By Sophia Cooper, AmeriCorps Service Member with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Washington Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office
Editor's Note: Sophia Cooper served a 6-month AmeriCorps service term with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Washington Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office in Lacey, Washington. She also provided valuable support for the Makah, Quilcene, and Quinault National Fish Hatcheries on the Olympic Peninsula as well as several conservation partners. Sophia’s WaterCorps internship was sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in partnership with Conservation Legacy. We are thankful for Sophia’s hard work and dedication as well as the support from these partners.
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My name is Sophia Cooper, and I’m a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe. In 2025, I served for 6 months as a Bureau of Indian Affairs sponsored WaterCorps Intern with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Western Washington Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office in Lacey, Washington. I am from Olympia but grew up overseas in Moldova, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine, returning to Washington to complete bachelor’s degrees in American Indian studies and biology at the University of Washington. My career interests include aquatic conservation and natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest, with a passion for salmon conservation and recovery in Washington State. Prior to graduating from college, I was looking to expand my practical experience, and this internship provided the perfect opportunity.
I have always known that I wanted to work in science, even from my earliest understanding of careers. My first dream was space exploration, then paleontology, and I even briefly considered biomedical engineering in the 9th grade. The one constant was that when I imagined these experiences, they often involved sterile laboratories, safety goggles, and white coats. But this internship offered the complete opposite; each day was a different environment with its own challenges. Conditions varied from sunny and hot to wet and chilly. Rather than following a routine, every day offered something new and provided a unique and fun experience that helped solidify my understanding of the demands of fieldwork and reinforced my desire to pursue a career in conservation.
Throughout my internship I had the opportunity to explore a wide range of projects and methodologies such as electrofishing, seining, and invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species trapping and monitoring. One of my favorite new experiences was conducting snorkeling surveys, which offered a unique opportunity to observe these rivers from a different perspective and view a variety of species within their natural habitats.
I also had opportunities to support other Service facilities and partners. One such project involved monitoring snake fungal disease prevalence in garter snakes at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. This work included locating and collecting garter snakes from around the refuge, examining them for disease, collecting samples for later analysis and tagging the captured snakes. I also supported benthic macroinvertebrate stream surveys conducted by the Thurston County Stream Team. This is part of a long-term water and habitat quality monitoring program. Gaining experience with a variety of other offices and agencies was helpful, as it allowed me to see how organizations may uniquely address related conservation projects and provided exposure to a number of potential career paths.
The project I devoted the most time to was supporting the National Fish Hatchery Program hatchery evaluations, particularly at the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery. This hatchery, located on the Big Quilcene River, is co-managed by tribal, state, and federal partners and releases approximately 600,000 coho salmon annually to fulfill tribal trust responsibilities and enhance local fisheries. Fish are spawned and reared at the facility before being released. Some of the support I provided included daily operation and maintenance tasks such as feeding fish and cleaning raceways where juvenile salmon are reared.
At Quilcene National Fish Hatchery, most of the fish released are marked with a clipped adipose fin and receive a coded wire tag (CWT). When these coho return for spawning they are scanned for these tags. Biological data such as species, length and sex are recorded, and the heads are collected so CWT’s can be retrieved and read in the lab. Coded wire tags provide further information such as age and hatchery origin. This data allows for a better understanding of hatchery fish populations and can help inform decisions about future hatchery management. Because this data is collected every year, it allows these hatcheries to continue to assess and improve operations providing the best care for these fish and continuing hatchery production for community use. Observing both the scientific and operational side of hatchery work provided me with a very well-rounded understanding of how hatcheries produce these populations and the amount of effort that goes into maintaining and releasing a healthy hatchery population for the benefit of multiple communities.
This internship provided me with a wealth of experience and allowed me to explore various methodologies and species. I have gained a better insight into the practical application of scientific research and have worked with several professionals who provided examples of the variety of career paths and positions available in biological and conservation sciences. Perhaps most importantly, this experience increased my confidence in my ability to work successfully in fieldwork-based positions and my ability to handle and adapt to whatever my future career may require from me.
Going into this internship, I was unsure if my passions lay more in fieldwork or on the policy side of conservation science, however the experience over those 6 months allowed me to hone my understanding of what I intend to do in the future as I work toward a long-term career. I see myself continuing to work within this field, particularly in aquatic and fisheries conservation. My ultimate goal remains working in a job that combines my passion for fieldwork with my desire to safeguard these resources and environments.
In March 2026, Sophia Cooper started a biological support member position for the Service through the American Conservation Experience.
