Soffia Ramsey was part of the 2024 TERC Internship for Scholars Program. She created a weblog of her summer experience.
Overview: This program was an incredible experience that provided me with a diverse and interdisciplinary skill set in Freshwater ecology and communications. Over the course of eight weeks, I engaged in hands-on fieldwork, participated in outreach events, and attended eye-opening professional development workshops. Everyone on the TERC staff was very welcoming, friendly, supportive and easy to work with!
Week one
6/25/24 - First Day
I officially started my first day as a Field Ecology Intern with the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Today at TERC, we met the other interns, AmeriCorps members, and had a potluck lunch including each of our mentor teams and other TERC staff.
We went on a tour of the Science Center and got to explore the different TERC exhibits showcasing TERC Research. My favorite part was the lab with TERC’s fish Cutty, June, and Gil where you learn about Lake Tahoe’s food web and the change’s it has undergone due to the multitude of introduced species impacting the Lake.
For my project, I am conducting a wildlife survey of the Western Pearlshell Mussel, a native and vulnerable mussel species sparingly located throughout the Truckee River. This project will involve snorkel surveys in the Truckee River in Tahoe City to assess the current distribution, if any, of this important native species. My mentor Katie and I are interested in determining areas of interest to potentially flag for restoration or protection to ensure the long term conservation of the WPS mussel in the Tahoe Basin.
Overall, everyone at TERC is so friendly, welcoming, and genuine, and I am so excited to see what the next 8 weeks have in store!
6/27/2024 - Farmer’s Market Outreach
Today I participated in outreach at the Tahoe City Farmers Market with Sofia and Alison! I helped set up the TERC outreach tent and materials along with the other vendors, and then we spent the day talking with market attendees about our research at TERC, proper composting practices, and the environmental concerns regarding single use plastics. I also informed people about citizen science tahoe, which provides individuals opportunities to monitor aquatic invasive species, algal blooms, ashfall occurrences, and clarity changes from their own device.
As a field intern who’s mostly doing field and laboratory work, it was really exciting to involve myself with the education and outreach team and have the opportunity to connect with people in the Tahoe community.
Week 2
7/01/2024 - Lab Training
Today Katie walked me through the protocol of preparing our sampling equipment for our lake monitoring sample collection days. It’s a somewhat tedious but extremely necessary process of acid washing all our bottles and preparing our phytoplankton/zooplankton jars with the proper chemicals. I got fitted with a lab coat and goggles, learned all about laboratory safety, and got to use the fancy sulfuric acid dispensers, which make the process so much smoother.
07/03/2024 - Microplastics Sampling Today!
For my first outing as a crew member on the R/V John Le Conte (pictured), I assisted Katie and Keeley in sampling and monitoring microplastics in the Lake. We arrived at the hatchery at 8:00 am and helped pack the TERC field Truck and then headed to the Marina which had so so many nice boats (especially the thunderbird) Sampling involved towing a net in water for 15 mins at 4 mph in three different areas. As the net towed, I also held a long funnel stick in the water which connected to a series of differently sized mesh tins in order to sieve out plastic from collected surface water.
We also checked out a couple of the buoys!
July 06, 2025 – Helicopter Ride
I had the super special opportunity today to join in on a south Lake Tahoe helicopter flyover last weekend and learn about an ongoing nearshore algae monitoring project between TERC and the TRPA! (** i have a helicopter video too but it couldn’t be copied here, they are in a box folder tho called helicopter) Tahoe is absolutely stunning from the sky, Maddy and I couldn’t believe our eyes! This project involves attaching cameras to the helicopter and getting wide aerial images to spatially track algae coverage on the south shore over time.
Week Three
07/09/24 - Guest Speaker
Today for our professional development workshop day, Madonna Dunbar the communications manager for the Incline Village Water District came to talk about her career with us! SHe discussed her experience trying to get people to drink Tahoe’s pristine waters over plastic, and other efforts they’re exploring to promote Tahoe’s tap water. Did you know before any filtering or distillation processes, Lake Tahoe’s water is roughly 99.994% pure?! We also heard from David Smith from the USGS last week, who told us about his work on the Lake Tahoe Interagency Monitoring Program (LTIMP) which involves a hydrology team who take stream samples of different tributaries around Lake Tahoe to monitor sediment inputs from major drainage points into the Lake. David went over his job of analyzing the data and making sense of any possible patterns or trends that may appear from the data.
