Webinar: Teen Earth Optimism – Exploring Watershed Conservation
Aired August 25, 2020
Meaghan Cuddy:
Thank you for joining us today. Hi. Hello, welcome everyone. My name is Meaghan Cuddy, and I am a museum educator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Thank you for joining us today for our final program in our summer series for Teen Tuesday's Earth Optimism. We are so excited for all of you to join us today. Our program is going to be about 45 minutes long, and today we're going to be talking with Smithsonian scientist Dr. Holly Sweat and representatives from a local D.C. organization, the Anacostia Watershed Society, all about watersheds and why protecting and restoring them is so important for both human and natural communities. So this is going to be a really, really great program and we're so excited to have you all join us today.
So while everyone is joining, you can use the Q&A button that's located on the bottom of your screen to let us know who you are and where you're joining us from. While our museum is closed, we're joining you from our homes so I'm here in Washington, D.C., and we'd love to know where you're joining us from. So you can use that Q&A button that has two speech bubbles on the bottom of your screen to say hi. All right, we have Binyam and we have Astrid, who's from Panama. Hello. We have some people joining us from Alexandria, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Hello, Damaris and Sonya rather, sorry. We have Michelle who's joining us from Chicago. Hi everyone, we're so glad that you're here today.
Throughout our program today, we also invite you to join our conversations so you can write in with your comments and questions for our guests and to share your own experiences anytime using the Q&A box that you're writing into right now. And at the end of today's program, we are going to be doing a Q&A session, and we'll try to get to as many of your questions as possible, so please stick around until then., do keep in mind that your comments are only going to be visible to our Smithsonian staff, so please keep them on topic. And we have some more people joining us. People from Silver Spring, Fort Worth, Texas, Chesapeake, Virginia. Hello to all of you. Thank you so much for joining us today. We'll give everyone a chance to join the webinar and we will get started.
We have this summer people from science organizations at the Smithsonian, local nonprofits and teens who are joining us to talk about how science and action can come together to make big changes on our planet possible. Like I said, this is our Teen Tuesday Earth Optimism Program and we're so excited to have you all here, and we hope that these conversations can inspire you to get involved in your own community wherever you may be joining us from. All right. It looks like just about everyone is here today, so I'm really excited to introduce our guests and get started. First, we have Dr. Holly Sweat, who is a marine ecologist from the Smithsonian Marine Station. Holly, hi, how are you?
Holly Sweat:
Good. Thanks for having me, Meaghan.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Thank you so much for joining us. And can you tell us a little bit about what you do as a marine ecologist?
Holly Sweat:
Sure. So as a marine ecologist, I'm actually more of what we call a benthic ecologist. And benthic is just a word meaning seafloor or sea bottom. So I study all of the animals and plants and other organisms that live on surfaces in the marine environment and on the seafloor and how they interact with their environment and with different stressors in the environment.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Okay. Very cool. And you're at the Smithsonian Marine Station, which is in Florida, right?
Holly Sweat:
Correct. And we are actually part of the Natural History Museum in D.C.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm so excited to talk about all of your work.
Holly Sweat:
Thank you.
Meaghan Cuddy:
All right. We also have joining us, Jorge Bogantes Montero and Catherine Estes from the Anacostia Watershed Society. Jorge, hi, how are you?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Hi. Yeah, I work at the Anacostia Watershed Society. We're a small nonprofit here in Washington, D.C., and Maryland. And yeah, I'm a natural resources specialist, so I do a lot of hands-on restoration work.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Very cool. And I know you have some of the organisms that you restore behind you. What is your background today?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yeah, these are young, freshwater mussels, alewife floaters, that's the name of the species because they use alewife and shad and fish from the herring and shad family as their host fish. And I can explain more about what does that mean later.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Awesome. And can you tell us just a little bit quickly about the Anacostia Watershed Society and what you guys do?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yes. So we are a nonprofit. We're about 20 people. The organization was founded in 1989, our mission is to make the river fishable and swimmable by 2025. So we do that through a number of programs like ecological restoration, environmental education, which is what Catherine does, advocacy and other campaigns to help pass legislation to clean the river.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Very cool. And Catherine, thank you also for joining us from Anacostia Watershed Society. Can you tell us a little about you and what you do?
Catherine Estes:
Sure. Thanks Meaghan for inviting us to join you today to talk about watersheds. I'm Catherine Estes. I'm the program director for the Saturday Environmental Academy, which is one of our education programs at AWS. And the Saturday Environmental Academy, also known as SEA, like the ocean is a special program just for middle schoolers and teens, in and near the Anacostia watershed. We have fall and spring semester-long programs that get youth out in their environment. We do field trips, a lot of hands-on activities. It's a really cool program. I'm a big fan of it. And we're going to be talking to a student I know who's been involved with SEA as well today. I'm excited to have her join us.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yes, I am so excited to have Shaniequa on our call as well today. Shaniequa participated in the SEA program with Anacostia Watershed Society. Shaniequa, hi, how are you?
