By Lori Dugan
THATCHER — EA Discovery Park recently welcomed interns from the Gila Watershed Partnership’s Southeastern Arizona Youth Land Stewardship (SEAYLS) program for several days of campus improvements and conservation projects.
The SEAYLS program provides local youth ages 16 to 18 with hands-on conservation crew experience through a four-week paid internship. Participants learn about the importance of conservation work in maintaining a healthy local environment while gaining marketable experience for future career opportunities.
During their time at Discovery Park, the interns completed several projects designed to improve the campus. Their first day focused on clearing debris and brush around the EA Biology Department’s Chiricahua leopard frog ranarium habitat. The work improved access to the habitat while reducing potential fire hazards.
The following day, interns worked in the Discovery Park xeriscape area near the Native American Heritage Museum and along the nature trails leading to the Discovery Park Ranch House Conference Facility. The crew raked and smoothed trail surfaces, lined pathways with stones to improve definition, and installed infiltration steps in steeper sections of the trails.
Infiltration steps help make trails more accessible while reducing erosion by slowing rainwater runoff and directing water away from trail surfaces.
“The Gila Watershed Partnership is an important collaborator with EA and Discovery Park, and it’s always a pleasure to work with them,” said Paul Anger, director of EA Discovery Park. “The SEAYLS interns are great, and they really did a lot to improve and beautify Discovery Park.”
The Gila Watershed Partnership manages the Gila Native Plant Nursery at EA Discovery Park and partners with the EA Biology Department to provide environmental education internship opportunities. GWP also grows native vegetation for community landscaping projects and public sale.
For more information about the Gila Watershed Partnership or EA Discovery Park, call (928) 428-6260 or visit EA Discovery Park.
