program combines formal coursework, offered for credit through the University of Maine’s Summer University, with a four-week internship program to be hosted across the Down East and southwest New Brunswick regions, and more information is available at acadianinternship.wordpress.com.
Co-instructors Dr. Rob Lilieholm, of the University of Maine School of Forest Resources, and Dr. Megan Gahl, of the University of New Brunswick, will provide an intensive week of coursework in conservation theory, tools and methods. A diverse set of faculty, local experts and guest lecturers — plus field trips and case studies within the region — will ground students in the resources and challenges within the study area.
For the next four weeks, Interns will work with a variety of field sponsors, gaining meaningful, hands-on internship experience. Finally, Interns will reconvene at SERC to place what they learned in their field experience within the greater context of large landscape-scale conservation. The wrap-up will include formal project presentations open to all stakeholders.
“The Acadian Internship will bring together students from North America and beyond to explore an important emerging concept in conservation,“ said James N. Levitt, director of the program on conservation innovation at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University and chairman of the executive committee of QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment.
“The idea is that we can achieve durable conservation objectives on a regional basis by encouraging collaboration across the boundaries of national and state lands, privately-owned parcels, and properties owned by non-profit organizations. Through instruction at the Schoodic Education and Research Center and through field experiences across Downeast Maine and western New Brunswick, these students will help to blaze a new path in the stewardship of the working and preserved landscapes that are essential to the remarkable quality of life this historic region,” said Levitt.
The Acadian Internship Program is sponsored by the Quebec Labrador Foundation, Schoodic Education and Research Center Institute, the Frenchman Bay Conservancy, several universities including the University of Maine and Unity College, and in partnership with Acadia National Park.