Nicole da Silva Internship Experience
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- Created: Thursday, 30 July 2020 12:45
"This summer I was fortunate enough to work as HAT’s Land Protection Intern for the second summer in a row. My first summer with HAT, in 2019, didn’t go quite as planned. I tore my MCL in a horseback riding accident within the first week of my work term which meant that, unfortunately, I had to miss out on many of the perks of being a Land Protection Intern. Although I was office-bound for most of that summer, I still had a fun and memorable experience working with HAT and I was thrilled to have the opportunity this year of another summer as an intern (this time, uninjured)!
Every spring and summer, HAT monitors approximately 16 of the conservation covenants that make up our Land Protection program. These covenant areas are spread across the CRD from North Saanich to Sooke and cover a variety of ecosystems such as Garry oak meadows, Douglas fir forests, wetlands and coastlines. As an intern, my job is to assist HAT’s Land Protection Coordinator, Barb von Sacken, on these monitoring trips, and back at the office while writing reports for each covenant.
Membership has long been a mainstay of the HAT conservation community. HAT members are the driving force behind much of why HAT exists. Not only do they play a central role in HAT’s governance structure by participating in and voting at the Annual General Meeting (held at the end of every January), they are those folks who want to be involved in conservation in a direct way, whether that’s through showing their support at member events, or as regular participants at volunteer restoration workshops.
