On the first day of my internship, I met my mentor, Jonathan Appelbaum, at the SPAWN headquarters near Olema. When I got there, he introduced me to another intern, Connie, who works there permanently. All three of us started by removing nonnative species like Himalayan blackberry from the riparian corridor near the headquarters. He taught me how to tell the difference between a native blackberry and a nonnative one. He also taught me about different species of plants and what role they have in the ecosystem.
Once we had removed nonnative plants for a while, we took a break and Jonathan gave me a tour of the SPAWN headquarters. He showed me the nursery and the greenhouse that they have and how they are growing plants in them so we can use them to replace what we had just pulled out. He also showed me that they get most of their water for the plants from rainfall and they store them in giant containers until they need them. After we took a break, we finished pulling out more blackberries. We did this for the next couple of hours until we were finished.
So far, I am really enjoying my internship and Jonathan is teaching me a lot about the native plants and how they contribute to the salmon population. Since I am a restoration intern, I will be helping with various projects on the weekends. I like this because I never have to go inside and file paperwork or do other boring things. Eventually, I would really like to focus more on the salmon themselves rather than the plants, but the fish swim upstream when it rains, so hopefully I will be able to interact with them soon as we get more into the rainier months.
