Educational Outreach through the ESER Program

The ESER team is committed to providing education opportunities in research and field experience on the Idaho National Laboratory. To accomplish this mission, we developed a comprehensive educational outreach plan. Our plan is threefold:

• Provide research internships through the ESER Program’s fieldwork program

• Provide research opportunities for graduate students through the Idaho National Environmental Research Park (NERP)

• Team with universities to provide additional research opportunities through Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU’s).

Research Internships

In the past seven years, ESER has provided summer internships for 43 high school and 49 college students. The interns have provided field and research assistance to the ESER Program in the following areas:

• Long-term vegetation studies

• Fire ecology studies

• Sagebrush demography studies

• Protective Cap/Biobarrier Experiment (PCBE)

• Noxious weed mapping

• INL’s Conservation Management Plan

Students are recruited from local high schools and universities across the country. ESER has provided internships to students from Stanford University, University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Albertsons College of Idaho, Sterling College, St. Lawrence University, College of Southern Idaho, Brigham Young University, and Brigham Young University-Idaho. Interns are provided grant money for their services through the ESER Program. The interns are able to use the grant money to further their education.

 

NERP Research Assistance

NERPs are outdoor laboratories that provide opportunities for environmental studies on protected lands that act as buffers around Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. The INL Site was designated as a NERP in 1975.

The Idaho NERP provides exceptional opportunities for graduate-student research because of its established facilities, a security buffer that protects research, long-term records of environmental conditions, and partnerships with universities and industry. Some of the recent and current research projects conducted on the Idaho NERP by graduate and post-graduate students, under the coordination of the ESER Program, are:

• Monitoring Amphibian and Reptile Populations on the INL

• Annotated Checklist of the Ants on the Idaho National Laboratory

• Ecology, Conservation of Rattlesnakes in Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems:  Landscape Disturbance, Small Mammal Communities, and Great Basin Rattlesnake Reproduction

• The Protective Cap/Biobarrier Experiment

• Developing a Conservation Management Plan for the Idaho National Laboratory

• Cesium in Soils and Plants in the Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystem

• Minimizing Risk of Cheatgrass Invasion and Dominance at the Idaho National Laboratory

• Sagebrush Demography on the Idaho National Laboratory

• Long-Term Vegetation Trends on the Idaho National Laboratory

• Factors that Influence the Road Mortality of Snakes on the Eastern Snake River Plain

• The Effect of Landscape Change on the Life History of Western Rattlesnakes

• Fine-scale Movement Patterns of Coyotes (Canis latrans) on the INEEL in Idaho.

Seven Masters or Doctoral theses have been published from research conducted at INL with assistance from Stoller ESER scientists.

Partnership with CESU’s

The CESU National Network is a network of cooperative units established to provide research, technical assistance, and education to resource and environmental managers. Each CESU is structured as a working collaboration among federal agencies and universities. CESU’s are based at universities and focused on a biogeographic region of the country.

To facilitate and enhance ecological and other research through the ESER Program and the NERP, Stoller works with the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin CESU’s with twenty-three universities located across the western United States. This collaboration not only improves and increases Stoller’s ability to conduct research through the ESER Program, but also provides DOE-ID a conduit to interact with regional universities and federal agencies on issues as diverse as social concerns, natural resources preservation, ecology, land management, endangered species, National Environmental Policy Act, ecological and human risk assessment, contaminant surveillance, health physics, engineering or nuclear energy. CESU’s create additional opportunities for interdisciplinary and multi-agency research, technical assistance, and education.

 

ESER reinforces our commitment to education by employing innovative programs and resources to ensure DOE the best possible use of its research dollars on the INL and to provide students with exceptional educational opportunities.