My name is Kelly Johnson and I am so excited to be here at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge as a fall biological intern. I enjoy trail running, wildlife photography, and exploring new places to eat. I was born and raised in Westminster, Maryland on fifteen acres of forest. My earliest memories are of exploring the stream that ran through my family’s property with my older brother and our chocolate Labrador. Early in my life, these explorations fostered in me an emotional connection to my local environment.

I attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a Bachelor of Science in May 2018. There I majored in Biology & Society with a concentration in Environment & Society. I also played four years of varsity field hockey at Cornell. I spent most of my undergrad in entomology classes after I developed a love for insects my sophomore year. The summer before my senior year I interned with the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland assisting with mouse trapping and tick sampling. Working with wildlife biologists mainly, and not entomologists, sparked my interest in the wildlife field.   

After graduating, I returned home to Maryland and was accepted as a Chesapeake Conservation Corps member with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at the Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.  I assisted senior biologists with their wildlife monitoring and management, habitat surveys, restoration efforts, and occasional outreach. I also led my own projects which included organizing two nature photography workshops in Baltimore, butterfly surveys at the newly installed pollinator garden on Poplar Island in the Chesapeake Bay, and spotted turtle surveys at two Partners for Fish and Wildlife properties on the eastern shore of Maryland. I love wildlife, being able to spend my days outside making a difference in an ecosystem, and learning about new environments. These are aspects of the internship here at SMNWR that attracted me so strongly.  

These first two weeks we have already built salamander traps, sprayed invasive cogon grass, banded two red-cockaded woodpeckers, and helped with sea turtle nest inventories at St. Vincent NWR. I am looking forward to learning from everyone here at the refuge and learning new skills that I can take with me further into the environmental field. The “nature shock” of being in a place that is so different from central Maryland and upstate New York leaves me feeling excited for each new day. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the amazing work being done here at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge!