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Cornell University
See my recent interview with PeerJ where I discuss five tips for early career researchers!
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Citizen Science
Spotted Salamander Tunnels
Working with the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, I have been leading a citizen science initiative focused on repairing and retrofitting salamander tunnels that run under Henry Street in Amherst, MA. These tunnels were first installed in 1987 to aid spotted salamanders in crossing the street during their annual migration, but have since fallen into disrepair. I led citizen scientists during the annual spotted salamander migration across Henry Street in 2015 and 2016. We found that only 12% of the salamanders were successfully using the tunnels based on our data from 2015. Since this, we have made efforts to retrofit the tunnels on a budget, which is often critical as structures such as these tunnels often are not allotted funds for maintenance.
In a collaboration with Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, I lead seminars on building bat houses for local interested citizens. This includes lectures on Louisiana and Neotropical bats as well as how to build and install bat houses. Following the lectures, we build four chambered bat houses and use bat detectors to go on a bat walk to see local endemic bats. These houses have the potential to hold up to 1000 bats.
Seminars are held in the Spring every year. Please contact the Hedrick Lab for more information.
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In the meantime, please visit Bat Conservation International’s website where they have information on how to build (or buy) bat houses for your home.