Abbott Marshlands Call for 2025 Internships

Hamilton and Bordentown, NJ: The Friends for the Abbott Marshlands (FFAM) will sponsor interns again for the 2025 Jack Graham Summer Internship Program. Applications are being accepted through April 4, 2025. Students must be a minimum of 18 years old (by June 24), with a background in environmental stewardship or environmental studies. These summer internships are in honor of Jack Graham, a long-time educator, tireless advocate and friend. FFAM is in the third year of this program, continuing with Jack’s legacy in the Abbott Marshlands.

If being outside doing trail work, trimming overgrowth, clearing invasive plants, learning about ecology, history and other important aspects of the Abbott Marshlands sounds like a great way to spend your summer, go to the link https://abbottmarshlands.org/intern-opportunity/ read more about it, and apply online!

Home base will be the Tulpehaking Nature Center at 157 Westcott Ave., Hamilton, New Jersey. Interns are required to provide their own transportation to Abbott Marshlands parks and trails. The interns will learn the importance of protecting the marsh, to identify some of its diverse plant life, and the ecology of the unique, 3,000-acre freshwater tidal marsh. Work will be outside in all weather conditions, with hands-on opportunities to collect and write a report with gathered scientific data covering plant or animal life.

One intern summed up her 2024 experience, saying, “Wetlands purify water and air, sequestering carbon, and protect communities from flooding, drought, and extreme heat, all of which are going to increase with climate change. Since we cannot protect what we don’t understand, this starts with data collection and science communication. Protecting and defending wetlands is important…”

Interns will assist in trail work led by FFAM -- Deb Brockway, Stewardship Chair, along with Pat Coleman, President, and Cathy Frank, Executive Director. Working in all the locations of the Abbott Marshlands, they will remove invasive plants such as Japanese Knotweed and Mile-a-Minute vines’ overgrowth and will do trail improvements. They will help identify and learned about wildlife like crawfish, snapping turtles, dragonflies and butterflies on Wednesday Wonder Walks at Roebling Park, and will do an Intro to Water Monitoring and Testing lesson. They will learn the ecology and history of the site. Each of the interns will culminate their 6-week work experience with Abbott Marshlands independent research project presentations, followed by a reception in July at the Tulpehaking Nature Center. The public will be invited to attend. Last year it was a full house.

One of the interns from 2024, Yurai Guiterrez-Morales, is finishing up her senior year at Princeton High School. There, she concentrated on science and nature studies and research. As one of the youngest interns last year, she learned from her peers as well as the FFAM volunteers/staff and nature center employees. Her research project was on mobbing bird behavior in the marsh, an ###em adaptation of behavior in which smaller prey species cooperatively attack or harass a predator bird to remove their threat of harm. When Yurai started the Abbott Marshlands internship last June, she felt shy to speak up. By the end of the 6-week program, she gave an incredible presentation and answered questions with a big smile! Yurai said recently, “Right now I am in Mexico with a project for National Geographic and Disney+. Last week I had the good news that I am a Finalist for the Regeneron Science Talent Search.” Also, “I am attaching a photo, where I am in Mexico, with my shirt from the Abbott Marshlands. That opportunity [internship] gave me a lot of help to build my confidence." She accepted entrance to a prestigious local university here in the fall. Read more about Yurai's award-winning research project: ###a href="https://patch.com/new-jersey/p..." target="_blank">https://patch.com/new-jersey/p...

Jack Graham, for whom the summer internship program is named, was a long-term volunteer at the Abbott Marshlands trails. He assisted in kayaking events and at Tulpehaking Nature Center in Roebling Park. Jack was a Mary Alessio Leck Award recipient in 2021, presented along with a Mercer County proclamation for Jack’s outstanding volunteer service. The memorial fund to cover the internships was created by his wife, Norina, for the next generation to intern there.

Background:

The Abbott Marshlands are situated in Lenapehoking, the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Lenape. These lands include over 3,000 acres of open space along the Delaware River in Central New Jersey. Although a satellite view of the area quickly reveals its ecological unity, the land is divided among two counties, four municipalities, and numerous landowners. Crisscrossed by a canal, a railroad, and even a major highway interchange, the essential nature of the northernmost freshwater tidal marsh on the Delaware River becomes evident. It provides rich habitat for a wide variety of birds, fish, mammals, and plants. FFAM is the only organization whose sole focus is the promotion and stewardship of the marshlands. Visitors remark on it being an urban oasis, a critical wildlife habitat in the Delaware River’s estuary to be relished and protected. The public is invited to join in this important endeavor. For more information, visit https://abbottmarshlands.org/volunteer-opportunities/ and come to one of the free walks to experience it.

FFAM’s efforts include a volunteer trail stewardship program, an active calendar of programs on marshlands ecology and history, and other community outreach activities including a biennial juried photography exhibition this fall. They coordinate their work with the staff at the Tulpehaking Nature Center in Hamilton, the Mercer County Park Commission, the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park and the Point Breeze property in Bordentown. The Abbott Marshlands Cooperative Stewardship Council members include representatives from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the D&R Canal Commission, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Mercer County, and local municipalities of Trenton, Hamilton, Bordentown City and Bordentown Township. The website, https://abbottmarshlands.org, provides extensive information regarding ecology, cultural history, archaeology, recreation, education and stewardship.

The Historic District:

The Abbott Farm Historic District became the first National Historic Landmark in New Jersey, designated by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1976. It is a unique archaeological site, recognized as the largest Middle Woodland village of its type on the east coast of the United States. It was named after Charles Conrad Abbott, whose early archaeological work and writings, from the 1850s onward, spurred much research there.

Historically, what we call the Abbott Marshlands was previously known as the Trenton Marsh or the Hamilton Marsh or sometimes the Hamilton-Trenton-Bordentown Marsh. In 2011, a coalition of marsh supporters, working on an interpretive plan for the marsh, changed the name to the Abbott Marshlands to acknowledge the historical and natural significance of the area.