The Joshua A. Nickerson Conservation Fellowship, offered in partnership by Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission, Atlantic Research & Learning Center, and Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore, has provided support to qualified individuals since 1992. At least one fellowship is awarded each year to individuals whose work will contribute to our knowledge of natural and cultural resources within Cape Cod National Seashore, and of the relationships of these resources to the local communities in which they are found.
Proposals may be submitted for research in the broad areas of the natural and social sciences. Topics of interest include terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem processes, biotic and abiotic ecosystem components, cultural and natural resource management, and the political and social implications of resource protection and management.
The amount of the fellowship varies from year to year. Housing may also be available to fellowship recipients while research is being conducted in the park. Laboratory equipment and field equipment may be available as well.
2012 Nickerson Fellow Erin Hilley working in the field at Cape Cod National Seashore
NPS
How to Apply
The 2017 application is open until April 30, 2017.
Email Dr. Nita Tallent, Chief of Natural Resource Management and Science, for more information.
2016 Nickerson Fellowship Award
2016 - Owen C. Nichols - Center for Coastal Studies - Shellfish and horseshoe crab larval flux at the East Harbor tidal restoration site.
2016 - Derrick Alcott - University of Massachusetts Amherst - Predator-prey interactions of a river herring spawning migration at anthropogenic obstacles prior to restoration.
Past Recipients & Final Reports
2015 - Kate Morkeski - The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory - Greenhouse gas emissions from Herring River marshes.
2015 - Derrick Alcott - University of Massachusetts Amherst - Migratory delay, response to predators, and passage success of river herring in the Herring River Estuary of Cape Cod National Seashore. (Secondary award for monitoring equipment purchase).
2014 - Alexis Fisher - Ph.D. candidate, MIT/WHOI Joint Program - Alexandrium fundyense cysts in the Nauset Marsh System: factors controlling germination and bloom initiation in a changing climate
2009 - Taylor Harvey - Undergrad, Wellesley College - SedimentCharacterization of the Herring River Restoration Area
2008 - Jessie Wheeler - Grad student, Antioch UniversityNew England - Evaluating Suitable Habitat for Native Halophyte Establishment Using Prescribed Burning in a Restored Salt Marsh on Cape Cod, Massachusetts
2007 - Ethan Estey - Grad student, University of Rhode Island - Recreational Angler Creel Survey of Outer Cape Beach Access
2006 - Todd Tupper - extension, no additional stipend
2005 - Todd Tupper - Ph.D. candidate, George Mason University - Habitat Variables Influencing Breeding Effort in Northern Clade Bufo fowleri
2004 - Cate O'Keefe - extension, no additional stipend
2003 - Cate O'Keefe - Graduate student, Boston University Marine Program - Habitat Suitability for the Alewife in East Harbor
1999 - Brett Still - Intern, Wellfleet Audubon Sanctuary - Systematic Inventory of Park Amphibians (joint project of Audubon and CACO Inventory Monitoring Program)
1997 - 1998 - Jean Poitras, Grad student, UMASS at Boston - Cases of Intergovernmental Cooperation Between the National Park Service and Local Governments
1995 - Aria Brissette - Grad student, University of Rhode Island (SCA) - Pond Restoration and Impact Assessment Plan
