Ryan Burch ’98 Introduces Senior Seminar Students to Aquaculture

Ryan Burch '98Ryan Burch ’98

Ryan Burch, who graduated from Trinity in 1998 (long before we had an ENVS program) learned about Environmental Science at Trinity after seeing a picture of our recent Iceland trip in the Trinity Reporter (this one). So last fall he picked up the phone and called me up, offering his help with the program. Ryan now works for the harbor master’s office in Brewster, MA and invited us to come out to the Cape for a visit.

Yesterday evening Ryan gave a talk on shellfish aquaculture to our senior seminar. He introduced us to all stages of the shellfish farming process, from obtaining the proper permits to harvest and sale of the grown product 3 to 6 years later.

Of course, no lecture on shellfish is complete without a little tasting. Here Ryyan shows how to shuck an oyster:

and less than a few minutes later we got to try it ourselves:
What a way to end the day!

McCookout Delayed by Another Week

construction in front of McCook HallNow with spring finally arriving (almost no snow, skunk cabbage poking out of the ground) everybody here is looking forward to the first McCookout of the saeson. Unfortunately: no such luck this week. A “three-day” construction job that started in January (yes, I am writing this towards the end of March!) is still blocking access to most of the McCook patio. So, hopefully we’ll have the first barbecue of the season next week.

Trinity Students Present at Regional Geology Conference

Jon Gourley and I joined four of our students, Justin Beslity, Danel Hong,Stephani Roman and Sama Shresta on a trip to Bretton Woods, NH to attend the  Geological Society of America’s Northeast Section meeting.

The meeting took place in the historic Mount Washington Hotel (pictured above in the snow), and we spent three days attending talks, talking science and hanging out in a pretty fancy place.

Jon Gourley pondering some slight modifications to our oh-so-fancy digs in McCook Hall.

On Tuesday it got serious for the students: Sama, Justin and Dan were all presenting posters. Needless to say, they did great, and after a long day we all went up to nearby Fabyan Station for dinner.


Sama explaining her poster.


Dan and Justin talking to Dr. Lisa Doner, Plymouth State University


Dinner at Fabyan Station

On Wednesday morning Stephani convinced everybody that grass-fires are a really bad way to change the magnetic properties of soils and Jon Gourley convened a session on urban watersheds.


Stephani explaining her poster to Dr. Bob Darling, SUNY Cortland

In summary, we definitely had a few rough days, but, hey, somebody has to do it, right?


The flannel shirt boys in action. The girls were too fashion conscious to join us.
Dan fattening up for the long drive home: 2 burgers, 1 wrap, a shake and a large soda…