SECN Highlights March 2020

Aquatic Ecologist and Collateral Duty Safety Coordinator Eric Starkey practices putting a splint on Stephen Cooper's "injured leg" under the watchful eye of UGA First Aid Instructor Lance Haynie.

Daniel McCay / SECN photo

First Aid Training

Members of the Southeast Coast Network staff completed Wilderness and Remote First Aid Certification last month at the SECN office in Athens. Taught by Lance Haynie from the University of Georgia's Recreational Sports, the class covered a wide-range of topics from initial patient assessment techniques to splinting bone and joint injuries. Along with classroom instruction, staff members got the opportunity to role play in real-life emergency scenarios staged in UGA's Whitehall Forest. Participants got to field-test their emergency weather drill when a tornado warning was issued during the first aid training. Trainees huddled together in an interior room at the SECN office to discuss what they had learned so far that day.

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Wildlife Biologist Michael Parrish in search of an ARD deployment site at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

NPS photo

In the Field

Completed in February

• Coastal Ecologist Lisa Cowart Baron met with the natural resource management staff at Canaveral National Seashore on February 24 to discuss the placement of additional Salt Marsh Surface Elevation Table (SET) sites in the park.
• Botanist Forbes Boyle traveled to Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park on February 25 to discuss upcoming field activities and locate a potential native vegetation restoration project site with Allen Huckabee, the park's natural resource point of contact.
• Continuous water-quality data was collected at Congaree National Park, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Canaveral National Seashore, and Fort Pulaski National Monument.
• Automated Recording Devices (ARDs) for landbird and vocal anuran community monitoring were deployed in the following parks: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Fort Pulaski National Monument, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve; and Fort Matanzas National Monument.

Staff from Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, Christina Valdes, biotechnician  and Allen Huckabee, National Resources POC, show SECN Botanist Forbes Boyle a potential site for a native vegetation restoration project at the park.

Forbes Boyle / NPS photo

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Learning to READ

Four members of the Southeast Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network attended the Interagency Wildland Fire Resource Advisor Training held in February in Atlanta, Georgia. Aquatic Ecologist Eric Starkey, Coastal Ecologist Lisa Cowart Baron, Botanist Forbes Boyle and Biotechnician Elizabeth Rico participated in the three-day training. A Resource Advisor is primarily responsible for identifying and evaluating impacts and benefits of fire and fire management actions on natural and cultural resources. This includes hurricanes and their potential impacts. The Resource Advisor communicates resource protection issues to the Incident Commander or Incident Command Team.