Here on Dewees Island, we are lucky to have an influx of talented young people in the summer. Above the fire station is an apartment with two bedrooms, and we can accommodate 4+ interns there. We have two internship/camp type programs on the island: one through the Dewees Island Conservancy which provides Dewees Island and Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge with Sea Turtle team members. They assist with our turtle program and environmental progams. Anthony Gillis and Lauren Miller both worked in sea turtle research last summer, and they run programs on the island on weekdays. They also each spend two or three nights per week up at Cape Island, where they spend long days assisting with turtle nests. (to read more about Cape Island, check this post about Sarah Dawsey, and here are some previous accounts of sea turtle interns and where they went after Dewees.

We also have hospitality interns who work here. Mary O’Connor, a familiar smiling face on the island, was with us last year and has returned to help renters get acclimated to the island upon check-in. She is joined this year by Martin Maloney, a graduate of Clemson University who is pursuing Legal Studies but has a passion for environmental education. Martin grew up across the street from the Minnesota Zoo, where he volunteered with their sea turtle program. We were all excited when Martin found his first nest here on Dewees. In his own words,

My eyes followed the tracks up the beach and into the folly and thicket of the skewed tree line. The mother turtle had upturned plenty of rack and underbrush before the tire tracks turned around and disappeared again into the sea. The realness of the scenario I found myself in finally found something to latch on to in the midst of early morning fogginess and the accompanying limbo between dreams from the night before and morning sips of coffee. This was a nest, I was sure of it! I called my supervisor and scanned the rest of the beach for other turtle nests; the turtle patrol volunteer who was scanning the north beach also found a potential turtle nest.

Before I could make up my mind on how to assess these emotions I was feeling, I could feel the smile, plastered on my face. Here I was, just me and a turtle nest, on a beach that was still sleeping. It’s not that I could –or wanted to– claim the nest as my own for discovering it, but I felt blessed to be able to be the first person to see this particular turtle nest and share in something bigger than myself. By 9am, the sun was up, and the turtle team had located the nest, placed a mesh covering over it, and taken a DNA sample for further study. The smile on my face would last all day.

In many ways, the beach is reflective of Dewees and life on the island. The beach is erased every night by the incoming and outgoing tide, and each sunrise promises a clean canvas that captures the adventures of a new day. Following all the new signs of life on the beach is like drawing up a life-sized connect-the-dot drawing. Little footprints accompany larger footprints; moving from washed-up sea shells needing further inspection, to chasing a ghost crab down its hole; from one side of a tide pool to the next, and finally to the turtle tracks!

You can read more about Martin’s first impressions of Dewees Island here.  And feel free to invite an intern to dinner now and then– I remember really appreciating a home cooked meal when I was their age.  To meet the interns, check in the nature center for a program schedule and participate in one of our great programs.

 

Here is an article on previous interns on the island.  Here’s an article on where they go from here, and here’s a link to info about Cape Romain.