Ohio Northern University Environmental & Field Biology

09/04/2026

🌳 Field Semester in action!

On Wednesday, we visited the Buckeye State Tree Nursery for a behind-the-scenes tour with legendary ENFB alum Kirsten Offenbaker! Kirsten showed us the nursery’s operations and introduced us to the many tree species they raise.

Thanks, Kirsten, for sharing your time and expertise with us! 🌱🌲

09/02/2026

🌳 What an EPIC experience at The Davey Tree Expert Company! 🌳

Our 2026 Field Semester students had an incredible day exploring the spectacular SEED Campus and getting an inside look at the world of Davey Tree! From learning about the company’s wide range of services and rich history to discovering the training that takes place at SEED Campus and the research on-site, our students got a firsthand look at what it takes to be a leader in the tree care industry.

A huge thank-you to ONU alum Sandee Reid and her colleagues for rolling out the welcome mat and providing such an awesome, educational experience for our students! We truly appreciate your time, hospitality, and willingness to share your expertise with the next generation of professionals.

Many thanks to Davey Tree for an unforgettable Field Semester experience! 🙌🌲

09/01/2026

Calling graduate students working in reptile and amphibian conservation!

The Orianne Society is now accepting applications for our 2026 Small Grant Program for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation in the Southeast.

Application deadline: November 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST

Scan QR code or visit our website to learn more: https://www.oriannesociety.org/science-initiative/grant_program/

08/30/2026

The Field semester wrapped up its first week with a trip to OSU Wooster and the Wilderness Center on Thursday. At OSU Wooster, illustrious ONU alum Dr. Shaun Wellert showed us some of the campus greenhouses and turfgrass projects. After lunch, we spent some time exploring the Secrest Arboretum (sadly the slide of doom has been removed). On the way back to the MNC, we stopped at the Wilderness Center to check out their facility and do some woodland and prairie botanizing.

To wrap up Week 1, we explored the splendor of Johnson Woods State Nature Preserve and its old-growth forests. Stay tuned for more adventures in Week 2!

08/28/2026

The Field Semester crew spent some time on Wednesday exploring and botanizing at Mohawk Dam, the Kokosing River, and Honey Run Falls.

08/27/2026

Field Semester 2026 kicked off with a trip to the Dawes Arboretum and an awesome tour with Dr. David Brandenburg and his colleagues! This marks the 16th year they’ve hosted us, and we are incredibly grateful for the time, expertise, and enthusiasm they continue to share with our students.

Stay tuned for more adventures from this year’s Field Semester team and check out the flashback photo from our first visit to Dawes in 2011! 🌿

08/26/2026

Those interested in wildlife rehabilitation and veterinary medicine maybe interested in this workshop!

The IWRC is holding a Pain & Wound Management class at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center Saturday, September, 19, 2026 from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Registration deadline is September 5
Pain & Wound Management Course Register with link below.
https://theiwrc.org/product/pain-and-wound-management-in-person/
Class is being taught by IWRC instructor, Dr. Rob Adamski

08/25/2026

Week 13:

After 486 hours, 1,749,600 teasel heads, hundreds of gallons of herbicide sprayed, and 1 chainsaw chain broken, my time as the Natural Resource Intern at the Hancock Park District has come to an end.

Finishing out my time we continued to spray rose, cut out honeysuckle and rubus, and hack and sq**rt tree of heaven.

All in all thank you to the Hancock Park District for this opportunity and a particular thanks to Chad and John for all the wisdom they bestowed upon me. Maybe Chad will finally like one of my posts on Facebook?

08/24/2026

Week 12:
Hello everyone! My name is Jacey, and I've wrapped up my last week at The Mammoth Site! I was stationed at micropicking again, but I wanted to use my final post to share some of the other cool things that the intern group did throughout the summer!

Obviously the first things that we did was to go around to all of the tourist spots in the Black Hills area (Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, Devil's Tower, Bear Country, Badlands, etc.). However, the area that we were in is also a hotspot for paleontology with lots of great spots for fossil hunting and many great dinosaur museums. So, we spent a lot more time doing that than the touristy stuff.

Our first weekend, we went ammonite fossil hunting and found some really cool fossils that still had visible suture marks on the shell! We also visited Agate Fossil Beds in Nebraska, Carter County Museum and the Museum of The Rockies in Montana, and the Dinosaurs of The Hell Creek Museum. It was really great to see how other museums approached similar topics that we talk about here at The Mammoth Site.

Arguably, the coolest thing that we did happened during our first weekend when we went out to Badlands for the first time. As paleontologists do, we immediately startrd looking for fossils, and as we were gett8ng ready to leave for the day, we found our greatest discovery: a partially exposed jaw with very canine-like teeth. After looking at bone fragments and oreodont teeth all day, we were very excited, especially because dog fossils are rare during the Oligocene in this area! What we foubd was a Mesocyon temnodon, only the third known occurrence from the Orellan age and one of the very few with postcranial material! Underneath our jaw, paleontologists at the Badlands also found a few cervical vertebrae, some cranial material, and a complete humerus. When we got this news back, we knew we had found something really important!

I'm really grateful that I got the opportunity for this internship experience, and especially for the amazing group of people who I got to experience this with! It was an awesome summer, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again this winter!

Thanks for tuning in everyone!