Land Management Interns Help Manage Invasives

This summer, we have welcomed two new Land Management interns, Jailene Gonzalez and Brant Martin, to the HHLT team. Jailene and Brant join us as part of a joint internship with The Fresh Air Fund (FAF) and the Vassar Ecological Preserve. Jailene and Brant have been splitting their time between FAF’s 2,000-acre Sharpe Reservation in Fishkill and our Granite Mountain Preserve in Putnam Valley, and also collaborating virtually with two interns stationed at Vassar.

At Granite Mountain, Jailene and Brant have been working on invasive species management projects like eradication of yellow archangel and removal of black swallowwort from the trails, keeping the Preserve ecologically healthy and hikers safe. At Sharpe, they have been removing water chestnut, eradicating mile-a-minute, and helping to develop an invasive species management plan.

To share the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired throughout the summer, Jailene and Brant produced three educational videos on improving forest health through invasive species management. The videos are on the common invasive species mile-a-minute and black swallowwort, and on the importance of staying on hiking trails to stop the spread of invasives to other areas of the forest:

Mile-a-minute

Black swallowwort

Staying on trails

You can also watch and share these videos on HHLT’s Facebook page.

We are grateful to the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management for helping to fund this internship program through New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund, as administered by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. The Land Management internship program provides competitive pay to bring environmental career opportunities to a broader and more diverse audience.