Shaniequa:
I'm great. How are you?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Doing well. Can you tell us Shaniequa, how old are you and where are you right now?
Shaniequa:
I am 18 years old. I am currently residing at North Carolina Central University. It's my second day of college.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Very nice. Congratulations on your second day of college. Very exciting. And I'm so excited to have you talk to us about your experiences today. So thank you for joining us as well.
Shaniequa:
No problem. Thank you for having me.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Of course. All right. I am so excited to dive into today's topic, which is watersheds, with all of you. So to kick us off, Holly, I'd like to start with you. Can you tell us what exactly is a watershed?
Holly Sweat:
Sure. So even if you don't realize it, everybody lives within a watershed in the U.S. and everywhere in the world actually. There are a few really big watersheds in the U.S., in the continental U.S., that encompass thousands and thousands of square miles. But each of those big watersheds is broken up into many, many smaller ones. So for example, down here in Florida where we are on the Indian River Lagoon, we're in east central Florida, but we're actually part of the larger Everglades watershed. And I can talk a little bit more about that later on. But where I grew up in northwestern Kentucky, that was on the Ohio River so that leads into the Mississippi River, and that's actually part of the Mississippi Watershed, which encompasses many states and thousands and thousands of square miles.
Meaghan Cuddy:
So we all live in a watershed. Holly, you know which watershed you are in, Shaniequa, Catherine, Jorge and I'm sure we know which watershed we're in here in Washington, D.C., but we actually have a question for our viewers. A poll is going to pop up on your screen and we'd like to know, do you know what watershed you live in? Yes, no, or I'm not sure, and we're curious to see where you guys are and if you know what watershed you live in. All right. We're already getting some responses everyone. Thank you for participating. So it looks like a number of people do know which water should they live in, which I think is great.
It's a really important part of your natural habitat. All right. So it looks like the majority of our participants today do know what watershed they live in. And then we have about half, and half after that, who are not sure or just don't know which watershed it is. Thank you all for participating. Shaniequa, I know that you participated in Anacostia Watershed Society's Saturday environmental program that Catherine was talking about, and you've been a big student leader in your own community here in Washington, D.C., when you were in high school. So can you tell us a little bit about some of the work that you did that helped benefit your watershed and improve the watershed that we have here in D.C.?
Shaniequa:
Well, through the Saturday Environmental Academy, I was able to do multiple cleanups around D.C. I remember the first two years I was in the program, we did of course, Earth Day cleanup. We also went to multiple marshes in D.C. and we helped clean the marsh itself. We took out trash, we took out invasive species. And at my former high school, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, I kind of reinforced the recycling program that was sort of abandoned over the years, so that's just a few things I did in my neighborhood.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That is great. You have been so involved even at your age, which I think is amazing. I'm curious, have you learned anything interesting through these leadership roles that you've taken and through your experiences with Anacostia Watershed Society?
Shaniequa:
Yes, I have. There's a few projects that stick out to me, especially on my last day when I was a student leader, we had a marsh cleanup. It's right by the old stadium in D.C. and it was the day where we could invite our families. And I have pictures actually in case you guys want to see, we could invite our families and we all went out inside of these large jumpsuits and we were cleaning out trash and we saw a lot of things like shoes and all these different weird objects that you would not expect to find inside of the marsh, so that stood out to me. And also something that really stood out to me was the 11th Street Bridge project. I remember we went to the Anacostia Park and we learned about this project that they're planning to do. And when I learned about it really caused me to want to learn more about the environment, wanted to learn more about my part in helping restoring the Anacostia River, cleaning the earth, really in my little ways of doing it.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. Can you show us that photo again of you and your family and friends doing your marsh cleanups? Because I think that is amazing. You guys all look great in your waders.
Shaniequa:
Thank you.
Meaghan Cuddy:
You're welcome. Thanks Shaniequa and Holly for that sort of intro. Catherine, you work at Anacostia Watershed Society, you've worked with Shaniequa in the past. I'm curious, why are these types of programs that you guys run important? Why should we care about the watershed that we live in?
Catherine Estes:
Yeah. Well, that's a great question. All of us, as Holly said, live in a watershed, whether or not you know it, you all live in one no matter where you are. If you're in a desert in Africa or if you're by the Atlantic Ocean, you're in the States, we all live in a watershed and every action that we take has the potential to have a positive impact on our environment or a negative impact on our environment. So if we focus on, for example, increasing the amount of green infrastructure in our local watershed, which is basically planting plants, increasing the amount of plants in our environment, and if we focus on decreasing the amount of impervious surface, so that's surface areas that don't allow water to permeate through.
