Hello! My name is Olivia Wetsch and I am one of the Fall 2018 interns here at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. I am from Cincinnati, Ohio. Growing up, my family spent most of our time outside and I was always encouraged to learn about the environment around me. We also traveled a lot throughout my childhood, visiting many National Parks, State Parks, and National Wildlife Refuges across the country. I have loved animals and the environment for as long as I can remember, and I love having the opportunity to dedicate my life to helping them.

In the Spring of 2018 I graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, a co-major in Environmental Science and a minor in Plant Biology. During my undergraduate career, I was involved in both the Zoology Club, serving as volunteer coordinator for two years and president for one year, and my university’s Wildlife Society chapter. I was also fairly heavily involved in research throughout my time there, in particular with amphibian conservation research. In the summer of 2016, I led an independent research project studying the impacts of agriculture (particularly herbicide use) on disease prevalence in Midwestern Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs. In the summer of 2017, I led another project on the overwintering impacts of single and co-infections of kidney parasites and the Amphibian Chytrid Fungus on Cricket Frogs. I have also already accepted a position as a masters student at Miami University continuing this research in the semester following this internship, in the Spring of 2019. I hope to apply what I learn from this internship to my master’s thesis.  

In the Spring of 2017, during my junior year, I also studied abroad at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. While there, I took a wide variety of classes, including Australian Vertebrate Fauna, Human Dimensions of Nature and Conservation, Conservation of Marine Wildlife, and Biogeography of Marine Fishes. As part of my Australian Vertebrate Fauna class, I took a 3 day field trip to the Wambiana Cattle Station, where I learned to use many different traps types to a wide variety of vertebrates. This university is also situated on the Great Barrier Reef and is near to the Daintree Rainforest. Therefore, while in Australia, I spent a great deal of time exploring the surrounding ecosystems, both terrestrial and marine.  

During this internship at St. Marks NWR, I am really excited to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. I am particularly excited to begin working with the Red Cockaded Woodpeckers and to further my experience with imperiled amphibians by working with the Frosted Flatwood Salamanders. I have also always been very intrigued by coastal ecosystems and the incredible biological diversity that they produce. I am so grateful for this opportunity to spend time learning about an ecosystem so unlike that in which I grew up, and I can’t wait to get started!