The beginning of my summer fellowship was essentially a crash course in marsh ecology. I came into this fellowship with a limited knowledge of how marsh and wetland ecosystems functioned, but by week three of my onboarding, I felt like an estuary expert. I needed to learn about how marshes work because for the first two months of my internship, I was very involved with Elkhorn Slough’s Education mission. Diverse groups of people of all ages and backgrounds came to the Slough to learn about the amazing things happening there and I had to be ready to teach them about it. These groups included elementary school students, members of local tribes, college students, and public-school teachers. My roles in these activities varied depending on the needs of the staff. At times, I led groups in activities, other times I supported behind the scenes, and at others I stayed with individuals who needed more help. Through this work, I got to see all the ecosystems of the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, from woodlands dominated by tall oaks down to small tidal creeks with microscopic plankton. As part of the Reserve’s federal mandate, I participated in a teacher workshop attended by public and private school teachers from all over the Central California region. The goal of “Teachers on the Estuary” was to train teachers in the skills they would need to bring students on field trips and teach science to their students. The teachers got to see microscopic invertebrates under the microscope, perform species richness and diversity counts on plants, learn how to trap and identify crabs and fish, measure water quality, estimate carbon sequestration in plant material, and lead a hike through grasslands. I supported the Reserve Staff as they led many of these same activities for the Ahma-Mutsen Land Trust’s Native Stewardship Corps. These young adults came to learn about the land and foster a deep connection through science, stewardship, and education.

In addition to these responsibilities with the education staff, I also had the amazing opportunity to participate in research projects occurring over the summer. Many graduate students from local and international universities came to Elkhorn Slough to study fish, crabs, saltmarsh plants, blue carbon sequestration, and other fascinating topics. My favorite experience was donning my wetsuit, hopping in the chilly water, and, with a partner, battling mud up to our thighs to drag a seine through tidal creeks and channels. This herculean effort assessed how well fish populations rebounded in marshland that had been restored. We were all extremely happy to see that in areas that had undergone massive restoration efforts over the past years, fish (and other species) were making a strong comeback. The preliminary results of this research gave us hope that future restoration projects will likely also provide rich habitat for important species.

The last month of my fellowship has been focused almost entirely on creating a community engagement plan. The Elkhorn Slough Reserve is planning to reconstruct a large area of marsh in the northeastern portion of the reserve. This project’s goal is to improve the area’s water quality, restore habitat for many species, and increase public safety. This last point is a unique and vital aspect of the project. The marsh in question is located along a stretch of county road that is periodically flooded. This flooding occurs because the road is below sea level in some parts and is protected by levees. To add another layer of complexity to the project, a railroad runs through the marsh, carrying passengers and cargo. Both the road and the railroad are at risk of flooding at high tides, a risk that is only increasing as sea level rises. The final element in the project’s equation is that the marsh is located near private residences whose owners are concerned about the impacts of a restoration project. To effectively communicate the benefits and risks of this project and get the local community involved, I have been tasked with creating a plan to contact residents and loop them into our decision-making process. This has involved planning an outreach strategy, determining key messages, identifying existing communication channels, gathering values and input, and creating materials to present at in-person meetings. Some deliverables I created include facilitation plans for in-person meetings, an exploratory survey, power point presentations, and an outline of our engagement strategy. The Reserve staff will use these materials in an upcoming meeting with volunteers and community members. Going forward, they will use these again in further meetings with different stakeholders and community groups.

Reflection questions:

What did you accomplish with your host organization? What was the impact of your work?

I supported many efforts in education, research, and community outreach. During the mid-summer research push, I was one of a team of five people who were trained to collect and process specimens for analysis. This research will give the Reserve a better idea of how successful their restoration project has been (and will also be key to a master’s thesis and subsequent publications in scientific journals). I took a leading role in my organization’s push to involve their neighbors in the decision-making process that will impact their neighborhood. The survey I created for my organization has already been sent out and has gathered dozens of responses, providing invaluable information about what residents and neighbors care most about. I will deliver a talk at an upcoming meeting using the presentation I created. This same meeting will be conducted using the facilitation plan I created and will be attended by volunteers and community members who were invited using outreach materials I developed.

Describe the benefits of this experience for you professionally and personally?

I came into this fellowship wanting to expand my teaching experience. I am interested in a career in teaching, but my experience thus far has been exclusively in the classroom. I knew that Elkhorn Slough incorporated experiential, outdoor, and informal learning into their approach and I wanted to learn from this. Two months of intersecting with extremely diverse groups in extremely diverse situations has had a hugely positive impact on me. I now feel much more confident in my outdoor education skills.

Before coming to Elkhorn Slough, I was interested in community engagement but had little to no experience with it. Part of the reason I decided to study at the Middlebury Institute was because I felt we needed to connect the science world to the human world. Community engagement seemed like a great way to do so. This fellowship not only taught me how to do this but gave me the invaluable opportunity to put that knowledge into practice. I was blown away when my supervisor told me that I was not going to support their effort, but I was going to lead it. I really cannot say how important this has been to me. Gathering with working groups to wordsmith each word of my survey, deciding which framing would be most successful to communicate to the public, hammering out the logistics of a community meeting, all of these were crucial skills for me to develop and will be an immense help in my future. But that is not all I gained this summer. I also improved my communication skills, expanded my professional network, and connected with a beautiful place and the people that are working to protect and restore it.

Did your experience provide any unexpected discovery, self-reflection, or epiphany?

This experience confirmed and cemented my professional direction. While I loved getting my hands dirty (very literally) doing scientific research, the topics that really spoke to me were those where I was able to connect people and nature. These were education and community engagement. Coming out of this fellowship, I know that these are the fields that I want to pursue most seriously.