Dr. Jared Elmore

During the summer, Jared taught his Applied Wildlife Habitat Management Field Lab and Grassland Ecology and Management. He was involved in planning the National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative Technical Committee and Eastern Partners in Flight Joint meeting, as well as the American Ornithological Society annual meeting, both of which he attended. He also travelled to Nebraska for America's Grassland Conference. Personal travel included going to Atlanta for a Braves game, Nashville to visit family for Independence Day, and several day hikes.

Marisa Zimmerman

Marisa was busy this summer traveling to Marion and Lamar counties in Mississippi and Burke county Georgia to train some fantastic folks on NBGI's new RCPP project protocol and ARU deployment! In Mississippi, she assisted our MDWFP volunteers with deploying 97 ARUs, and our team of NBGIF personnel and biologists to deploy 99 ARUs in Georgia. She returned to Clemson just in time to complete her CIP point-counts at 38 sites in the Clemson experimental forest and present a portion of her research at NBGI's Technical Committee Meeting and an AOS conference. Marisa's most exciting accomplishment this summer was adopting her new buddy, Arrow, from Anderson County PAWS. 

Percy Marshall

Percy had an exciting summer out in Howell County Missouri. They deployed 200 ARUs, conducted 237 point counts, and surveyed 182 habitats. Now they are back in the lab to process the data from all 600 deployed ARUs.

Percy deploying one of hundreds of ARUs in Howell County.

Allison Dawn

Allison Dawn had a very eventful summer in Preble County, Ohio where she deployed 168 ARUs, 200 point counts, and 117 habitat surveys. She also presented a poster on the preliminary results from a supervised habitat classification workflow at two conferences: the National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative Technical Committee and Eastern Partners in Flight joint annual meeting as well as her first ever American Ornithological Society annual meeting. Now back in Clemson, she is paddleboarding with her dog Ollie as much as possible before the cold weather kicks in!

Allison Rees

Allison Rees finished collecting flamingo vocalizations. Greenville Zoo had her present an update on her project after returning from the AOS conference and is having her present in front of zoo donors. She helped with local point counts. Her piedmont prairie plants are on the move from the campus greenhouse to the R.C. Edwards meadow very soon. Most of the fun moments in the summer involved her newer best four legged friend Perdita (Perdie).

Morgan Warner

Morgan’s summer was full of nest checks in Chesterfield, South Carolina. She monitored 90 nest boxes, tracking cavity-nesting birds from the first egg laid to the last chick fledged. Now she’s turning her attention to analyzing the data those boxes provided. 

Morgan spending quality time with one of her bluebird nest boxes.

Natalie Lucero

During the summer of 2025 Natalie was all over the east coast of Minnesota. Partnering with the US Forest Service and a non-profit organization, she guided youth in conservation and management projects. Their work ranged from invasive species removal and bird banding to campground renovation and the portaging of our own equipment. When Natalie wasn’t working, she got to hike, swim, and observe wildlife in the wonderful Superior National Forest!

Jeyda Bolukbasi

This summer, Jeyda conducted marine biology research in the Florida Keys with the Childress Lab at Clemson University. Jeyda collected data on coral reefs while scuba diving and presented her research at the Clemson Creative Inquiry Research Symposium. She learned so much about the ecology of coral reefs, data collection in underwater environments, and what it means to be a field scientist.