Seven Generations to Sustainability

Seven generations reflects the awareness that every decision we make here and now is made for seven generations into the future or with that generation's well-being at the forefront of our decisions.  It is more than an ideal, its a way of life.  The origins of this are found in Great Law of the Iroquois, though many tribes held this or something similar to be a truth in their way of living.  I grew up with a close affection to Native American beliefs, going to pow-wows, curiously looking at my father’s photos of my great grandmother who was Sauk/Fox.  

So now as I tackle a complex conservation issue (climate change on watersheds) I wonder, how close to this way of thinking is our new buzzword, sustainability.  Should we, every time we say sustainability, give homage to the painful history and wonderful resilience of these cultures?  Returning home last year from 2 years in rural Zambia and 13 years in the cityscape of L.A., I hoped that my heritage might fall into place.  The connection and rejuvenation I had hope to find, though this wasn’t as clear and easy as I had hoped.   What do you do when you are looking for something?  You search with your mind and hopefully your heart. 

I began this year with intentions to start this search.  First step: attending the Native Summit hosted by Nelsons Institute.  It was defining moment in my educational career that allowed me to step over many of the barriers that had been created in my world through re-adjusting to western society and the academia world.  It allowed me to challenge my beliefs, methods, and desire to be in a certain place.  I did not end up in a placement or job that allowed me to work one on one with tribal nations.  Instead, this search challenged me to find these connections in my current work and life.

At first glance this can seem completely unrelated to my placement, creating a climate change lens to a watershed scale wetland-planning project.  In all honesty, it took some time for me to realize the connection.  Planning for a changing environment can be a overwhelming.  What are we conserving?  What is resilient?  What models can we trust?  This, thankfully, is beginning to transform into a more positive energy. Climate change is an interwoven piece of the puzzle to sustainability, tackling one without the other will likely lead to little success.  Considering seven generations can help to understand the complexities of our changing environment.  That being said, everyone's environmental ethic is at a different place and understanding boundaries while weaving in these important lessons is crucial.  

Team Work to See You Through the Bog

Throughout the curriculum in the EC program, it was emphasized that conservation is iterative and adaptive planning is crucial. Of course we understand this and face it experience after experience.  Nonetheless, I was reminded again just how true it is.

I started my climate change analysis taking a very direct approach to each function WAWFA is assessing.  After a couple of conservations on the direction of my final product, this took a slightly different route with more emphasis on increasing climate change literature.  This, for me, was a bit more objective and and I found myself running in circles with it, occasionally getting pulled in another direction, just to end up back at that original circle.   Fortunately, the WAWFA core team was able to meet as a group to uncover what really is useful for the team at this point.  

We have all decided through the process that more emphasis on my original direction will be more useful.  What is frustrating is the feeling of lost time.  What is important to remember is that the process is essential to creating meaningful work, however frustrating it could be.  Though much of my research is still viable potential limits do exists now in the amount of analysis I will be able to complete in the final month and a half of my contract.

This has been a wonderful learning lesson in approaching collaboration with a diverse team when everyone is stretched too thin.  With more direction now, I am excited to put the research I have done into a meaningful deliverable for the team.

My time, of course was not idle.  I have been actively working with our field team to get this portion of the project up and running.  According to our grant calendar, we are a little bit behind schedule, though a great amount of progress has been realized in the past few weeks.

With some wonderful guidance from Joanne Kline (a fellow WAWFA core team member and the best mentor one could have), we created a database in Access that will house all of our fieldwork data.  This was a multifaceted process and the database took many drafts as we uncovered the complexity of the relationships of our data.  Just last week our data mastermind at TNC, John Wagner, was able to make some finishing changes to create a very dynamic and meaningful database.   

To date we have had three field days all in our Milwaukee Basin focus areas.  The first was with six members of the team and had the sole intention of clarifying the field form and calibrating our methods.   Many beneficial adjustments were made after this first day and allowed Joanne and I to go a bit deeper into our assessment areas this past week.  While it is still a little slow going as we uncover more questions, we are all feeling momentum at this point.  As Joanne gracefully pointed out,  “the worst field day is better than the best office day.”  This couldn’t be truer and I hope to tap into these energies as I take on the next two weeks of research and writing. 

Environmental Conservation MS Leadership Placement Reflection 1

As expected, the days are flying by quite fast.  Much of the last few weeks I have been focused on climate change and watershed scale research.  These have consisted mainly of literature reviews and webinars, soon to include expert interviews.  The literature sources I am using are from WICCI assessments, similar landscape approach projects, and climate change impacts on specific functions pertaining to WAWFA. 

