Hello! My name is Jaimie Sellmeyer. I am enrolled in the Environmental Conservation program and also a senior. I am not sure yet what I plan on doing after graduation. When I first heard about the trip to Puerto Rico, I thought to myself that would be a great opportunity to get experience underneath my belt.


After arriving in Puerto Rico, it is as beautiful as everyone had said it was, almost jaw dropping first seeing the island from the plane window. Our first night of research was last night July 10, 2012. We left the station around 8, with our head lamps and fanny packs I felt very important lol. The research contains of two experimental regions, the first is called "The CTE"(Canopy Trimming Plot) which is were we went last night. The second is called "The Big Grid"(Luquillo Forest Dynamic Plot) which is were we are going tonight...don't worry I will fill you in on the details for that later.


As we left the station last night, we were split into groups. One group contained  Dr. Zimmermann, Shawn, and I. The other group contained three other students and Chris Bloch. Each group was assigned four different plots to examine. Dr. Zimmermann assigned Shawn and I different plots to count. While we were counting the snails in our plots we found a Platysuccinea portoricensis (dirt snail), Alcadia striata and Oleacina glabra. Theses three different types of snails are the least common, so it was very exciting when we found them. The more common snails that we counted were Caracolus caracolla, Nenia tirdens, Gaeotis nigrolieneata.