I think Bruce Lee said something like that.

This job has opened up a number of unexpected opportunities . The other day, a visitor services manage from the Silvio O’ Conte national wildlife refuge walked into my office, pulled up a chair and said: “ Chris, let’s talk about your future”.

What?!

This was a refreshing experience as I had just got denied by the same refuge for a park ranger position. Even though I was qualified for the position, I was outcompeted by someone with veterans status. Seeing my interest and recognizing my background in environmental education, the manager of this visitors center invited me to come and work a few days a month in order to keep me on board (hopefully) and groom me for future job openings. After a conversation with my supervisor, we agreed that my work with Silvio O’ Conte could even be part of my internship.

So in conclusion, I feel a lot more comfortable with the decision to pursue an internship in journalism. Although most of this experience has really put my out of my element, it has opened up a number of unexpected opportunities which are relevant to my interests.

Eating bitter begets success.

Cognito ergo nom

Well, things took a bit of an upturn today in Chris Poulin’s world. All of my SCA paperwork is officially though for my 17 week extension, I got an offer to help plan a $4,000 interpretation project at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and I have discovered the most delicious breakfast – in the world.

Eggs in a basket with two hunks of two year old cheddar, pan fried in the “basket” portion before the eggs are added. Google it!

As previously mentioned, Great Meadows just opened up a new visitor’s center near Assabet River in Sudbury, Ma. While I was there I dropped them my resume and offered to volunteer and less than a week later they are already talking about ways I can get involved. This is probably one of the few jobs that I would be willing to relocate for. Working as an interpreter at this refuge (and getting paid for it) is not only my most recent wish list item, but unlike many things that get onto my wish list it is actually achievable! Opportunities like this make me forget that I won’t be hiking the Appalachian Trail, fighting zombies or time-hopping with Dr. Who in the TARDIS any time in the near future.

I have a couple of media projects that I am working on right now including an article for River Day 2010 with state representative Niki Tsongas, a video of the same, an educational video game on the regional website and….

DUN dun DUNN!!!

A new section of the Region 5 website with content created and gathered by Chris Poulin and made live by our fabulous webmaster. The same webmaster, in fact, who will be starring in an upcoming horror movie about an insane, blind and highly murderous dog-creature.

My co-workers are great.

Something Positive

The Assabet River National Wildlife refuge has a new visitor center and it is absolutely amazing. From the outside it doesn’t look like much, until you notice the swanky solar panels that are flush with the roof, the paved bike trail and the congresswoman with her entourage of assistants.

Wait… congresswoman?

I had the chance to zip down to this shiny new facility on Sunday after a pleasant weekend with a friend of mine in New York. Normally I wouldn’t have cut my weekend short for work, but the opportunity to interview a state representative was too cool to pass up.
Of course, when I got there I realized that I didn’t want anything to do with the politicians and spent my time interviewing a bunch of kids who had been raising turtles over the summer - a much cooler story.

What really impressed me about this visitor center was that it came with cool sounds effects, a simulated bear cave and a clean environmental conscience. The whole building is constructed with green materials, has lots of natural light and is entirely controllable via pocket transmitter. While I was there I witnessed lightning storms and goose migrations summoned up with the touch of a button. Not to mention the people that staff the refuge seem like very positive and kind individuals making the space feel really homey to an aspiring USFWS employee.

So, the good news is that after covering this event and dropping my resume off with the refuge staff I was informed of a GS -5 to 7 position opening up in October ($26,000 - $33,000ish a year). In the mean time it looks like I’ll be volunteering as an environmental educator and hopefully making a good impression with the refuge staff. Keeping my fingers crossed!


Although I don't personally have any photos that I can share with you, David Griffen, a professional photographer who was at the event does. Check out his gallery at: http://community.dmg-photography.com/2010-tsongas-riverday/

I have recently come to the conclusion that I would like to pursue a career in visitor services. Thus far, working with the Service has been a fantastic experience and External Affairs in particular has proven to be a challenging and stimulating environment in which to cut my teeth. I have been working to develop myself as a writer, videographer and photographer while also picking up some new software skills in Photoshop, Final cut pro and Adobe Indesign. The longer I stay here the more interested I become in these computer-based skills but the more I miss the social aspects of work that is anchored in a community. Now of course there is community here in the office, but that is different. Working for a small community allows me to see the effects of my work, how people are reacting to it and the difference that it makes in someone or something’s life. I don’t get a lot of that here, which has brought me to Career Goal Conclusion #2. Here is the current list:

Goal #1: I want to find full time work with an environmental agency

Goal #2: I would prefer to work in a visitor services position.

Most of my career experience thus far sets me up to be some sort of interpreter or environmental educator – so why not roll with that? Well… a recent exploration of this option has shown me that even with five years of relevant experience, a BA in wildlife Conservation and top scores on government employment questionnaires I am still not competitive for the positions I want. Why?

Veterans.

I am all for supporting our troops and making sure that they have the opportunity to reintegrate after their term of service – that is a good thing. Unfortunately for me they receive preference on government job applications which is apparently why I didn’t make the cut on my last job application. Oh, and my Unity College degree doesn't have enough zoology hours to qualify me for the biotech positions I am interested in.

So, what does this mean? Maybe I need to redefine success. It would be nice to have a cushy government job, especially with an agency with as little evil in it as the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service, but if I want to stay in the Valley that may not be an option for me. In the short term, I need a job with a decent salary and a comprehensive benefits package. So, as hard as it is to swallow it looks like I’ll be taking that from wherever I can, be it in internships, field work or retail and in the meantime I’ll start volunteering at local refuges in hopes that I impress the right people.

