Passion for the natural world takes Ronan grad to Costa Rica

Mollie Sydnor, a 2023 graduate of Ronan High School, likes turtles, water and the natural world. Those interests converged during a recent internship at the Pacuare Nature Reserve in Costa Rica, where she spent a several months monitoring nesting leatherback sea turtles.

Sydnor, who received the Flathead Lakers inaugural STEM scholarship for $1,000, is taking a gap year between high school and attending the University of Montana this fall. During the past 12 months, she worked on a trail crew, traveled in Ecuador and worked as an intern in Costa Rica. She explained her turtle research while volunteering at the Flathead Lakers recent Poker Paddle in Polson.

The Pacuare Reserve has a stretch of beach nearly four miles long where endangered leatherback sea turtles – the largest and most endangered marine turtle population in the world – lay eggs. During her internship, Sydnor prowled the beach at night looking for nesting turtles, collecting their eggs and moving them "to a safe hatchery to keep them safe from excessive heat and predators and poachers,” she said.