A Wave Goodbye as I Grow New Scales

It is hard to believe my six months at Corkscrew have come to an end. I have learned so much about conservation work through this internship. I have met some amazing people that helped me grow and learn. I have also been lucky enough to have had the chance to do some truly amazing things.

Driving the swamp buggy

As a 60/40 conservation intern, I got to work in both the land management and research fields. I gained new skills from those specific fields, but I also learned how those two fields work together to keep an amazing place like Corkscrew healthy. Most of my work in the land management field was herbicide application to mostly invasive plants. It was interesting learning about the different herbicides and how every plant species gets treated a little bit differently. I also dabbled in prescribed fire and chainsaw work as part of that field. One of the coolest new skills I gained from this field was driving a swamp buggy. It was manual which I had never driven before so that is definitely something that will come in handy.

Getting ready for the WOST flight

My work in the research field included wading bird surveys,

In the swamp!

mammal monitoring using trail cameras, a Wood Stork (WOST) flight, and fish sampling. The fish sampling was probably my favorite thing I did at Corkscrew, mostly because I love learning about fish. We would go out with throw traps to catch the small fish and then I got the chance to process many samples from the swamp. The WOST flight was also cool, as I had never done anything like that before. The plane was small and I was a little nervous but everything worked out and it was definitely an experience I will remember.

On an electrofishing boat at Fish Slam

In addition to my main work at Corkscrew, I got some pretty cool volunteer opportunities. One such opportunity was an event put on by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) called Fish Slam. The aim of this event was to catch as many invasive fish species as possible out of the freshwater ways around south Florida. The Fish Slam I attended was in Vero Beach. I also had the chance to help with some Burrowing Owl research in Marco Island through the University of Florida and a shark tagging program through Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

I have had such an amazing time working for Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and met many incredible people that I will never forget. I will take what I learned with me to my future jobs and adventures. My next adventure takes me to South Carolina, working with the state as a freshwater fisheries intern. I am very excited for this next chapter, but am also looking forward to hearing about the great future I know will Corkscrew have.


Thank you,

Kendall Williams
Conservation Intern