Although they’ve only been here a week, American intern students, Kandace Walton and Kasey Welch have already begun their research project on Gladstone’s salt flats.

Kandace and Kasey are in Gladstone studying with CQU’s Centre for Environmental Management (CEM) through education abroad specialist AustraLearn (www.australearn.org), an organisation that provides American college and university students the opportunity to study in Australia and New Zealand.

Both students have graduated from their respective undergraduate programs and are completing a 10-week internship to gain valuable work experience.

Kandace is a Business and Biology graduate from Newman University in Wichita, Kansas and Kasey is an Environmental Science graduate from Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.

Kandace said on completion of the internship both she and Kasey would begin looking for employment in the marine ecology field or continue on with postgraduate studies.

“The experience we gain by working at the CEM will help us in the next stage of our careers and will also be a lot of fun,” said Ms Walton.

While working with the research staff at the CEM Kandace and Kasey will be assisting in a number of projects, both in the harbour and on land.

In particular they will be continuing the research work on salt flats started by previous American intern student, Kristin Douglas.

The study aims to quantify the differences in soil quality including salinity, pH levels and carbon that can be found across Gladstone’s salt flats.

“The salt flats are often seen as barren land that doesn’t contribute much to the ecosystem and our work will hopefully be able to show just how beneficial the salt flats are,” said Ms Walton.

Both students said that they were also looking forward to visiting Heron Island and enjoying everything the Gladstone region has to offer.

Photo: Kandace Walton (at front) and Kasey Welch are looking forward to their 10-week intern program with the CEM.