Research at Tin Mountain Conservation Center
Tin Mountain Conservation Center’s mission includes five key environmental pillars: environmental education, nature programs, sustainability, camps and conservation research. In 2008, Tin Mountain established itself in the field of conservation research by conducting its first Bird Survey (on its Rockwell Sanctuary), hosting a local Bio-Blitz (an intense period of biological surveying that attempts to record all the living species within a designated area), and once again, participated in National Audubon’s Annual Christmas Bird Count. In 2009, Tin Mountain was awarded several grants to perform trout habitat restoration efforts on local first order streams. The following year, the Research Internship program was formalized and Tin Mountain hosted four summer interns to conduct both avian and stream restoration research.
Since the program’s inception, research interns have joined Tin Mountain on an annual basis to conduct ongoing conservation research projects. The interns live on campus in a solar powered and heated cabin (construction completed in 2016). We host two Stream Enhancement Interns (aka “Trout Interns”) who collect data and improve stream quality from early summer to early fall, an avian intern, who conducts research during the height of the breeding season, and a Resident Bird Intern, who works with Tin Mountain’s research team for an entire year. At times, any or all of our interns also contribute to our forestry and stewardship initiatives, as needed.
The research team and interns also conduct numerous community-based initiatives. We contribute annually to Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, the North American Butterfly Association’s Butterfly Count and a spring amphibian road-crossing initiative known as the “Big Night”. Please find more detailed descriptions of all of these initiatives below.