So think of roads and sidewalks and roofs that don't have a green roof, so if we increase the amount of plants and green infrastructure and reduce the amount of impervious surface, we're helping our environment, we're helping to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff that's going off of our watersheds and into our water bodies like the Anacostia River and so we're creating healthier water bodies for us as individuals, as people, but also for all the plants and animals that live in our communities.
And as Holly mentioned, we're also connected within our smaller watersheds to other watersheds. So every choice that we make, every action we take, impacts our local environment. And so for us here at the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, but then also other watersheds, larger watersheds. So the Anacostia River flows into a larger river, the Potomac River and then I'm going to ... Wait a second, who knows, just think about what it flows into? The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, and then the Chesapeake Bay flows into the, I'm going to wait a second, see if you know what it is, the Atlantic Ocean. So the steps that we take, things that we do in our very immediate local environment, impacts much larger environment, our whole planet.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. Yeah, I think it's so important to think about how the actions that we take in our own backyards are going to have these far reaching impacts because every system is connected on our planet by water. So even if you live in the very middle of the country, you're still going to be impacting things that live downriver from you and all the way on the coast. So I think it's really important that we care about our local watersheds. So thank you Catherine. All right. So Jorge, I'd like to dive a little into the Anacostia watershed now and talk a little bit about it and why it's an interesting place. I know it is located here in D.C. so it's an urban watershed in a city, so can you tell us a little bit about the system and some of the challenges it's faced and some of the changes it's gone through in recent years?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
So the Anacostia watershed is about 170 square miles, so you can see it right there. About 80 percent of it is on the Maryland side, on the state of Maryland. So it's really a Maryland river, only the remainder, 15 percent, is on the D.C. side, the eastern half of D.C. So we're talking about an urban watershed. There's more than a million people living here and still growing so we have a lot of residential areas that are ever-expanding and a lot of urbanization projects along the river now like condos and apartments and such. So this is always growing. And so we have a lot of what we call impervious surfaces. What are those? Those are the sidewalks, the roads, the rooftops so whenever it rains, water gushes down into the creeks, the streams and the Anacostia River. And what's wrong with that? It's just rainwater.
But when you have more than 20 percent of the watershed area impervious, that's an issue because when it rains and it rains a lot here, the water just gushes down carrying pollutants, trash and that has been a big issue. Something as simple as rainwater becomes a problem in an urban area like this. That's why, like Catherine said, we've been doing a lot of projects of green infrastructure to try to capture that stormwater on-site before it hits the creeks and the streams, because we have a lot of volumes of water that gush down during rain events and they cause erosion, they bring sediment and trash and such. So we're also doing a lot of reforestation tree plantings and another revegetation projects like in the wetlands to try to restore these areas and make them more functional, because these are just remnant areas.
About 30 percent of the watershed has some green spaces, including forest and wetlands, but also other athletic fields and parks and such. So we want that percentage, that remnant green spaces and natural areas, as functional as possible and that's why we're doing that restoration project. So you got to think about it, since the colonial times when John Smith sailed here, it was mostly wooded landscape. I mean, they say they like could scoop fish from the river, sturgeons were a navigational hazard, and just a few villages of Native Americans. But then with the European settlement, agriculture increased a lot, often in a non-sustainable way, tobacco, corn, so a lot of sediment running through the river. And then in the last half a century, like I said, a lot of urbanization. So we want to make sure the urbanization that happens is as smart and green as possible, but we're also doing all these restoration projects to either try to manage stormwater or restore the ecosystems that are here, the remnant, the remaining ecosystems.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah. This is an amazing natural resource that we have here in D.C., but I can tell that it's really been impacted by the human communities that live here. And I'm excited to talk to you guys a little bit more about some of those projects that you just described, but I'd like to now throw it to Holly and sort of compare and contrast a little with the watershed that you live and work in South Florida, the Indian River Lagoon, that I know faces its own set of challenges. So can you tell us a little bit about your watershed and some of the things that you guys are dealing with there?
Holly Sweat:
Sure. So a lot of the things that Jorge was just describing really resonate with us down here. We have a lot of the same problems, and I would bet that folks from other watersheds across the country and across the world are sharing a lot of these issues as well. One of the things that we're dealing with, of course, as well as coastal urbanization and urbanization of the entire state, our population is ever-growing in Florida. People come down here, relocate down here and so we have those impervious surfaces that are jutting right up against our waterways. If you look here, this is the St. Lucie River, which feeds into the Indian River Lagoon estuary where I do my work and it looks a lot like the picture that Jorge showed earlier.
