This project will bring a high level intern directly into a key role in solving a critical challenge for the most intensive and long-standing habitat management project on the Boston Harbor Islands. BOHA resource managers and community volunteers have been converting invasive shrub and vine thickets to diverse native habitats in nearshore freshwater wetlands and adjacent upland buffer zones on two Boston Harbor Islands since 2015. Park staff and volunteers have been annually collecting plant community data in the herb, shrub, and tree layers along transects in wetland, upland and control sites, but the protocol lacks an analysis and reporting plan. We are seeking an intern with strong biostatistics background to conduct analyses of existing data, report and present the statistical results in various media, and recommend a sustainable sampling design and data management structure. The primary duties of the selected intern will be (1) to review and analyze the vegetation data, (2) to revise as needed the sampling design for future sampling, (3) to develop a simplified sampling design for use in other habitat management sites in the park that can be implemented by youth employees, students, and community volunteers under NPS staff supervision, and (4) to co-lead field data collection in 2021 for both the full protocol and the simplified design. Legacy data from 2015-2020 has all been entered into Excel spreadsheets, and the initial protocol is well documented, so the intern will not have to do any data entry or basic project information organization.

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