Final Post

This will be my final journal entry, as the semester is coming towards a conclusion and I am preparing to wrap up my entire internship project. All in all I would say that my experience with the Council was a very positive one. Overall I enjoyed doing this mini internship although it did present several difficulties. To start, the time I spent in the field with Doug was physically demanding. Walking around mountains is not something that I am designed for, at least not at the break neck speeds of someone who is in good physical shape. Second, scheduling time to meet with Doug was nearly impossible. I was only available to work with him one or two days a week. Doug is very busy throughout the week so planning for us to meet for a day was a challenge and an exercise in time management. The first day Doug and I got together I said th at I would like to finish up all my hours by Thanksgiving, the calendar was leaning more towards Christmas than Thanksgiving by the time I finishedbut that just stands to prove how difficult it was to schedule time.
I do have a few regrets in my time with the Resource Council. I never got a chance to do any field work in South County, and was relegated to stay around the North Adams area, where Doug actually needed my services. I didn’t get to spend as much time doing physical labor for the Resource Council as I would have liked to either, which is unfortunate because my ability to cut trails, etc. definitely exceeds my abilities with a compass.
; While my internship did not afford me with a chance to put forward what I exceed at in terms of work, I did learn quite about working for a Conservation organization that a text book never could have taught me. While Holden’s writings described the types of major issues that surrounded conservation throughout the 20th ce ntury, it could not adequate describe the minor nuances of conservation that I observed through the Council. Text books can teach students the various political forces that went into the battle for Hetchy Hetch Dam, but cannot give meaning to the battles between an organization and a neighboring land owner over one foot of land. Obviously I learned things through my internship about conservation, like mapping skills, how to mark boundaries, what conservation restrictions are and general things like facts about G.I.S. (Geographic Information Systems), it was the minor details about the day to day operation of the Council that made this an eye opening experience.
All in all this was great experience and believe it or not, my work with the Resource Council will not be ending with the finish of this internship. I will continue to help Doug on the Council properties in the great North Adams area. It is fun work and I enjoy the people that I work with, that makes continuing with this organiz ation until graduation and easy choice for me.