On the upside I officially have a 17 week, part time extension to my internship. Hopefully more opportunities will open up as a result.

Success right now needs to be meeting my basic needs and enjoying my life. Post college dream-career may be further off than I thought. The biggest lesson here is that four years of deans list work in the top 10% of your class doesn’t entitle you to a job – it just lets you apply for them.

Did I mention how adorable baby terns are?

It’s crunch time! Although my internship lasts until the end of September, one of the programs I am most involved in is coming to an end.

Let me back up…

One of my major responsibilities this summer was to act as the liaison between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s External Affairs office and a group of about 28 SCA Interns (Go here: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/cpwn/programs/cip.html for more information about the interns). On August 6th all 28 interns will be sending me their summer projects to edit, organize and make available for web display. I will not be the only person working on this task although I am responsible for interviewing a bunch of these folks in person. The interviews themselves will be sent down to the AV department to be turned into a movie for the regional office all employee meeting on the 17th of august.

I am busy and exhausted… but loving every minute of it.

Most of being exhausted comes from all the travel that I do for my job. Recent highlights include a trip up to Umbagog New Hampshire, Ellsworth Maine and Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Mass. In Maine I got shuttled to an island off the coast. On this journey I saw seals, razorbills, puffins and BABY TERNS! The best part of all of this, aside from dodging angry mother birds, was holding a baby arctic tern. I never would have imagined that this is what I was going to do in my life. Perhaps it goes away after a while, but right now I am still living a dream.

THE Oxbow - Honorable battle with the water chestnut

What ho my (three) loyal followers?!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to venture out into the “oxbow” an isolated chunk of the Connecticut River, displaced from its original course through a process of erosion and deposition of river bank sediments. Oxbow is a general term for what happens when a chunk of a river gets cut off from the rest of the river in a certain way. We here in the Pioneer Valley like to think of ourselves as the center of the universe (because we are) so we have THE oxbow which doesn’t have any particular name attached to it. There are in fact other oxbows out there but we don’t talk about them.

The Oxbow has a problem with water chestnut, an Asiatic invasive with pretty white flowers that proliferates throughout waterways and chokes out the local flora. Actually, more than that… river ecology 101 tells me that the water chestnut out-competes local plants absurdly well, with clusters of the weed so dense that no light can get through. Because of the diminished levels of light, photosynthesizing plants can’t work their magic making really hard for fish to survive. Native plants die of shade, fish and invertebrates die because of suffocation and the bacteria levels raise in the water making it all sorts of nasty.
That is where our rockin’ Youth Conservation Corps (YCC)groups come in. I was at the oxbow to chat with some youth and their project leaders, get some pictures and pull up some chestnut. I also had the opportunity to work with our youngest STEP (Student temporary employment program) student who with a little encouragement wrote a fantastic article on the YCC group and the work that they do to protect our waterways.

Also, while you’re at it – check out the new section of the USFWS Northeast region website on “Connecting People With Nature”. I helped design this with a few co-workers of mine and have a few articles up for your viewing pleasure. Here is the link:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/cpwn/

Oh, yeah... and I hiked up to the top of the mountain 8 times.

You would figure that keeping up with a weekly blog wouldn’t be that difficult but when you are working eight hours a day in front of a computer, opening up a laptop once you get home is about as tempting as…say… attempting to gargle porcupine quills. That said, here is another go at it.

The last week and a half has been a fair mix of busywork and adventure. I am currently acting liaison between thirty SCA students and the External Affairs office of the fish and wildlife service. The last few days have been all about making sure all of my interns are settled in and cozy at their various National Wildlife Refuges (I’ll link you to a few articles on the program once they get put up on the Region website). In addition to this I have been making factsheets, flyers, editing articles and teaching myself how to edit video and use Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere. This may not sound like much but it is pretty frustrating to learn Adobe having grown up on Microsoft platforms. Upon mentioning this to my partner she immediately seized the opportunity to dissuade me from ever purchasing a Mac.

Once of my favorite tasks this week was to jump on board with a last minute adventure to Mount Mansfield near Burlington Vermont. I had the opportunity to go and film some biologists performing a study on the Bicknell's thrush, a migratory bird that lives only on mountaintops in the North east, that is of course when it is not in Haiti. I was able to participate in the capture of these creatures which entailed playing an angry recording of a male thrush next to a mist net and waiting for angry male thrush to fly into the net. Once caught the birds were placed into their own personal cloth sack, weighed, measured, processed and then hung up on a coat rack for the rest of the night. Bicknell's thrush are most active at dawn and dusk so once we were done processing them it was around 11 pm. Releasing the birds at this time would have most likely resulted in bird loss through predation as they would be unable to find a safe roosting site in the dark. What the biologists were really looking for were any of the 18 birds they set lose the previous year with geo-locators tied around their legs. Unlike a GPS, these small devices recorded information by keeping track of the length of any given day as well as the date. Because light levels in any place in the world are a known variable, when cross referenced with the time and date of the readings the biologists are able to tell exactly what route the Bicknell's thrush took to get to its winter home. The people who work for the discovery channel must get a real thrill out of their job, I felt like some rookie Steve Irwin wannbe out there with my little camcorder. I’ll get the footage up for you folks once I process it. Oh, and also note the picture of me handling the thrush, the biologists were nice enough to let me process and release a bird while I was there. And so what is the lesson of the day? When you are interviewing a biologist, make sure you turn your microphone on.