So there's a lot of residences, there's a lot of recreational spaces, and with that comes a lot of pollution. And the pollution drives things like algae blooms, which then cause fish kills and cause loss of other habitat. And of course we also have to be worried about things ... Yeah, this picture actually is a picture of a big, what they call microcystis, it's a toxic alga that is blooming on one side of a lock in a waterway. And when that lock gets opened to allow the water to be pushed through, in comes all of the algae into the estuary. So those are some things that we've been dealing with frequently for the past few years. And so we're really dealing with a lot of issues that watersheds everywhere are dealing with, pollution, climate change-associated problems, things like invasive species. Those are our big issues down in the Indian River Lagoon.
Meaghan Cuddy:
And I also know that Florida has this sort of unique situation where it used to be all this swampland and it's really different now. So can you tell us a little bit about how that has been impacting your watershed?
Holly Sweat:
Right. So when you think about the Everglades, if you know anything about Everglades National Park, for example, you think of it as a South Florida ecosystem, lots of alligators, lots of cypress trees, and a swamp. Turns out that a large portion of the Florida peninsula actually used to be swampland, but in order to build homes and businesses and agricultural land, that area had to be drained and there had to be somewhere for the water to go. So many decades ago, a system of canals was put in to relocate the hydrology or the water flow of the Florida peninsula from going south into the Everglades region that exists now and out through the Florida Keys, to going mainly throughout the east coast toward the Atlantic Ocean and the west coast toward the Gulf of Mexico.
And so that dried up a lot of the land and allowed Florida to become more populated. But the problem is that along with all of that drainage comes much lower salinities on the coastline so marine animals start having a tough time. And then any sort of pollution that is in that water body, like fertilizers from your lawn, heavy metals, things like that, all of that stuff gets pushed out onto the coast as well. So we're actually working on some restoration projects to restore that flow closer to what it used to be like. And I'll talk more about that in a minute.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Cool. I think it's so interesting how even though here in D.C. we're very far away from you in Florida, and you're right on the coast, we're a little more inland, a lot of those issues that you and Jorge both described sound really similar and a lot of watersheds are facing very similar issues. So we'd like to throw our next question to you, our viewers. We'd like to know if you've seen any changes in the rivers, lakes, streams, the coast, wherever you live, the bodies of water close to you, have you seen any changes in recent years? Have you seen things like the urbanization and development that Holly and Jorge have experienced, more pollution, changes in animals? We'd love to know what you're experiencing in your own area too.
And while you guys write those into our Q&A box, you can put them in our Q&A and type in to let us know what you've seen, I'd like to move on to another topic. One thing we've been talking a lot about this summer in all of our series is how humans and their environment are connected to one another. And so Catherine, I'm curious, how does human communities and human development impact what's going on in the Anacostia watershed and how do you see issues like environmental justice playing out in your watershed?
Catherine Estes:
Obviously environmental justice is a huge topic, a very important topic, and that really hits home within the Anacostia watershed and the communities that live within it. The Anacostia River and the watershed have historically not been an area that was given the attention that it really deserved with regard to protection and restoration effort, but that's definitely changed. There's definitely a positive trend that has happened in recent decades as a result of efforts like the Anacostia Watershed Society has put forth, other community- based organizations like 11th Street Bridge project, government officials and some others have really done a lot to try and reverse some of those trends and engage the community members that live and are affected by the health of Anacostia River and the pollution that's within the watershed, engage them in some more of the decision making with what's happening within their community.
AWS does a lot to try and engage all members of the community from young to old in lots of different programming, whether it's our school based programming, our education program with SEA or volunteer events or other programming that we do, we really try to engage them. And within SEA specifically, we've actually focused on environmental justice as one of our themes and we plan to really incorporate more of that because it is so important, as we've seen and know, into our activities and field trips, more discussions and activities to help our youth who live here understand the history of where they live and how we can all make it be better than it's now.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. I think that work is so interesting and so important that you guys are doing. So it's really cool to hear about some things that we're doing here that maybe could be applied to some of the places that our viewers are living too. And we are getting some responses from our viewers about what they experience in their own communities. Ronan who lives near the Hudson River has noticed harmful algal blooms in their community, as well as fish kills associated with increasing temperature and pollution in their area. Rachel has noticed that water has been rising in Lake Ontario, and Claire lives in a suburb and has seen a lot of deforestation that is associated with urbanization.
So it's interesting to see how our viewers are experiencing a lot of similar things to what you guys all have talked about today, and we're seeing a lot of the same issues playing out in many areas of our country. But to go back to this sort of human community development piece of this, Shaniequa, I know that you have worked with SEA and with Anacostia Watershed Society. I'd love to hear your perspective on these environmental justice issues as well.
