Hello yet again! I am officially in Woods Hole and since we have fallen behind one week on these blogs this one is going to be two full sized blogs in one, exciting right!?!
After my last blog my family and I went to Nantucket for a few days, seeing as I had 4 days before I started at WHRC. The trip was great, three days packed with beaches and sunshine, finishing with early fireworks on July 3rd before we embarked back to the mainland on the 4th. I got to see some fireworks from a Walmart/Shaw’s parking lot while buying groceries.
Me in the field, photo by Robert Coady
When we made it to Falmouth I became acquainted with where I’m living, which is different from most other Pinterns: I’m in an apartment. Due to Woods Hole and Falmouth’s high tourism appeal it was impossible to find a host family and similarly difficult to find any other kind of housing accommodations. The place was just what I needed: laundry in-house, a great hot water heater, and even cable TV with HBO (with Game of Thrones coming up again on Sunday night that last one was atypically exciting for me).
On my first day at the research center I was introduced to Dave McGlinchey and Alison Smart. Alison is Chief of Development Officer and Dave is Director of Communications here at the research center. I had the chance to sit down with both of them and discuss what I will be focusing on during my internship. As part of the communications and development team a lot of my focus during my time here will be dedicated to capturing images and writing in order to communicate WHRC’s work and mission more clearly. During the week I got some great shots that are going to be used in monthly newsletters, website write ups, as well as on social media. Speaking of which, social media is one of my other daily responsibilities, daily updates on Instagram and Twitter are actually really important in growing the research center’s audience, which in turn grows its donor base, which is important in allowing the center to continue work such as Polaris Alaska.
Lobster roll before and after
Something I cannot go without mentioning was the nearly religious experience that welcomed me to New England, my first lobster roll. On one of my first days in the office Dave took me out for lunch to welcome me to the area and when I told him I didn’t know what a lobster roll was and that I had never had one he had to take me. Wow, they are good. Fresh lobster, one piece of lettuce, secret spices, melted butter, and a bun that’s it, and I’m having to keep myself from buying them whenever and wherever I see them. If anyone decides to come out toward New England lobster rolls are a must, otherwise you aren’t doing New England right.
During the last day of my first week I was sent on my first ever field research. The Woods Hole Research Center is participating in a nationwide study taking place in six cities around the country documenting suburban ecology. The project is focused on getting snapshots of how the health of the ambient environment and biodiversity are affected in natural forest; transitory zones: areas of natural forest in close proximity to suburban landscapes; and in suburban landscapes themselves.
On Friday morning (the morning of July, 7th) four other scientists and I made our way to Plymouth, MA to survey a transitory site. Over the five hours that we were on site I shot over 600 images, including images for 19 individual panoramas, some of which are embedded in this blog. The experience was amazing, getting to see real field research in person and even help with it was unreal, but documenting it really cemented it for me. One of the greatest struggles I feel with the environmental movement is that it is so impersonal for people, it’s hard for someone in the bread basket to care about an ice sheet calving, and most people certainly don’t want to be reading scientific journals over their morning coffee (of scientific journals nature.com has quickly become my favorite by the way).
Seeing people on the ground is important for others to understand what it is that is actually being done to research the effects humans have on their environment and what can or needs to be done. This was a survey of the area done prior to receiving the permission to dig cores, so during the day the researchers I was with were monitoring plant species present, the size and density of trees, as well as bird population. In addition to all of the experience, photos, and instruction on plant species, as many of you may know, sometimes when you go into the forest you find something that blows your mind, and this time it was a grave. Rob, one of the researchers, found the shallow grave running out the length of the second to last transect to be studied for the day. To say the least those of us finishing up the tree study at one of the other transects were confused when we saw him running full sprint through the woods, but none of us could blame him for that reaction.
The grave
Before I get to my first weekend I have to thank Dave, on Thursday evening he invited me over to his home for dinner, where I had the chance to meet his family. His kids in particular were hilarious, I was asked if I was related to LeBron James, as I am from Ohio and have the last name “James,” to which I unfortunately had to say “no” and watched what may have been the quickest game of hide and seek as Dave’s youngest son Teddy ran out from his hiding spot as soon as time was called.
For my first weekend I hopped on my road bike and set to exploring and getting more familiar with the area, it’s not exactly easy getting around via road bike, the main highway is far too narrow to make it a safe option, but that has led me to great local paths through the woods, beautiful wooded side streets, and to seeing way more ground than I would if I were able to take a carbon copied route everywhere. There are some great beaches within three or so miles of me and those are certainly going to be an area that I frequent, but a lot of my weekend was focused on getting my apartment organized and making sure that I had all the food and supplies I needed.
Field work
Now onto the second week of my time here in Woods Hole. I came into the week a lot more confident, knowing my responsibilities, transportation, and schedule made it so much easier and more fun to really dive into some work. A lot of the front end of this week was spent editing the photos from the Urban Ecology field work and photos coming back from the people in the field on the Polaris Mission, but I also had to work on coordinating transportation and the schedule for my next trip out to the field. As of right now it is planned that next Tuesday I will be getting on a ferry an going out to Naushon island, a now majority conservation land island with its native grass lands in need of restoration due to agriculture and, the scientist in the grave photo is actually one of the leads on this project, it’s he and the rest of the team he is working with that I will be following and helping on Tuesday.
Once it got later into the week though things really started picking up, yesterday (Thursday the 13th) I was forwarded emails from Philip Duffy, Ph.D., regarding some regulation undergoing revision here in Massachusetts. For those curious the regulation in question is 225-CMR-16, and for the majority of you who will not read the regulation through I’ll explain it briefly: the state of Massachusetts in 2012 passed these regulations that provided subsidies in the form of credits to those using sustainable methods and technologies for energy production (defined in 225-CMR-16.01-.02). Last year DOER: the Department of Energy 
Resources for Massachusetts proposed changes to the regulation allowing for biofuels and other alternative forms of energy to be classified as “endorsed” and therefore users would receive credits when they are used. However this would also involve slashing some very important environmental regulation relating to which biofuels can be used and how they are sourced. Now I am helping with developing WHRC’s written comment to DOER, and would be happy to go into more detail about 225-CMR-16 with anyone curious.
And that’s what I’ve got for these last few weeks. I look forward to updating you guys again next week after my visit to Naushon island and after the majority of the work on public comment is done. Remember, if you want to stay posted on the day-to-day here at Woods Hole Research Center, or with me personally, social media is a great spot!
Instagram: @WoodsHoleResearchCenter and @WillJamesPhotograhy
Twitter: @WoodsHoleResCtr and @WJamesPhotog
PS (The grave was reported to the appropriate authorities, it is unknown to me what action if any was taken in response to it being found)
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