CEMML intern, Alexx Uecker (left) and a colleague stand next to a bat monitoring structure at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Photo courtesy Dr. Jeremy White. BY JODI PETERSON
Bats, bumble bees, and butterflies filled the summer for Alexx Uecker during his recent internship through CSU’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands. Uecker worked for the Midwest Natural Resources Program of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center from June to December 2023.
His tasks at Offutt Air Force Base and other Midwest installations involved many types of animals and plants. He surveyed for milkweed, a plant important to two rare butterfly species, the monarch and the regal fritillary. At Offutt, Uecker spotted a monarch caterpillar in a former patch of scraggly forest that the installation had converted into pollinator habitat a few years ago. The discovery, the first such caterpillar found on Offutt in recent years, helped show that the installation’s conservation efforts are paying off.
At Air Force bases such as Scott in Missouri, Grand Forks in North Dakota, and F.E. Warren in Cheyenne, Uecker conducted bumble bee and butterfly surveys and taught their natural resource experts a new protocol for monitoring monarchs. “It was a really cool experience to get to spread the love of monarchs some more,” he said.
He also helped inventory endangered and threatened bat species on Offutt AFB. The project’s goals were to determine if protected bats are using the installation and to evaluate how vegetation and lighting affect bat activity, to reduce the risk of military aircraft colliding with the flying mammals at night. Working with Dr. Jeremy White and undergraduate students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Uecker helped set up acoustic monitors to determine what species are present, and whether they are foraging on the installation or just flying by. The team recorded calls from the Indiana bat, listed as endangered at both the state and federal levels, as well as from hoary, big brown, and little brown bats. They presented their findings to the branch commander.
Another major project to reduce the risk of wildlife-aircraft collisions was to inventory about 300 trees near a runway for wildlife usage. The data that Uecker collected will lead to the removal of trees that attract a lot of birds, squirrels, and other critters that pose hazards. “I’ve taken a lot of pride in that project,” said Uecker. “I looked at collision data points, gave them all a risk value, and used mathematical formulas to determine which trees are higher risk. It’s interesting to see which birds cause the most accidents, how rodents can affect the flight line by attracting raptors.”
Uecker’s experience with the Air Force continues a lifelong interest in the outdoors and working with animals. He grew up in Hastings, in southeast Nebraska, and is now a senior at Peru State College, majoring in wildlife ecology. He completed internships at a sandhill crane reserve and at Indian Cave State Park, and was looking for other opportunities when his advisor told him about CEMML’s Early-career Development Program, which offers paid internships and mentorships at Air Force installations. A temporary position was open at Offutt. “Even during the interview for it, I was thinking it was a dream internship,” said Uecker, “and it was. It was so much fun.”
Looking back at his CEMML internship, Uecker said, “I think it taught me some of the most invaluable lessons I could not have learned elsewhere. A lot of internships are academic and it’s hard to integrate real world stuff. This gave me the opportunity to work with so many different types of people, from mechanics to the branch commander, and learn about their concerns about wildlife that are not just conservation.”
Graduate school will be Uecker’s next endeavor. He plans to focus on herpetology, probably at a college in Tennessee or North Carolina because the Appalachian region has the nation’s highest density of amphibian and reptile species. “I have a passion for herptiles and really want to continue working on that,” he said. “I grew up next to a little stream listening to frogs croaking every night. Now I want to learn more about their ecology and evolution.”