NAAMLP SCHOLARSHIP

Are you planning a career in mine land reclamation?

Scholarships are available from the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs. Click on the link below for details and application.

2016 SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION

2015 Scholarship Winners

The eastern recipient of the 2015 NAAMLP Scholarship is Laura Nugent. Ms. Nugent is entering her senior year at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, and will be graduating next spring with a B.S. in Mining Engineering. Previously she completed her course work in Economics and received a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, KY. Presently Ms. Nugent is an intern with Cloud Peak Energy working reclaiming an abandoned mine site in Sequatchie Valley, TN. This mine closed in the 1990's and is creating acid mine drainage (AMD). To complicate the problem the watershed contains additional abandoned mines. To aid in abating the AMD at the Cloud Energy site, she will be conduction in-situ testing of bio-reactors, performing water balance studies, as well as investigating a wetland that should not be, but is, producing manganese. Upon graduating from WVU, Ms. Nugent would like to work on changing the general public's perception of mining by publicizing reclamation projects that show it is possible to mitigate the problems caused by past mining, in addition to showing the public that through good planning and design these problems do not have to be duplicated in the future.

The mid-continent recipient of the 2015 NAAMLP Scholarship is Kendra Miner. Ms. Miner will be a senior at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is currently studying to complete her degree in Biology and Environmental Science. She will receive a minor in writing and has worked as a writing consultant in the Coe College Writing Center. During the summer of 2014 she worked as a research assistant in the Coe College Water Quality Lab. This entailed taking water samples from several wetlands and streams within the Cedar River Watershed. These samples were tested for nutrients, sediment, and microbial populations in the water. As part of her research history, she has conducted research on the water quality of the ephemeral pools at the Behrens Ponds and Woodlands Preserve near Toddville, Iowa. In conducting her honors research project this summer she studied the population of blue-spotted salamanders at the Behrens Ponds Preserve. This fall she will be writing her honor's thesis on what she found during her course of research on the salamanders. Along with all her other activities, Ms. Miner is a certified water quality monitor for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as well as a committee member for her local chapter of the National Turkey Federation.

The western recipient of the 2015 NAAMLP Scholarship is Abigail Tobin. Ms. Tobin is working on her Masters of Science in Forestry at the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Following receipt of her Bachelor's degree from the University of New Hampshire Durham, she went to work with the Arizona Game and Fish Department in their Wildlife Contracts Branch. This is whee she developed her interest in bat ecology and abandoned mine land reclamation. Part of her job with the Wildlife Contracts Branch was conducting bat surveys on abandoned underground mines in northwestern Arizona. The information learned from the bat habitat surveys was given to the land managers to aid them in closing the abandoned underground mines. She continued her work with bats as a crew leader with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Her crew was responsible for doing external and internal biological and bat surveys of mines to determine the best closure methods. Dong this she was able to develop her skills with identifying and tracking bats through trapping, videography and telemetry. At this time she would like to further her expertise by obtaining her master's through researching the effects of bat gate design on bat usage and behavior in abandoned mine lands in the Southwest, United States.

Past Scholarship Winners