Releasing an eastern Hellbender from the captive bred population as part of the species reintroduction.

November 11, 2018 | Sophie Trowbridge recently completed a year-long internship as the Outreach Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s New York Field Office, where she worked on a variety of projects focused on threatened or endangered species recovery, habitat restoration, and waterway accessibility and aquatic health for a variety of at risk species within New York State.

Her many accomplishments included  serving as the outreach co-chair for the Upper Susquehanna Conservation Alliance, and working with the Ithaca Children’s Garden, Lime Hollow Nature Center, and Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology to facilitate programing in those venues. As part of this role, she created a child- friendly field guide to the plant, mammal, avian, and aquatic species in the Ithaca Children’s Garden, delivered unique presentations on avian anatomy and health, the importance of pollinators, what to do if you find sick or injured wildlife, as well as mammalian skull anatomy and biology.

Sophie’s work gained regional audiences, both through her presentations and on the New York Field Office’s blog, where she wrote fun, informative articles such as Snail Blazers! Creating a Future for one of New York State’s Tiniest Residents and (The Real) Plovers of New York.

She gained valuable insights from the experience, noting that “the collaborative nature of resource management was made apparent in my experience with the New York Field Office. Patience as well as persistence and continued communication was shown to be extremely important in the process for enacting legislative change as well as encouraging multiple parties to collaborate with one another… Action and progress is possible, but requires time to make sure all parties involved are comfortable”.