Shaniequa:
I find the different environmental justice programs that are trying to help the watersheds actually very interesting. And I appreciate them because I noticed even with all the little things that we've been doing in the past few years with the Anacostia watershed, that the Anacostia River has been progressively getting better. And I've noticed that with the Anacostia River getting better, it also results in the other water that it runs into becoming better. So I know that I had did this program where it's similar to SEA and we went to the Potomac River and we were able to swim in the river. That's not something that you could have said a few years ago that you could go in the river and swim normally without any fear your body reacting in a negative manner or without you having fear of getting sick.
So I do know that the environmental justice programs that are advocating to make our environment better have been making progress. It's hard to make some progress when there is a lot of pushback, but I'm so grateful that there are people out there who are advocating, who will not give up the fight on helping not only our area, but also everyone, and eventually everyone in the world because all the waters are connected in some way, some form. So that's my take on it.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. And I think one of the great examples of people who care is you Shaniequa, you have done so much in your own community, which I think is amazing. So I'd like to ask you, do you have any advice that you would give to someone who's around your age who is interested in taking care of their own watershed or interested in environmental issues? What would you say to someone who wants to get involved?
Shaniequa:
One thing I would highly recommend they do is look online, we're in a technology age. So if you're interested in getting involved in your community, there's a lot of organizations around them. Many people may not realize that they can get involved that actually go out see, go out and do environmental cleanups every weekend. You could be a part of those organizations. If there isn't one, make your own. Do not be afraid of a challenge and I do know in some areas it may be a challenge, but do not be afraid of a challenge. Go out and still pursue your dreams of helping the environment in the long run.
When it gets hard, just remember the overall picture, just focus on the overall goal because it will get challenging. There will be times when you get push back not only from people that you know, but also from higher ups. And it's just like you have to be able to still, even though you're going through challenges, push forward and think about how your action's going to impact not only your area but also other areas around you and how you maybe inspire the next generation of people to actually stand up and do something.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That is awesome. I think that persistence is so key and I am feeling very inspired right now to get out and do some work in my own community. So thanks Shaniequa. So, Holly-
Shaniequa:
No problem.
Meaghan Cuddy:
You're welcome. Holly, I know that there's a lot of work being done in South Florida in the Indian River Lagoon to sort of tackle some of these issues that you described. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the things that people are doing to make your watershed a better place?
Holly Sweat:
Sure. So our Indian River Lagoon is very long, it's 156 miles, and there are many, many institutions, universities, non-profit groups, other environmental groups working to try to restore and clean up and better understand the biodiversity and the unique aspects of our estuary. And some of the things that we do at the Smithsonian Marine Station and at our public side of the Smithsonian Marine Station, the Marine Ecosystems exhibit, is to offer volunteer opportunities and internships to young people.
And just hearing Shaniequa talk about how empowered and invigorated she is to get out there, I find that really inspiring. Actually, a lot of the folks that I've been following lately during the quarantine and the pandemic, just following online are younger people and younger generations that are bringing forth kind of these age-old concepts of sustainability and minimalism if you like, and things like that and kind of making them cool again and just bringing them to the forefront. And so I just love working with younger folks that have energy and enthusiasm and so we try to give opportunities like that for research and for conservation. And there's many more groups that are doing the same thing here.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. And I know that we also have the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems exhibit that's located down by you where people can go to learn more about their ecosystem and become more connected to their own watershed, which is such an important part of this as well. So Jorge, you're up here in D.C. by me and I know that you've already talked a little bit about some of the projects that you guys work on, and Shaniequa and Catherine have talked a little bit about some of the work that they do with education and the community and the Anacostia watershed. Can you tell us about a couple other projects that you're working on? I know you have one about mussel restoration that is kind of interesting.
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yes. So mussels are filter feeders. They are very helpful to restore the aquatic ecosystem. A few years ago we didn't know we had mussels, but we started working with the local experts and we found eight species of native freshwater mussels and we were very surprised by that. These mussels are very unique because they need fish to complete their life cycle, that's what we call the host fish. So what they do, the female releases larva and the larva attaches to the host fish and then they live as parasitic. That's kind of like the creepy life stage, they eat tissues and such from the fish. That's about a month or less, and then they drop down to the bed of the river and start growing as tiny filter feeder mussels as we know them. So their shells just keeps growing and growing.
So actually the ones that you see here, I'm going to point out, so see the line of growth, so they're like trees. So you see, this is what I'm pointing, this is a line of growth. The marks are growing season and such so you can see the green colors of these mussels is kind of the new growth they gained through our project. So last year we released 8,000 mussels into the river. First, we put them in floating baskets for a year. Now, we have another batch of mussels both in baskets and in cages on the bottom cedar block cages at the bottom of the river, and those will eventually be released. Actually tomorrow we have a release. We're releasing 6,000 mussels. We have the folks from the hatchery, because this is a hatchery from the Fish and Wildlife Service in Virginia. So they're coming here and bringing the mussels they've been growing. In this case, they come just straight from the hatchery and then we release them here because we have so many that this batch comes straight from the hatchery.
