2025 SAV Intern Experience with DNREC

Written by 2025 DNREC SAV Program Intern, Lillian Turner

Spending the summer exploring the eastern shore, surveying underwater grass beds, and gaining fieldwork skills was the best way I could’ve spent this summer. I have always had a love for the eastern shore and being on the water- I never imagined it could be my job to enjoy those things. The DNREC Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Internship was an extremely useful experience for personal and professional development. The DNREC staff was welcoming and encouraging to me as a new staff member. I soaked up my opportunities to learn from those with institutional knowledge, attend potlucks, and go out on fieldwork trips with anyone who offered!

As the first intern for this program I was in a unique position to offer my thoughts and opinions on how the summer would go and how the facility was being built up. As the summer progressed we developed an ambitious mission and work ethic- covering tons of Delaware’s waterways, building tools and resources for the future, and having more fun than I’ve ever had at work.

A common day as an SAV intern is loading up the car with water quality monitoring equipment, harvesting tools, waders, lunches and exploring a new waterway. Rivers, streams, the bay, ponds, and even ditches are your office. Spending time in the SAV facility may look like counting seeds, pressing plants, monitoring material, and handy man tasks to maintain our equipment! The skills learned at this internship are applicable to not only environmental fieldwork jobs, but life in general. I had lots of practice adapting to change this summer, as you are constantly at the mercy of the environment. Being ready to pivot away from your plans based on weather changes or new discoveries is essential to succeeding in this field.

The immersive opportunities of scientific exploration with SAV can be rewarding in very different ways. One of my favorite days out in the field was spending the entire day in the Brandywine freshwater river. We got in up north, and traveled south- stopping each time we saw SAV and taking in the scenery of the dynamic river. A different type of field day that I loved was collection day in the South Bethany canals. There’s something enlightening about swimming in thick beds of SAV surrounded by residential development. I was reminded how fragile and how resilient SAV is simultaneously.

Other favorite opportunities of mine include turbulating seeds and pressing plants. Using the turbulator on seed processing days is refreshing and teamwork oriented. This provided an opportunity to meet people and exchange ideas while taking steps toward our restoration goals. Getting splashed by cool water on a hot day with new friends and laughing about it together was a bonding experience. Pressing plants was a unique opportunity for us to slow down and get into the details of each plant specimen. We spent whole days photographing plants, looking at different aspects of them under the microscope, and adding new species to our list of found SAV. Meticulously drying and pressing these plants felt so important, knowing you are contributing to a reference catalog that could benefit people for decades or more.

 In review, I spent more time outside this summer, working with my hands, brainstorming, and collaborating than I ever have before. This position is a unique opportunity to work with a vital ecosystem in your local waterways. The lush beds of healthy SAV in Delaware are some of the most beautiful, dynamic scenes I have ever seen and I will always cherish the memory of them. I can’t wait to hear how the SAV program is growing under DNREC and I am so excited for future employees who get to experience this work.