by Rachael Max, 5/2/97... from Queensland
Within the student body, there are 12 males and 20 females. We all have the
same responsibilities. As far as the staff goes, their responsibilities vary
according to their position. The Site Manager, Field Director, and Student
Affairs Manager are all male. There are two male professors and one female
professor, all of whom have the same duties. Two of the interns are male and
one is a female. So, there are only two female staff members and seven male
staff.
The only difference that I have noticed between their responsibilities is that the
female intern, Sharon, is also in charge of sitesALIVE! and during our weekly
clean up she is in charge of supervising the bathroom cleaning while Paul, a
male intern, is in charge of the garbage.
What are your days like when you are working on your research
porjects?
...Jody R., Hartford, CT, USA
by Christina Bird, 5/2/97... from Queensland
We have seven groups of directed research (DR) projects. Some groups are
studying cultural aspects of the environment. These projects include a
cost-benefit analysis of reforestation, medicinal uses of rainforest plants, and
environmental attitudes of the local community. Other groups are studying more
scientific aspects such as monitoring the reptiles and birds in Toohey’s Creek
corridor, testing the water quality of several local rivers, and studying faunal use
of the Tolga Scrub.
The aim of my DR is to determine which birds are using the corridor (a strip of
vegetation between two forests). Every morning we get up at five a.m. and
drive over to the corridor, arriving just as the sun is rising. Seeing the sun come
up over the mountains makes it worth it to get up early.
We have ten sites along the corridor and we stand in each for twenty minutes,
listening and looking for birds. Before starting we had to spend a lot of time
listening to bird tapes and going on bird walks to learn all the calls. We have to
identify the birds by their calls since we often cannot see any birds at all in the
dense forest. Also, each day we rotate mist netting (almost invisible nets) which
is another way to know what birds are present. Since we do most of our work
in the morning, our afternoons and evenings are pretty relaxing and we have
time to read and write letters.
