—by Tristan Dicke, 2019 Avery Intern Scholar
I knew my summer was going to be off to a later start with my Field Hydrology class going well into summer semester. For the summer, I wanted a job or internship and really did not want to be in Phoenix or Tucson during the excessive heat. So, I looked for opportunities elsewhere and I had heard about the intern scholarship through AHS, but I wanted to be somewhere cooler and was not sure if I was eligible to get the Flagstaff scholarship since I was not going to a school in Northern Arizona at the time I applied. Being on the optimistic side, I went ahead and wrote the essay and got my letters of recommendation before I got the email response confirming that I was eligible, since I did go to NAU and lived in Flagstaff 4.5 years prior. When I received the email from John Hoffman that I had gotten an interview, a large load was lifted off my back for trying to find a job for the summer.
At the start of the interviewing process I was super nervous since it was a Skype interview and I had to bike from my apartment to school to ensure that my Internet would be reliable. Coming up to the scheduled interview, I thought I had gotten the day wrong since I was scheduled to get a call at 5:00 p.m. and did not end up getting the call till 5:15 p.m. I learned during my internship that some people are not as punctual as I am. Once the interview started, I learned that I was not alone in having unreliable Internet and had to finish the interview through a phone call. After that was all figured out, all my nerves relaxed, and I just got to talk about myself, which made it a very enjoyable experience. I would personally like to thank Barbara Phillips, Chuck’s spouse, for making me feel comfortable during the interview process.
Once I got the call that I received the internship, I happily started calling my old friends in Flagstaff and seeing what opportunities were arising for summer work. Having had a prior internship with the City of Flagstaff made it much easier for me to find places to intern with the wonderful help of Erin Young. She was able to put me in contact with Allen Haden with Natural Channel Design.
When I first got in contact with Allen, it was a Friday afternoon and I had just gotten settled in my place up in Flagstaff, soon to find out that I would be leaving it. Erin had informed me that Natural Channel Design did a bunch of field work and had a trip planned for New Mexico coming up. Sure enough, during my phone call with Allen, I was invited to come along the trip that was leaving the coming Monday. I happily accepted the offer and fumbled around to find all my camping stuff for the 4-day trip to the Gila Wilderness (the world’s first wilderness area).
During the trip, I learned the BEHI (Bank Erosion Hazard Index) classification for stream channels and did plenty of hiking, GPS work, and cross sections. One of the most memorable parts of the trip happened the second night when our whole camp had just gone to sleep. Once everything was quiet, a loud bang of a large tree falling woke up the entire camp. The area that we were camping in had been mostly spared from the fire that had come through 10 years prior, but the surrounding area had been severely burnt. There were plenty of dead snags that could fall at a moment’s notice just outside the camping area. Since hearing the large tree fall the second night, the whole group was on edge when there was large gust of wind. When we were doing the field work up in the wilderness area, some of the banks of the stream were either incredibly steep or impassable due to fallen trees. Since so many trees were down, we would see how long we could stay on fallen logs without touching the ground. I think we made it at least 100 meters only walking on fallen trees. At the end of the trip, I helped enter the collected data into RiverMorph to estimate the amount of sediment that could erode in the area.
During my next endeavor, I worked with Jeff Kennedy at the USGS Arizona Water Science Center. He showed me the three types of gravity surveys that can be used to estimate changes in groundwater level and the software that can be used to analyze the data collected from the surveys. I got to experience using a Solaris probe and testing to see how the orientation of the probe affects the neutron count that the instrument measures to determine soil moisture values. During my work with Jeff, I also got to travel to Chino Valley and use an absolute gravity meter. Near the USGS building in Flagstaff, I used the relative gravity meter several times and saw how this data is in GSadjust, the gravity correction program. This work has really intrigued my interest in using gravity to infer changes in water level and I will continue to work with Jeff for my master’s research.
In the midst of doing the gravity work, I realized that I still had quite a few hours that I needed to do to complete the internship. I had emailed a few places that I was interested in working with and realized that the best way to get your foot in the door is face to face conversation. So, at the end of June, I decided to go visit the Springs Stewardship Institute (SSI) at the Museum of Northern Arizona and see if they had any projects coming up. To my surprise for the second time this summer, I found out that they had a trip to Nevada that I was invited to come along, coming up the next week. During this 6-day trip, I had a wonderful time exploring numerous springs near Caliente, NV, and learning the SEAP spring classification system. On this trip, I was fortunate enough to work with several botanists, including Jeri Ledbetter, Andrea Hazelton, and Glenn Rink, who taught me the common flora and snails unique to these spring environments. On this project, I also got to work with Ed Schenk, an SSI hydrologist who taught me the various data collection methods used for spring water chemistry and flow. After our 6-day trip was done, I was able to learn the Springs Online Database, where I entered all the data that was collected on the trip.
Following the data input with the SSI, I was able to coordinate with Jamie Macy and Kurt Schonauer with the USGS to do field measurements of flow in the Verde River at Chino Valley, Prescott, and Clarkdale. During this experience, I learned the various measurements that get recorded at each USGS gauge and how the gauges are calibrated based on the height of water at a point along the river to estimate flow.
After this, I went back to work with the SSI to survey a few springs in the Flagstaff area for a 4FRI project. This work I really enjoyed because I was able to explore Flagstaff area and survey springs with Ed Schenk. I would like to thank Jeff Jenness with SSI for making the amazing maps that helped us find the springs around Flagstaff. After entering the surveys into the springs database, I went back to work with the USGS under Jeff Kennedy and Casey Jones. With Jeff, I did more relative gravity loops and data collection near the USGS building with huge tanker planes flying over our heads while the Museum fire was burning around Flagstaff. With Casey, I went near Winslow to take monitor well level measurements. Some of the wells we measured had depths to water near 600 feet, so we got quite the workout cranking up the sounder.
I would like to express my gratitude to AHS and the AHS Foundation for this wonderful opportunity. I have gained a wide range of experiences and I was able to narrow my graduate research goals through the Charles C. Avery internship program. I look forward to continuing my work with Jeff Kennedy in the Flagstaff area and giving back to the AHS through active participation in chapter activities. I would also like to thank Erin Young and John Hoffman again for selecting me for this amazing opportunity and making this experience enjoyable.