7/11/25 - USGS LTIMP Observation Day
Today I joined the USGS LTIMP hydrology team at Incline Creek to learn more about their stream monitoring process. As someone interested in possibly pursuing a career in hydrology, I was really excited to reach out and ask if I could observe their team on a sampling day. The work involves tracking stream flow at different points across the stream, and collecting consistent volumes of water to be processed later on. This work will trap any sediment flowing through the water and helps them monitor turbidity in the stream.
July 15, 2024 - August 1st Mussel Surveys
It’s week four!, and I have begun conducting snorkel surveys in the Truckee River with Katie looking for the Western Pearlshell Mussel, a native freshwater mussel that plays a crucial role in improving water clarity and decreasing turbidity! So far in my literature reviews, I have learned that these organisms can live up to 80 years old! They are also extremely difficult to point out in the water, as they look just like rocks covered in sediment except for a distinct gap between the two sides of their shell.
This work has been really fun! Katie and I have been swimming up and down sections of the Truckee river looking for the mussels, fine tuning our observation skills. I’ve seen tons of different trout, sculpins, and crawdads underwater, and I’ve also gotten pretty good at avoiding river rafters. It’s definitely a whole different world! The most rewarding day so far has been conducting independent surveys. After days of searching with Katie, I finally found a pocket of live mussels while searching on my own after spending weeks 4 and 5 searching endlessly.
July 22, 2024 – Today we were out completing monitoring work for TERC’s monthly nearshore water quality sampling of Lake Tahoe! We completed a zooplankton tow with our massive nets, took important water quality measurements with different probing equipment, and I got to drive the TERC vessels! As part of my role on the Field team, I completed a California Boating Training course, meaning I have been able to start learning how to drive our research vessels. This has been absolutely so much fun and I definitely feel like an important member of this team. (*** also have a video of zoops)
July 31, 2024 – Another beautiful morning on board the John LeConte! Today I am back on the boat, this time with my entire cohort to spend the day showing everyone what it’s like to be a crew member on the field team. We are also each sharing a short elevator pitch on each of our projects that we’ve been developing during our workshop days. Then we are hearing feedback from each other that will help us better communicate our projects to the general public at our poster session in a few weeks.
August 7th, 2025 – Boat Safety/Emergency Training
Today representatives from the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab Boat Safety team lead us through a boating safety course on the Lake to train both our field and chemistry team for emergency/safety situations while on board our research vessels. The training involved quick responses to obstacles while driving the boat, best practices for throwing safety rope for man overboard scenarios, and different team building safety responses while wearing immersion suits. The whole day involved really important training, but our instructors made sure the class remained fun as well. The red suits felt really silly, we all looked like teletubbies, but it was so much fun to be there with the whole team and I’m so happy I got to participate in the course.
August 8, 2024 – Today I presented my project on the Western Pearlshell Mussel at the State of the Lake Report! I finally got to showcase my research from this summer to the public and highlight the knowledge I gained throughout this program. It was extremely rewarding to connect with the greater TERC community and raise awareness of the WPS mussel to those who werent’ aware of it’s presence! Surprisingly, most people think invasive when you mention mussels(zebra, quagga, golden), so this was a great opportunity to educate the general public that not all mussels are bad or invasive. It was also so rewarding getting to see the other interns presenting their work and celebrate the work they did this summer as well.
I also had the chance to attend the Lake Tahoe Federal Summit, where Nevada and California policy makers spoke to us about different plans in store for the Lake. Pete Buttigeg also made an appearance and spoke about the importance of improving transportation in the area to make it more accessible and sustainable.
(I also have to shout out the wonderful support of my lab group from UCI who came to visit for my presentation and who I wouldn’t be here without!)
Conclusion: I had such a fun and immersive experience this summer with this group! The past 8 weeks have flown by. Words cannot describe how valuable this experience has been to both my professional and personal development.
This program has been instrumental in preparing me for a career and graduate studies in aquatic ecology. It has deepened my understanding of various pathways within environmental science and ecology while enhancing my problem-solving abilities and scientific skills. Beyond that, I’ve also grown into a more confident and effective science communicator as well, and have a deep passion for continuing work and research in Lake Tahoe.
I’m grateful for the opportunities, experiences, and friends I gained through this program, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to expand their knowledge and expertise in this field.
