2017 Fall/Winter Conservation Intern: Hayden Deakins

My suburban interests as a Nashville native were quickly transformed by the mountains of East Tennessee upon attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where I graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies in December 2016. It took me a few years in college to finally find that my career interests aligned more with resource management, and after graduation, I explored different aspects of the field while working for Tennessee State Parks, the National Park Service, and now for the Audubon society. My primary focus in former jobs has mostly centered around vegetation management, but I am currently excited about exploring other interests in wildland and prescribed fire as well as participating in monitoring projects with the Sanctuary’s research staff. While not sweating it out in the swamp during the weekdays, I spend my free time fishing, paddling, being a lord of leisure on the beach or cheering for the only successful professional sports team Tennessee currently possesses (go preds).

My first month or so at Corkscrew was spent exclusively in either preparing or recovering from Hurricane Irma. I actually arrived at Corkscrew 5 days prior to Irma's landfall in Southwest Florida, and instead of evacuating back to Tennessee, I sheltered up in the Blair Center during the hurricane. Once Irma had passed, I spent the remainder of September and the beginning of October clearing the damaged boardwalk of cypress duff and fallen branches, chainsawing slash pine and cypress trees that had fallen onto the boardwalk, and assisting Corkscrew's facilities staff in reconstructing broken parts of the boardwalk. Although these recovery efforts were not necessarily a part of my intended job duties, I gained some very valuable experience in operating and maintaining chainsaws in addition to operating a variety of carpentry tools to help re-open the short loop of the boardwalk for Corkscrew's eager yet patient visitors.

Right as the heat and humidity of September subsided into the cooler and drier conditions of October, I finally began performing my described job duties with Corkscrew's research staff in conducting aquatic fauna surveys at Panther Island and in the Central Marsh close to the Blair center. I had completed only 1 aquatic fauna survey at my prior job at Colorado National Monument, so gaining new experience and knowledge particularly relating to fish sampling was an especially interesting event for me. Near the end of October and into the beginning of November, I spent my time assisting senior resource manager Allyson Webb in applying herbicide to invasive species at Panther Island.

Although nearly 2.5 of the 6 months I will spend here at Corkscrew have absolutely flown by thanks to Hurricane Irma, I am excited to perform a variety of job duties in the near future, especially when it comes to assisting Corkscrew's resource staff in conducting prescribed fires across the Sanctuary's lands.