So it's a very exciting project because a mussel, and I don't know if we can show the image of the demonstration, one mussel can filter 10 gallons of water, 10 to 20 gallons, about that range in a day, one single adult mussel. So you see in this picture there's two five-gallon tanks. The one on the left has mussels, the other one doesn't. And an hour later, exactly an hour later in the next photo, you'll see how the water on the left tank is cleaner. You can actually see the mussels, there were probably like 10 adult mussels of different species.
And on the right one you can see the silt, the sediment still suspended in the water. So they helped bring that sediment down to the bottom and that helps organisms like submerged aquatic vegetation, because these are plants that need sunlight for photosynthesis. So they really help jumpstart the aquatic ecosystem, and that's exactly what we want happening in the Anacostia River. And that's why we have been propagating and releasing freshwater mussels of four species now, we're propagating four of the eight species that are native to the river.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That is amazing. I didn't know that we had native mussels here. That is news to me. And also it's crazy how those little teeny-tiny mussels can make such a huge impact on the water clarity and how clear it is, so it's an amazing project that you guys are working on. And Holly, your projects that you guys are working on in Indian River Lagoon are also so incredible to hear about. And it's really cool to learn how these ecosystems have been impacted by humans and how we've caused some problems, but also we're doing so much work to help restore them and rehabilitate them. And luckily we have people like Shaniequa who are young people in our community who are super-invested and care a lot about it. And Catherine, I know your work is largely focused around that, around helping people understand and connect to their watershed that they live in. Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Catherine Estes:
Sure. The Saturday Environmental Academy, as you guys have heard about so far, is an environmental education program. It's free actually for middle schoolers from in and near the Anacostia watershed. And we do have some ninth and tenth graders who serve as student leaders. So Shaniequa was actually a student with us and then she was a student leader and then she actually became one of the Anacostia River heroes. She got an award for all of her amazing work that she did with SEA and her school and beyond, and she continues to do. So SEA really focuses on middle schoolers and teens. And then we have some school-based programs, too, to help reach that part of the community.
But we also reach out beyond what SEA is doing, we reach out to the whole community through, and specifically teens can get involved in these things, the Discovery Series that we offer during most summers, this summer has obviously been a little different, but we have a Discovery Series that engages youth and families in things like kayaking and canoeing and bird watching and biking to really get out there and engaged with the river and watershed. We also have an internship program that Jorge actually heads up, that older teens, so college-age teens and recent college grads can apply to be a part of. We also have volunteer events that teens could get engaged with locally. And we have a calendar of events on our webpage. Again, things have been a little bit crazy the last few months, but hopefully we'll have some events up on that calendar soon that youth in the area can participate in.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That is awesome. You guys are doing so much and I would definitely remind everyone watching that if we're doing this here in D.C., it's very likely that whatever watershed you live in your own community also has ways that you can get involved. As Catherine said, there's so many opportunities to volunteer and learn more about your watershed so we definitely encourage you to seek those out. And thank you Catherine, for the work that you do to help connect people to their ecosystem and the watershed that they live in, all four of you are I think, wonderful stewards of your watershed and really help connect people to the places that they live. So thank you all so much.
I have learned so much from all of you today. This has been so interesting. And before we open up our program to Q&A from our audience, I have one last question for all of you. So our program is called Earth Optimism and we like to focus on the idea that when we all come together we can make these big changes that you guys are seeing in your own communities possible. So before we move on to questions, I'd like to ask each of you, what is something that you've learned or seen in your experiences that makes you feel optimistic. And Shaniequa, I'd actually like to start with you, if you don't mind.
Shaniequa:
Okay. I would like to say learning more about how the smallest decisions you make when it pertains to helping the environment in the long run has a big impact. And that for me makes me very optimistic to the future of the environment. For example, that one Saturday we went and we just did an Earth Day cleanup and just picking up trash along the river, our actions in the long run prevented certain fish and certain organisms in the river to potentially die or potentially become endangered and that impacted basically everything. It helped with the river's algae issue, it helped with the river's species issue. We know that the species didn't die, the species are still there. So everything that we've done with SEA really just made me so happy about what we could face in the long run.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, I think that that's amazing. And I think getting involved in your own area and really getting your hands dirty and making a difference, it does kind of give you this warm fuzzy kind of feeling and it really helps you see how our own actions can make a big difference. So thanks so much Shaniequa. Holly, I'd like to hear about you. Do you have anything that makes you feel optimistic going forward?
