Julie Brinkman
I am a domestic engineer with three young children and a community volunteer. I will be graduating from the Ecampus Fisheries and Wildlife degree program in 2018.
I am currently an Earth Team Volunteer intern with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which will fulfill my intensive internship requirement for the degree. I am fortunate in that my timing in this role began at the commencement of application by a tribal agency for a large-scale wildlife habitat enhancement project along the Colorado River. Simultaneously, I am learning about irrigation improvement projects for agricultural lands, including surveys, analysis of data, and identification of solutions. One challenge to conservation planning is that it is time-intensive to coordinate the cooperation and efforts of multiple agencies and technical support to complete projects. Another challenge is fieldwork in the Lower Colorado River desert area involves temperatures in excess of 100 degrees in the summers, not to mention the high humidity in August. The activities I have engaged in thus far have given me valuable hands-on experience in the field, which I have confirmed that I love, even in August when it's 119 degrees out.
Photo: Julie Brinkman assisting in the inspection of a large drip irrigation project in Blythe, California.