BIG CYPRESS — Lena Cypress and Aiyana Crespo spent the summer in the Summer Work Experience Program (SWEP) at the Environmental Resources Department (ERD) and shared their experience with employees, family and friends during a presentation Aug. 9 at the Swamp Water Café.

It was the first time ERD had SWEP participants. During their tenure with the department, the Ahfachkee School 10th graders learned to fly drones, take water samples, set up trail cameras, identify native and invasive fish species and tried to find an itinerant crocodile seen somewhere on the Big Cypress Reservation.

They were successful at everything except finding the elusive croc.

Of all the activities they did over the summer, Cypress liked fishing the most. They went out to various sites on the reservation to count fish and other water-based wildlife such as turtles and alligators. Some days they found more invasive fish than native ones, such as bream.

“One day we were looking for Mayan Cichlids, which we fed to birds or used as bait,” said Cypress, 15. “Another invasive fish is the African Jewelfish, which are aggressive, territorial and hog all the food. They guard their territory, eat everything and out-compete the native fish.”

With the help of ERD biological technicians Mandy D’Andrea and Maria Newsome, the girls learned the ins and outs of examining the environment scientifically.

They tested canal water and labeled the bottles, replaced batteries in trail cameras and viewed images of bear, deer, panthers, possums and raccoons on the cameras. They counted the highly sought-after palmetto berries in Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee and the McDaniel Ranch near Big Cypress.

The count is done over a three-month span before the harvest. The collected data is compared to previous years and sent to Tribal Council so it can determine whether the berries may be harvested on tribal lands.

“I liked counting the berries because you got to go out on the ATVs, which cooled you down,” said Crespo, 16. “I also liked building relationships with my co-workers; that was cool.”

ERD forester Grant Steelman and biological technician Joe Andreoli taught the girls to use a drone to survey the land and make maps on the GIS (Geographic Information System) database. GIS is a computer system that analyzes and displays geographic information, collects data and is used to review the photographs taken by the drone cameras.

While using the drone, the girls learned about and used NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), a metric that quantifies the health and density of vegetation using sensor data.

NDVI measures the health of vegetation and showed the areas treated with herbicide before and after the treatment. Crespo and Cypress made comparison charts of the data.

Big Cypress Councilwoman Mariann Billie attended the presentation and asked a few questions afterward, including if they think ERD is important to the tribe, what technical aspect of the program they found most interesting and if they would participate in the program again next year.

“[ERD] ties into the tribe’s inner workings,” Cypress said. “It was really cool to use technology to find a lot of information from one picture. I hope to do this again next year and would encourage others to come out, too.”

Crespo said she would consider joining the department after she finishes her education. Cypress is waiting to see where life takes her.

“This year was special,” said D’Andrea. “We did a lot of stuff, and they did everything we did every day.”