CUMBERLAND — The Wilds will take DNA training out of the classroom and into the field next week, offering a five-day ecology workshop Nov. 16-20 that gives university students and professionals hands-on training in environmental DNA techniques, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported, citing a community announcement.
The introductory course will combine fieldwork and laboratory training, according to the announcement reported by the Zanesville Times Recorder. Participants will collect and process water, soil, air and fecal samples while working to detect bison DNA — learning on the animals that roam the Muskingum County conservation center’s pastures.
Environmental DNA, or eDNA, lets scientists identify which species have been present in a place from the traces they leave behind in water, soil and even air, without ever seeing the animal itself. The workshop is designed to move that training beyond textbook instruction through practical experience in the field and the lab, according to the Zanesville Times Recorder.
Participants will learn how to collect several types of eDNA samples in the field, perform DNA extractions, and set up and run quantitative polymerase chain reaction, or qPCR, plates, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported. The course also covers analyzing and interpreting qPCR results, identifying and addressing inhibition, and the fundamentals of primer design.
The setting is part of the curriculum. The Wilds sits on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed mine land in Muskingum County, where bison, rhinos and other species roam large pastures — exactly the kind of landscape where tracking animals by the DNA they shed is more practical than tracking them on foot. Working the technique on bison, in habitat the animals actually use, gives the workshop’s samples and results a realism a campus lab cannot duplicate.
The $1,000 course fee includes the hands-on field and laboratory instruction, course materials and fees, four nights of cabin lodging and all meals during the workshop, according to the Zanesville Times Recorder. Participants also receive a tour of The Wilds’ animal areas and buildings.
The course begins at 1 p.m. Nov. 16 and ends at noon Nov. 20 at The Wilds in Cumberland, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported. For more information and registration, the announcement directs participants to thewilds.org. What happens next for the students and professionals who complete it is the point of the exercise: they take field-ready eDNA skills back to universities, agencies and conservation projects across the region.
Photo: Bikingshaun, CC BY