Ellie Smith-Eskridge's CAS Internship with the NPSs Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory & Monitoring Network

In the summer of 2020, CAS trainee Ellie Smith-Eskridge interned with the NPSs Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network under the mentorship of Rebecca Weissinger. Ellie's project goal was to develop a toolbox of management options to protect groundwater-fed springs in dryland National Parks in southeastern Utah.

In order to accomplish this goal, Ellie had to find out: 1) what publically-available information existed; 2) what partners the NPS could collaborate with; and 3) how to integrate traditional restoration techniques and ecological knowledge into the management plan.

Ellie gained a skillset in collaborating and working remotely with NPS and other potential partners, conducting literature reviews of publically available data, and effectively communicating findings with NPS employees in oral and written form.