Municipal Parks Natural Resources Intern

In this internship, I learned that municipal park districts protect land by managing the activities that occur in a designated area. For example, BIMPRD protects lands by preventing large scale development via ownership, maintaining designated trails for park goers to recreate on, and permitting what activities park goers can do to best minimize environmental disturbance. Another part of BIMPRD's land stewardship that I learned is that they host and manage work parties (with volunteers) and conservation crews (high school students and crew leaders) to remove invasive plants, properly dispose/compost of invasive plants, and close social trails to best result in thriving PNW habitats within the park lands. This helped strengthen my plant identification skills and removal techniques. I learned that BIMPRD takes scientific data and analysis, and public input, to provide for the future of our parks to result in the best experience for park goers and the best protection of lands possible in comprehensive planning.