[IVIP REPORT -- Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park]{.underline}

**Verena Klenske**

**Environmental Planning / Landscape Architecture student**

**Business Economics Environment University Nuertingen -- Geislingen**

**Germany**

**Nene Project, October 2005 -- August 2006**

For 15 years there have been students coming from my university
"Business Economics Environment University Nuertingen -- Geislingen" in
Germany to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. My Professor, Mr. Weiss,
suggested I spend my first practical training, which is required by
school, there. The Hawaiian Goose Project sounded interesting as birds
are my favorite animals and I wanted to work with them. I thought it
would also be a chance for me to learn something about another country,
a different culture, improve my English language skills and to see what
it's like to spend a time far away from home on my own.

During my almost 11-month volunteer period I could see how a National
Park, with all its different divisions, can work together. I also
learned how much sense the founding, protecting and expanding of
National Parks for people and for nature makes.

It was awesome to follow the Hawaiian Goose through the whole year. At
the beginning, during the breeding season, I learned to tell when a bird
starts nesting and how to monitor nests. I trapped predators to save the
goslings before they were eaten by mongooses, feral cats or pigs. After
a couple weeks, when the legs of the goslings where big enough we
started catching and banding them. The color bands they get help us to
recognize the single birds, keep track of them, get a good idea how the
Nene population is doing. They also tell us if the park birds mingle
with other birds on the island and -- by finding the bands somewhere -
which birds have died.

In April, with the end of the breeding season, the flocking season
started. Most of the work now was finding the birds in their new
locations. We still had to catch and band some birds and I entered lots
of data. Besides the regular work we had most of the time other smaller
projects going on. One was the rebuilding of an old Nene-Pen in the new
part of the park. The pen allows the birds to fly in and out but it is
safe against pigs and mouflon sheep. I learned that working with an
endangered species is very different from working with domestic animals
or animals in a zoo.

The breeding season 2005/2006 had a total 40 fledged goslings. It was
the park's most successful breeding season ever and it is a great
feeling to be part of that!

I also had the opportunity to work with other projects for a certain
time. In one of the projects we planted native plants in an area where a
fire destroyed all the plants three years ago and what now is an
experiment to make a native forest there. It was my first experience
with extreme hiking and camping. I learned native plants by their
scientific and also by their Hawaiian names.

Another project was the invasive species control, where we sprayed
herbicide against different invasive grasses, air plant and other really
aggressive weeds. I learned about invasive, nonnative plants and how
they can destroy the fragile Hawaiian environment with its unique plants
and animals.

The eleven months went by really fast and even after such a long time it
still amazes me how friendly people are here and that sharing is
everything. During the weekends I spent time with a Hawaiian family and
learned what aloha is and what it means to live aloha. I explored a part
of this island and learned so many things about Hawaiian culture like
fishing, pounding opihi, how to open a coconut just with a rock, how to
build an imu (Hawaiian earth oven) and so many more incredible things.
The melting together from all different cultures on this island is
really nice and probably unique.

All in all it was a great experience and it is really good that there is
such a program that brings people from different parts of the world
together so that they can share their cultures and lifestyle and
understand the others better. I want to thank everybody, all the people
from the park who where so nice all the time, my Professor for
encouraging me to broaden my horizon, Linda Bennett for the helping with
my visa and especially Kathleen Misajon and Aku Hauanio who taught me so
much, were so helpful all the time and shared so much with me.

Verena Klenske