A core group of Field Studies Program students from Richmond Hill Middle School recently participated in Adopt-a-Wetland biological training with UGA faculty member Mary Sweeney-Reeves. The training took place at Fort McAllister in Richmond Hill, and will help prepare the Field Studies Program for the adoption and year-round monitoring of the expansive salt marshes surrounding Fort McAllister State Park.

Richmond Hill students have visited UGA Aquarium on Skidaway Island in the past, and participated in classes such as diversity study, plankton identification labs, and marine macro-invertebrate labs. As part of the Field Studies Program, students also are involved in a wide variety of freshwater and upland activities such as plant and animal population surveys, Eastern Indigo snake surveys, hybrid striped bass breeding, benthic macro-invertebrate surveys, pond shocking surveys, water quality monitoring, ephemeral wetland surveys, data disaggregation and plotting.