In addition to this research, I have had the opportunity to attend a few webinars hosted by NOAA that focused on increasing climate change literature.  Increasing climate change literature is a foundation to this project and made these webinars especially helpful in discovering concrete ways to create an approachable climate change document.

I began to use Miradi as a conservation tool with the hopes to eventually assist in a vulnerability assessment of wetlands to climate change.  This has been a bit tricky as Miradi typically is used as a participatory planning tool based on species and/or habitats and targets.  At this point my targets are the functions (ecosystem services) that WAWFA is analyzing.  I am not sure the extent to which this will be used, but for now it is helping to organize my research and it also allows for the potential of locating key functions that, with climate change, exacerbate the vulnerability of wetlands.

Summer is a busy time for all and expert interviews are rolling in slowly.  I have two interviews set for next week, one focused on current watershed programs being implemented in Wisconsin and the other focuses more on the broader picture of wetland restoration in the wake of a changing climate.  A third interview is scheduled at the start of July with an environmental engineer focused on getting advice to create models to depict some of these changes we will be facing.

Finally, I have begun engaging in the field work component of my placement.  At this point the field team is focused on the planning process with a first field date of June 22.  I have begun creating the database in Access that will house the data we collect throughout our fieldwork in all three focus watersheds.  This data is complex and has allowed me to freshen up on my database skills.  

As I reflect on these past three weeks I do find myself feeling anxious on the level of progress I am making.  I am realizing that my final product will not be as comprehensive as I had originally hoped due to time constraints.  Given these limitations, I have will identify a few functions based on a vulnerability assessment to focus recommendations/mapping on.  I am also considering using just one of our focus watersheds for mapping examples in order to make the most use of time.

The next portion of my placement will focus more on creating (maps, writing, and diagrams) and engaging (fieldwork) than research.  It is time to start putting pieces together!

Birding Adventure

The summer is off to a steady start and I can imagine how quickly these eight weeks may flutter quickly by.

I had the opportunity this week to join TNC staff and a recent Nelson graduate (Amanda Swearengin) to the Wild Rivers Legacy forest to complete some annual songbird surveys.  Amanda is in these pictures with me (I am on the left).  My grandma always said the early bird gets the worm, so we were up at 3 am to make it into the forest by 4:45 for our first surveys of the day.  We were back at the cabin by 10 and spent the afternoons entering data for the day, tackling our own research and other work, and of course engaging in fruitful conversations.  I must say, although this project is not directly related to my placement, I was able to gain experience and foster relationships that extend the summer and beyond.

Two main lessons of the week: 1:  It is important to keep your schedule adaptable for experiences such as these while keeping your eye on your overall goals.  2: Birds are pretty darn cool...the world just gained one new birder!

Introduction

Wetlands are a critical component to our environment, providing a host of essential ecosystem services humans and wildlife.  It is estimated that Wisconsin has lost nearly 50% of its wetlands through development and agriculture.  Wetland mitigation has attempted to diminish these effects through compensatory mitigation.  Originally this was done on a site-specific scale.  Through time, though, it was realized that this was not effective and the EPA’s 2008 final rule declared mitigation should be looked at on a landscape scale.   The EPA also stressed that sustainability be an important consideration in mitigation planning on a landscape scale.  Shortly after, WiDNR implemented an In-Leu-Fee programs to further address these issues.

In conjunction with this, TNC Madison and the WiDNR have engaged in a pilot project to address effective planning options for watershed-based compensatory mitigation.  The success of this project, The Duck Penauskee Watershed Approach, has led this team to roll out a similar approach on a wider scale throughout Wisconsin.  This project, Watershed Approach to Wetland Functional Assessment (WAWFA) comprised heavily of GIS work with fieldwork for ground truthing.

The primary players in this project are TNC and WiDNR, though stakeholders are far and wide.  The overall objective of this project is to create a system to increase effectiveness of mitigation restorations.  This two-year project will generate an online interactive mapping system to better prioritize mitigation sites on a landscape scale, allowing practitioners the ability to identify sites based on their priorities of various ecosystem services (functions). The three focus watersheds identified to perform on-the-ground surveys are located in the northwest region of WI in and around Douglas County, in the Upper Mississippi Basin, and in Milwaukee County. 

The primary function of my placement is to create a climate change lens assessment over the entirety of this project through literature reviews and expert interviews.  These will result in a written report of findings and recommendations for climate change approaches and implementation strategies in order to ensure WAWFA's decisions include climate change factors.  Some secondary functions of my placement will include assisting with fieldwork, communicating/organizing with stakeholders and potentially a thoughtful analysis of the watershed level planning process.  The details of this process and a final product are meant to be adaptive as the summer progresses.  

Stay tuned and thanks for joining me on this journey!