Katie Renschen, junior at Northland College, working on a siscowet trout stomach sample collected by the Ashland NFWCO during the 2007 lakewhitefish assessments out of Grand Marais, MI. Katie is interested in fisheries as a profession, and was recently elected president of the Northland College Student Subunit, Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. FWS photo

The Ashland NFWCO has partnered with Northland College, Ashland, Wis. to provide valuable hands on training for 4 interns this year.  The interns are receiving valuable training in aging techniques, including scale and otolith interpretations; predator/prey studies analyzing stomach contents; net mending; computer use including developing databases, and other functions of the office.

The four interns, Katie Renschen, Tim Werner, Eric Vacha and Sean Luxem have been working 8 – 10 hours per week in the office.  Their interest and class levels vary, with Katie being a junior and interested in a job within the fisheries profession, to Tim, a sophomore looking at the natural resources field for employment, to Eric and Sean, both freshmen and checking out various field and office aspects of the fisheries and wildlife programs to decide a future employment goal.   Their hard work and enthusiasm in approaching their various task have helped the Ashland NFWCO perform and finish a number of task and everyone is looking forward to the upcoming field season to get out there and start it over again.