Holly Sweat:
For sure. Over the past few years, as I mentioned before, we've been dealing with a lot of environmental issues down here in the Indian River Lagoon and surrounding watershed like algae blooms and fish kills and loss of habitat and all of this stuff, and we hear a lot about that in the media. And it's really easy to get overwhelmed and think, "What can I do about it?" But the silver lining to all of those problems, and I think this is probably going on all over the place, is that people know about the issues now. It's on our radar, it gets more attention. It gets more attention from lawmakers, from the public at large, and people start to feel empowered because they want to do something to fix it. And if we can provide opportunities for people and outlets for people to get involved, then I think we're well on our way to improving the problem. So maybe it has to get worse before it gets better, but the fact that we have had all of these issues has led to more exposure and I think that's going to lead to a better ecosystem.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely. I feel like so many people are mobilized right now and very engaged in their communities and that really does make a difference. The more people care about it and the more people that know about it, the more positive change we will see, which I think is wonderful. Jorge, how about you?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yeah, so the Anacostia River has been a success story recently. Even though we heard so many bad news about the world, the Anacostia has been improving. We give the river a grade pretty much, and it got a passing grade for last year's water quality data. That might sound very mediocre but for a history of a river that has been even declared impaired in the past, that's a major step forward. We've seen increases in many aspects and many water quality variables like water clarity is becoming better, there's the acreage of submerged aquatic grasses is expanding, which is a very positive story. And again, the mussels are going to help that a lot. But then another one is the wild rice. You might be familiar with the wild rice you get at the grocery store, that's another species from the Midwest, from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The one we're propagating here is native to the Eastern seaboard from here to actually Florida area.
And this wild rice was a keystone species in the Anacostia marshes in the precolonial times and such. It was a vast expansive grasses, it has been shrinking because of the wetland destruction but we have been working for, even before my time for the last 20 years, AWS has been working on propagating the grass and we've seen gains, but are kind of patchy because we had a big geese overpopulation. The geese got managed and now the grass doesn't have the grazing pressure of the geese so now it is expanding. Actually this week I was doing a monitoring of the vegetation and it was great to see the biggest acreage of wild rice I've seen in my 11 years in the river. And maybe if we can show the photos of the before and after.
So this photo was from like 2017, that's when we install ... And then this is the after which was taken this week. So you can see how great the wild rice is, all the kind of yellow greenish plant, those are the flowers of the grass. And so this year like never before, it's the best acreage of wild rice. And wild rice is super-important for many different birds and mammals like muskrats and fish because these are tidal wetland. At high tide, a lot of fish come in so it's a very important plant for the ecosystem. And the fact that we are seeing so much rice is just very encouraging for us.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That is awesome. And I think that those pictures really speak a thousand words, that is a huge change and it's so heartwarming to see that positive change in just a couple of years. That's amazing, the work that you guys are doing. And last but certainly not least, Catherine, do you want to share with us a little nugget of optimism?
Catherine Estes:
Sure. So many things make me optimistic, but if I had to choose one, I'd say my students, my SEA students, because they're such proof that one person can truly make a difference. Some pessimists out there will say that it's one little thing that I do, my actions aren't enough to make a difference in our environment and to see students prove to me and others around them, their families who they have conversations with when they go home, their peers, who they talk to. I have one student who told me how one of her classmates was going to throw a bottle out the window of a school bus and she stopped her because she said, "I talked to her about how it was going to end up in the Anacostia River if she just threw it out the window." So each person, they're a spark that creates change outside of their own immediate world.
And I see the joy on their faces when they wade into the Anacostia to plant native planting like Shaniequa was talking about, or planting trees on Kingman Island. I see the joy that is sparked in them when they're out in nature experiencing it and they take that to their friends, they take that to their family members and they're making a bigger difference. And I just think that youth of today are more engaged than they were years ago in environmental issues and they're making their voices heard and I see them influencing people around them even if they can't vote, they're encouraging people around them who can vote to vote for leaders who will help to protect our environment and be responsible citizens.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely, I am so inspired by the generation coming up behind me that is so engaged and so passionate and I think that they're really going to make a lot of positive change, which I think is wonderful. Thank you all so much for all of these amazing insights today. Like I said, I've really learned a lot from all of you and I'm sure all of our viewers have as well. So we are going to open it up to Q&A. So do you guys have some time to answer some questions for us?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yes.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Awesome. So viewers, if you have a question for Jorge, Catherine, Holly, Shaniequa, you can feel free to write your question into the Q&A box right now and we are going to get to as many of those as possible. And we already have a lot of wonderful questions that have come in today. The first one is from Claire and is for Shaniequa. So Shaniequa, were there any challenges that you faced as a young person getting involved in these environmental issues and how did you overcome any challenges that you maybe faced?
