{"id":1053,"date":"2016-06-05T20:15:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T01:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/?p=1053"},"modified":"2017-08-09T10:09:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:09:32","slug":"welcome-to-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/welcome-to-tennessee\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Tennessee!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings from Nature Lane!<\/p>\n

I arrived safely in Oak Ridge, TN with all of my gear on the evening of June 1. Packing my personal supplies took about one day, as did packing the bulk of my lab items, but somehow it seems as though I\u2019ve forgotten a few things! During my time here, I\u2019m living in the CRESO (Clinch River Environmental Studies Organization) Research Station<\/a> in a wooded region outside of Oak Ridge.<\/p>\n

CRESO<\/a> is an educational research program based out of Oak Ridge\/Anderson County that works with local students from middle school-undergraduate level to conduct field research on local species and ecosystems. They\u2019re usually working on several projects simultaneously involving but not limited to: rescued raptor birds, tracking box turtles, creating and sustaining small wetlands and many more! Some of the projects are executed and maintained on school grounds so they can be better incorporated into mainstream education. Even more impressively, local science & math teachers dedicate a better part of their summer break to coordinating and overseeing the CRESO program.<\/p>\n

So why exactly did I travel 7 hours to live in the woods this summer? To conduct my own research project with the CRESO team! The \u201cAmphibian Pathogen Project<\/strong>\u201d includes monitoring pathogen presence in wild amphibians living within the CRESO wetlands. Specifically, we\u2019re looking for chytrid fungus and Ranavirus. The students and I will visit the wetlands (there are about 17) every so often and swab tadpoles, frogs and salamanders. We\u2019ll then extract DNA from the swabs in lab and I\u2019ll bring our hard work back to WEL at UIUC to see if any samples come up as positive for either disease \u2013 we\u2019re hoping none of them do! CRESO visits the wetlands Tues-Thurs so I plan to jump on board all other activities they organize the remaining days of the week.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, I am living away from home to obtain disease surveillance data but I also see this as an opportunity to get to know a novel community and lifestyle different from that of my own. In the few days I\u2019ve been in Oak Ridge, I\u2019ve met incredible people that welcome me with open arms and even excitement! Yesterday, a student brought me supplies to make my stay more comfortable demonstrating the truest form of southern hospitality.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, here are some of my goals for the summer:<\/strong><\/p>\n