Meet Avalonia’s Land Stewardship Interns
Avalonia’s Stewardship Team has been fortunate this winter to be able to offer two short-term project-based internships. These are designed to give an introduction into the fundamentals of environmental conservation, as well as to provide critical assistance to Avalonia in ongoing restoration projects. Two local students/young conservationists stepped into the breach, and we couldn’t be happier.
Legend Reign, who has been volunteering with Avalonia since April of 2023, agreed to assist in the second phase of our oak restoration at Herman E. Sheets Family Forest in North Stonington. This work, funded in part by a grant from the North Stonington Garden Club, consists of enhancing existing gaps in the canopy, removing understory, and next month, planting hundreds of white and red oak seedlings. Legend assisted in an earlier oak restoration project last spring and brings his experience, local knowledge, positivity, and willingness to learn to this effort. Read more about this particular project in the Spring 2024 edition of Avalonia Trails.
Liam Haghpassand, a senior at Stonington High School, is working with us at the Anguilla Brook Headwaters Preserve, also in North Stonington, as we endeavor to restore a small portion of an Atlantic white cedar wetland. A grant from the Connecticut Botanical Society has helped to defray the cost of seedlings (both bareroot and potted), fencing material to keep the deer at bay, as well as to provide a stipend.
Similar to the work at the Herman E. Sheets Family Forest, this restoration work includes gap enhancement, removing competitive vegetation, and both protecting naturally regenerated Atlantic white cedar seedlings as well as those yet to be planted. While there will be far fewer seedlings to be planted than in the oak restoration, the conditions in this swamp, especially given the warm and rainy winter, requires next-level fortitude, which Liam brings to the task. He has recently applied to college with plans to study biomedical engineering. He enjoys spending time outdoors, climbing and hiking throughout the Northeast.