July 30, 2021
Update from Summer Intern, Isaac Edmundson
This summer internship has exceeded my personal expectations. I have learned much more than I expected. The experience has made it clear to me that I am interested in working for a company that is focused on environmental restoration. I learned how to communicate with different people in a professional work environment and discovered how important time management really is.
I found restoration projects to be extremely interesting and eye opening. There are many forms of environmental restoration projects that can occur at once within such a small area. I was also surprised how the environmental companies that work in the same county all work so remarkably close together.
Water quality monitoring occurred every week. I was able to go out on Arundel Rivers Federation’s boats and obtained data from the South, West, and Rhode rivers using the hydrolab (a cylindrical device that is lowered into the water and takes various readings like dissolved oxygen and pH as it is lowered to the river bottom). Not only did I learn the importance of testing our local waters, I learned the importance of boat maintenance. If there is a lot of sea growth on the bottom of the boat the steering will become difficult, and the acceleration of the boat will become dimensioned.
While most days consisted of field work, I helped with an outreach project too. I researched local marinas on the South, West and Rhode Rivers. There were many more than I expected. In the future, Arundel Rivers will be able to use my research to connect with the marinas. We can all work together to support clean rivers! I would definitely recommend Arundel Rivers Federation to anyone seeking an internship in the environmental science field.
Isaac Edmundson