{"id":1119,"date":"2012-06-23T20:09:13","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T23:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2012-06-23T20:09:13","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T23:09:13","slug":"importance-of-providing-opportunities-for-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/?p=1119","title":{"rendered":"Importance of providing opportunities for youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

In these times when governments are cutting back on support of education and student involvement in summer work experience it is timely to get a reflection by two students who had the opportunity to work with TREPA a number of years ago. Thanks to Mil Nickerson for forwarding this and showing us why we need to keep pushing to support our youth in meaningful environmental work.<\/em><\/p>\n

What A Job…<\/strong><\/p>\n

As students at Acadia University we were both eligible\u00a0for the Student Loans Economical Renewal Program. The program is\u00a0open to students with student loans to offer experience in their\u00a0field of study. Students are expected to approach potential\u00a0non-profit organizations that could provide valuable experience\u00a0in relation to their studies.<\/p>\n

Both being Biology students, from the area, with concerns\u00a0about the future of our environment, TREPA was an obvious first\u00a0choice. In April we met with TREPA members and discovered that we\u00a0could provide valuable resources to each other. TREPA experience\u00a0relevant to our biology careers and we could provide fresh ideas\u00a0for future work.<\/p>\n

The first adventure we incountered was studying the\u00a0Gaspreau that migrated through our water systems ( focusing on\u00a0the Tusket River ). Our purpose was to average the Gaspreau\u00a0population as well as focusing on related factors, such as sex,\u00a0weight and age. Several specimens were collected daily at which\u00a0time their lenghth, weight and sex were recorded. Scales of each\u00a0specimen were collected and mounted on slides, which would later\u00a0be used to determine the age of the fish. At the ladder a count\u00a0was preformed each hour ( from 9-5 ) for 15 min., at this time\u00a0air, water temperature and weather conditions were also recorded.<\/p>\n

This would provide an estimate of the population size as well as\u00a0any migration patterns. We studied the Gaspreau until the end of\u00a0June when their migration stopped, at this time we started to\u00a0study the American Eel ( elvers ).<\/p>\n

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans provided the Nova\u00a0Scotia Power Corporation with traps that would collect the young\u00a0Americian eels, elvers. Elvers are the baby Americian eels\u00a0returning from the ocean and entering our lakes and streams. The\u00a0purpose of the traps was to determine whether or not an eel\u00a0ladder had to be built to provide the eel’s with passage around\u00a0the dam.<\/p>\n

There were two traps at differend positions to determine the best\u00a0location of the ladder. The eels were collected, counted, and\u00a0sampled from each trap and then were released in Vaughan Lake.\u00a0In May we accepted an invitation to the East Kemptville\u00a0Tin Mine site and surrounding areas to work with four BEAK\u00a0Enviormental specialists on a Bio- assement of the area for Rio\u00a0algom. At this time we were able to experiment different\u00a0techniques used to assess this ecosystem. Such techniques\u00a0including PH and dissolved oxygen reading, Electrofishing,\u00a0collectiing and siftimg sediment samples and collecting wildlife\u00a0sample.<\/p>\n

In mid July we packed up and went to Digby Neck for three days.\u00a0There we joined Gini Proulx, Ruth Newell, and Carol Jacquard t0\u00a0survey local bogs for Golden Crest ( Lophiola aurea) and other\u00a0rare plants. On this endevour we became aquanited with common bog\u00a0plants and names ( both scientific and common) Upon visiting a\u00a0site we discovered Golden Crest and recorded it’s Geographic\u00a0location, associated flora, colony size and population. While\u00a0revisiting a new Golden Crest site we also discovered Mountain\u00a0avens ( Geum peckii) a plant that was recorded in Canada as only\u00a0existing on Brier Island.<\/p>\n

Other projects that we were involved with included map\u00a0work and developement of a coastal plains flora bibliography for\u00a0Department of Natural Resources, recording salmon collection data\u00a0from Tusket Dam and powerhouse traps, pH water samples of certain\u00a0water systems in Yarmouth county, observation and exploration of\u00a0Barrio clearcuts and locating piping plover’s nests in Shelburne\u00a0county.<\/p>\n

As you can tell we had an exciting and eventful summer.\u00a0At times it was difficult to distinguish if we were actually\u00a0working or playing. One things for certain we experienced and\u00a0obtained more knowledge than we thought possible in four short\u00a0months. The people we’ve met and the experiences shared will stay\u00a0with us forever. We would like to thank all TREPA members for\u00a0giving us the opportunity to gain hands on experience in the work\u00a0force. Special thanks to Patrick Patten for putting up with us on\u00a0a daily basis and to Mil Nickerson who always insisted we do our work but \u00a0above all else make sure we had fun, there’s no doubt…WE DID!!<\/p>\n

Thank You TREPA,<\/p>\n

Susan Aresenault\u00a0and\u00a0Jemie Lent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these times when governments are cutting back on support of education and student involvement in summer work experience it is timely to get a reflection by two students who had the opportunity to work with TREPA a number of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-the-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1120,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}