Jr Ranger Intern Program 2020 (Session #1) at Radnor Lake

Our first session of the Junior Ranger Intern Program at Radnor Lake was held June 22nd thru June 27th. The park staff worked with these 8 interns last week on numerous projects around the natural area over this 6-day period (9am-4pm daily). Now in our 18th year of this internship program, the Jr. Ranger Intern Program creates an opportunity for participants to work with state park rangers on trail projects at Radnor Lake, focused environmental education at the Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Education Center to increase their exposure to quality environmental education programs and gain an insight into natural resource protection.
This is a labor intensive collaborative effort between the Friends of Radnor Lake, the Radnor Lake Staff, Tennessee State Parks and the Jr. Ranger Interns. One of our main projects during Jr. Ranger Interns this year is working with State Parks Trails Coordinator Michael Meister (thank you Michael!) who conducted 1 day of trail building training with these youth interns, then focusing trail improvements on the South Lake Trail and then the remainder of our work week focus was construction of the Harris Ridge Trail Project. These Jr. Ranger Interns averaged 4-5 miles of hiking daily on the trails at the natural area and to our work-site on the future Harris Ridge Trail.
Special thank you to Friends of Radnor Lake for funding the Jr. Ranger Intern Program this year and for the past 18 years! Friends of Radnor Lake provided all meals, t-shirts, work gloves along with funding additional supplies this year such as hand sanitizer and facemask for each of our youth participants during this 6 day session. Our collective goal of the Jr. Ranger Intern Program at Radnor Lake is instilling a conservation ethic and stewardship of our natural resources for future generations!
Stay tuned…..we have two more sessions of this youth intern program at Radnor Lake in July with Session #2 of our Jr. Ranger Intern Program beginning on July 6th with our continued focus of building Harris Ridge Trail.