“Alright! Five more seconds, then switch to scuffing with your feet!” I hollered to the students in the middle of the Cold River. One was holding the kicknet while the other switched from scrubbing the river bed with his hands to shifting the rocks with his feet. While the late September sun staved off the chill in the air, the river was shockingly cold, which the students reminded us of each time we asked them to wade in. We were taking our third sample along the 200 foot reach of the river we were sampling. After 30 more seconds the students came back to the shore holding the tight mesh net. As we emptied it into the tub of water, they exclaimed in excitement, “It’s Mr. Pushups!” A large stonefly nymph was visible in some leaf litter at the bottom of the tub, another very exciting find. After the initial dump of macroinvertebrates into the tub, the students helped us pick the net clean. Some macros are so small they seem to be a piece of gravel or smudge of soil on the mesh. As the water burbled around our feet, the students would point to a part of the net, “Is this one? Is this one?” before gently scooping it up and depositing it in the tub. Right on time, our red mushroom kitchen timer began to buzz signaling the end of that rotation, ushering the next group of students to our station and sending our current group downstream to the fun bucket.
When I pulled off the road next to a nameless bridge over the Cold River that morning, I just knew to look for the Blue Subaru. I hadn’t met Tara Schroeder yet, the Education Coordinator for Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG), and my future supervisor. The Americorps Program hadn’t started yet either, but I was living in the area having just finished working for the Appalachian Mountain Club for the summer and so was volunteering to help with the only in person Volunteer Biological Assessment Program (VBAP) day of the fall. Usually GMCG does VBAP with around ten classes in the Ossipee Watershed with students meeting us at their local river to collect and sort macroinvertebrates to determine its health. This year, due to COVID-19, we only had one class whose school allowed an outdoor and masked field trip. Three other classes were able to Zoom with Tara and I after we had done the data collection. I already knew this year of service at GMCG as the Education and Outreach Assistant would throw me into new situations, but educating during the pandemic added another layer of new for everyone.
A few days after the AmeriCorps program had started in November, Tara handed me the data we had collected and a copy of the 2019 VBAP report we produced for the schools involved. “Can you write this year’s report?” she asked me. “Here is all the information, let me know if you need anything.” As I sat there thinking about how little experience I actually had writing formal reports, it hit me, this was exactly what I wanted. A chance to use the skills I already had, but most importantly, learn and practice the ones I didn’t. While writing, I became familiar with the physical and chemical parameters we test for and looked at rising conductivity trends due to road salting in the winter. I made graphs, fished old data out of our databases, and made a corresponding slideshow for our community presentation which was on Zoom instead of in person with all our student presenters. By the time the report was ready to be printed and the night of the community presentation had arrived, I asked Tara if I could be the primary presenter.
In just four short weeks as the Education and Outreach Assistant I’ve done so many things that were new or intimidating. Never did the staff here question my abilities, on the contrary, they may have assumed I knew more than I did! But in doing so, they’ve presented me with the opportunity to dive head first into new projects and soak up the skills needed for them. I’m confident that after a year of service at GMCG I’ll be poised to start my career in New Hampshire conservation work and continue to give back to the communities whose natural resources I’m striving to protect through my service.
EB is the Education and Outreach Assistant serving at Green Mountain Conservation Group. She graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in Environmental Studies and English. You can learn more about EB here!