Hello, my name is Hannah Buerk and I am a senior environmental science major at Saint Louis University. At SLU, I work in an on-campus geochemistry lab that studies the travel of contaminants through bodies of water. Outside of school I like to draw, hike, and look up dad jokes. After I finish my undergraduate work, I am planning to go onto graduate school to get a masters or PhD in sustainability.

During my time at LREC, I hope to study the movement of box turtles and their interactions with the surrounding construction and roadways to get a better idea of how these box turtles are impacted by habitat fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation has the potential to increase the mortality in a species and, since box turtles are a vulnerable species, the increase in fragmentation can be very detrimental.

Additionally, during this internship, I hope to learn more about plant identification and different methodologies that I have not yet been exposed to. I am excited to get the chance to meet all of you and learn more about this beautiful piece of land!

Hello! My name is Bailee Suedmeyer. I am one of the summer interns here at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center this year.

In May, I graduated from Truman State University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science. Next, I will be attending graduate school at Missouri State University. My interests include sustainable agriculture, specifically agroforestry. At Missouri State, my research will be looking specifically at silvopasture management practices. Silvopasture management focuses on livestock production with lessened impacts on the environment.

Here at LREC, I will be doing a research project looking at soil health of prairies under restoration management. With this project, I would like to compare the health of the restored prairies to local remnant, or undisturbed, prairies. I hope to expand on this project in the future, looking at native prairie health compared to land under sustainable and traditional agricultural practices. This summer, my goal is to gain knowledge of our native prairie and woodland plant species as well as learning various restoration practices. I look forward to working with all of the volunteers this summer and learning more about prairies.

In my free time, I enjoy riding my horses, kayaking with my dogs, hiking and fishing.