This summer I worked for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) Inc, an engineering, planning and applied sciences firm located just outside of Boston in Watertown, Massachusetts. VHB provides land development and environmental services to a wide variety of public, private and institutional clients. During my eleven-week internship, I worked closely with both the Environmental Department and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department on various integrated projects.

My internship was an extremely valuable learning experience in several ways. I fulfilled my original goal of becoming familiar with GIS through an online course and constant usage of the program in my daily work routine. I gained valuable field experience that enriched my knowledge of local flora and fauna. I also became familiar with the permitting process of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and other state and federal regulatory policies. In general, I was introduced to the ways a consulting firm utilizes technology to comply with environmental standards when permitting large land-development projects. Prior to my internship I took an online course, "Introduction to ArcView." This course was extremely valuable in the beginning of my internship as I began to learn and use ArcView on a daily basis. My co-workers in the GIS Department were continually helping me develop ArcView skills through assorted tasks that ranged from geolocating supermarkets to plotting large-scale graphics.

The majority of my time was spent working on a project that permitted wireless telecommunication towers. Each new site was processed in a multi-step fashion, first through NEPA requirements, and then often through a secondary visual impact report constructed for town authorities. NEPA requires that wireless telecommunication towers do not have a significant impact on wetland, floodplain, archeological, and/or national, state, or local historical sites. Using GIS we located each new site on a topographic base and then "turned on" various environmental layers to make a NEPA map. In this way it was possible to see if the proposed site was situated in a floodplain, a wetland, or even adjacent to a vernal pool. The NEPA maps were used in balloon tests to aid in documenting the potential visual impact of the tower. In order to simulate the proposed tower, a red weather balloon four feet in diameter was raised to the height of the proposed tower and then located from various historical sites in the area. Either the balloon would be "visible" from the historical site or "not visible." We relied heavily on GIS-produced maps to locate the site, and document each photo location. While I was there we began to use a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit routinely to insure the accuracy of our data collections. We submitted our findings to agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Fish and Wildlife Services, and Massachusetts Historical Commission for official confirmation of "no impact" statements.

For the visual impact reports, GIS was used as a modeling tool to predict visibility. Using Spatial Analyst, digitized forest coverages were modeled against digital elevation data to predict where the tower would be visible within the study area. Visible areas were field verified and edited accordingly. This permitting process was extremely challenging because it required such a diversity of work, but also it was rewarding when a site was finished.

At VHB, I was also involved in a rare-species study on an inactive railroad bed located south of Boston. As team of three, we would spend a day in the field collecting frogs and salamanders from pit traps, and radio tracking turtles along five miles of rail bed. The environmental team was extremely knowledgeable of the local flora and fauna. I especially enjoyed working in the field because it was a continual learning experience. In addition to cell tower permitting, and the rare-species study, I was involved in stream surveying, shoreline studies, and a corridor analysis. Each project was exciting because of the subtle intricacies of the data collection, analysis, and final product.

Before working at VHB I was not aware that private consulting accomplished such important environmental work. All of these projects dealt with sensitive environmental issues, and required balanced ethical choices. I was extremely conscientious of my data analysis because the repercussions were much more immediate than for any research I had been involved in before. With the completion of any project, our results were passed directly to the engineers and planners that would see the project to fruition within a time span of six months or a year.

At VHB I gained the technical GIS skills that will become essential for my Senior Integrated Project. The purpose of my study is to analyze changes in tree species composition that have occurred over the past 50 years in the Connecticut College Arboretum. A secondary goal of this study is to have digital geographic information for the locations of official Arboretum boundaries, topography, permanent transect lines and markings, trails, stonewalls, water bodies, major roadways, and land tract names. This project will be done with a combination of methods; historical and current aerial photo interpretation, historical and current permanent transect data analysis, and field verification of current species composition. GIS software ArcView 3.2a will be used in all aerial photo interpretation.