Mariah Rietzel
Natural Resources Technician

Mariah is a Natural Resources Technician in the Garnas Lab. She assisted in the field for numerous projects in summer 2023, working with purple loosestrife beetles, tick surveying, brown-tailed moth trapping, and, currently, the A.P.E. (Ash Protection Experiment). Throughout the summer, these projects were scattered around southern New Hampshire, the White Mountains, and southern/central Maine.

She earned her BSc in Biology from the University of New Hampshire in Fall '22. During her final semester, she studied abroad to New Zealand with the EcoQuest Education Foundation Program, learning about ecology, sustainability, and environmental law. While abroad, she completed research on population dynamics of wētā species, including the endangered Giant wētā (Deinacrida mahoenui). Throughout her time on campus, she was also involved with databasing plant specimens from Asia at the Albion R. Hodgdon Herbarium and worked with strawberry varieties at the MacFarlane Greenhouses. She wishes to continue studying botany and ecology as she considers future Master's opportunities.