Summer SEARCH Applications Being Accepted

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announces that applications are being accepted for the 2007 Summer SEARCH Camp. This camp is a field research program that provides high school students with the opportunity to do hands-on scientific investigations while learning about and helping to protect the environment. Professional research scientists design the protocols used in the field investigations and DEP staff provide the training in knowledge and skills. What is needed are high school students to provide energy, intelligence, and enthusiasm to accomplish the project goals.

The program will take place during the weeks of July 16 - July 20, July 23 - July 27 and July 30 - August 3. Each week up to fifteen Summer Search young men and women participate in the program. They camp out, prepare meals as a group and work as a team to complete the research projects.

This summer research will include a survey of a declining population of Alewife and Blueback Herring and an inventory and mapping of invasive plants and animals throughout Rocky Neck State Park located in East Lyme. Alewife and Blueback Herring are two anadromous fish found in the Long Island Sound and their numbers have been declining since 1985. Over the last ten years the number of Blueback Herring, which passed over the Holyoke Dam at Rocky Neck State Park, has decreased by ninety-eight percent. Summer SEARCH students will complete a number of population counts and will monitor stream flow during the month of July. In addition we will also construct a permanent stream flow gauge at Rocky Neck State Park.

Students will also study the spread of invasive plants in the region to gain a better understanding of invasive plant ecology. Dr. Leslie Merhoff, director of the University of Connecticut’s Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE), will assist Summer SEARCH students with their research that will be a part of statewide on-going studies on the ecological effects that invasive plants have on habitats.

People interested in having their sons and daughters participate in the program can ask for a brochure at (203) 734-2513 or visit the DEP website at www.ct.gov/dep. For more information contact Alberto Mimo at the above phone number or at alberto.mimo@po.state.ct.us.