Intern Updates
Learning at Rushton Woods Preserve TODD ALLEGER
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rom bird banding intern to agroecologist and Motus expert, Todd Alleger’s seven year progression of experience at the Trust embodies our integrative approach to conservation. It’s a bold illustration of the power of programming centered at Rushton Woods Preserve, which equips conservationists to take what they’ve learned and apply it to larger conservation issues. Todd began working at Rushton Woods Preserve as a seasonal intern at our federally licensed Bird Banding Station in 2012, where he honed his skills banding migratory songbirds and Northern Saw-whet owls for two seasons. Following his internships he worked as a bird banding field biologist in Yosemite National Park and Indiana before returning to Rushton Woods Preserve to begin work on the Rushton Agroecology Project. Todd served as the Agroecology Project Manager for five years beginning in 2014, a blended role that combined biology at Rushton Farm and bird conservation activities at Rushton Woods Preserve. The focus of the Rushton Agroecology Project is to document how Rushton Farm interacts with the surrounding ecosystem, cataloging all observed living organisms—from insects to birds, mammals and reptiles. Todd plans to formalize this five-year survey of the farm’s ecology during the winter of 2020. He believes the report, when aligned with the farm’s cultivation and crop journals, will provide a compelling narrative and starting point for additional research projects for other scholars and scientists. As a component of his bird conservation work, Todd’s mechanical skills were tapped to install the Trust’s very first Motus receiving station at Rushton Woods Preserve in 2016, part of the Motus global wildlife tracking “Not many organizations are network. The Motus system has emerged as an essential tool in the race to save rapidly declining bird populations. Todd has become the looking at sustainable farming Trust’s expert on the deployment of Motus receiving stations and has and wildlife together the way been instrumental in the expansion of the network throughout North that the Trust is—it has been an America. As one of the country’s foremost Motus technical experts, he extraordinary opportunity.” has conducted Motus installation workshops throughout the country, including at the American Ornithological Society conference in Todd Alleger Anchorage, Alaska. He has also personally managed the installation of New England over 60 receiving stations. Over the next three years, Todd will manage Motus Project Manager the installation of 50 Motus receiver stations in New England funded Willistown Conservation Trust by a Competitive State Wildlife Grant from U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Todd credits the Trust with giving him the unique opportunity to combine sustainable farming with wildlife research. “Not many organizations are looking at these two things together the way that the Trust is—it has been an extraordinary opportunity,” shared Todd.
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