Shaniequa:
When I was trying to do the recycle program at my school, I had to go through a lot of people and some of them were kind of standoffish and didn't really want to talk when I kept trying to call. And how I helped with that is I went to my principal and I was explaining to her what I was trying to do and I was explaining to her because this all started off as a class project and I took it kind of one step further and I explained to her what I was trying to do and how important it was to me. And she used her contacts and she was able to get me to speak to someone who actually listened and who actually was going to help me make those changes. So the challenge I faced was dealing with people who were kind of resistant and how I overcame that was I worked around those people. I found someone who actually listened and who actually helped me move forward with my plan.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Awesome. And like you said, you are clearly very persistent and I think that that really pays off and it really shows because you've made so many positive real changes in your area, so I think that is awesome advice. Thank you. All right, we have a ton of questions. Our next question is for Holly. Holly, you talked a little bit about one of the other issues that Indian River Lagoon is dealing with, which is invasive species. Can you tell us what are some of the invasive species that you are concerned with in your area?
Holly Sweat:
There's many. If we think about the entire watershed as being land and fresh water and marine environment down here, there's a lot of key species that have become a problem. So many people have probably heard of the invasive lionfish. That can be a problem in our marine areas where we have inlets to the Atlantic Ocean. Those fish can come in and they basically are just garbage disposals that will eat anything. And so that's a problem because they can just decimate populations of other fish that are really important to the environment. We have a lot of invasive vegetation down here that very quickly will take over. So a couple of examples of those are Brazilian pepper. If you live in Florida, you know about Brazilian pepper, it's all over the place, especially in very developed areas like the sides of roadways, and that can be a problem because it grows really fast like a lot of invasive species and it'll just choke out everything.
We also have another big tree called the Australian pine tree and I'm not sure on the history of it, but what I've heard is that it was brought in to help stabilize sediments. So it was like a lot of invasive species, intentionally brought in. And again, that causes a problem because it reproduces really fast and can choke out other organisms. And so there's a whole host of things like that that affect our watershed and because we have ports where we have ships coming in with cargo and they might be fouled on the hull of the ship with different organisms and they might be filled with ballast water to stabilize themselves and the ballast water has all sorts of larvae in it and that gets emptied out onto our coastline. There are lots of different entry mechanisms for invasive species in Florida.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah. I hear that being on a coast you guys have lots of invasives and it is a really significant issue there. So it's interesting to hear a little bit about the diversity actually of invasives that you guys are dealing with down there, so thanks Holly. I do want to let our viewers know that we are at 45 minutes for our program today, but we do have so many great questions that we'd like to ask a couple more. So if you do have to leave today, thank you so much for joining us, but we will get to a couple of more questions before we end the program formally. Jorge, Holly just talked a little about the invasives that they're facing down in Florida. Can you tell us maybe a little about some of the invasive species we have here in D.C.?
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Yeah. Again, we have also a lot of invasives as a result of the pet trade or people release their pets or their aquarium plants and such. But one that I would like to highlight is the emerald ash borer, is a tiny beetle from Asia that was unintentionally introduced here through cargo ships and wooden pallets, so it came from Asia and those cargo ships. This species attacks only ash trees, green ash, white ash, pumpkin ash and other ashes. So in the last five summers or so, we've seen a complete depletion. Almost all the ash trees are dead or dying. Only the young ones like the seedlings are still alive because the beetle only attacks the full grown trees. So it looks like the winter in midsummer, a lot of leafless trees. So what we have been doing in those areas is planting native trees that are not affected by the pest because the pest is so specific to the ash trees. In my opinion, that's the worst invasive.
Some other species that I'm going to mention another one is the northern snakehead, famous game fish native to Russia and China. It was introduced here as food in someone's pond and then from there it managed to escape into the Potomac River about in 2005, then it managed into the Anacostia because it's the same drainage and now we have them everywhere. Now the research, preliminary research from Virginia Tech was showing that they were not as bad, they were not having an impact on other fish, but now more recent research in Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay area is showing impacts on the fish community.
So now we know that they're having a negative impact on the fish community, on the native species. And it became popular because of National Geographic, the Frankenfish, there was a lot of documentaries about it. There's other species of snakeheads in Florida, tropical, but this one is more from the temperate climate again, from Russia and China. I mean, it's a cool, nice fish but unfortunately like other invasives, it does have impacts.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Absolutely and it's really great to hear that when it comes to the trees and stuff, you guys are really proactively dealing with that and doing some planting and doing some things to sort of combat these invasives. I think we have time for one more question and I'd like to throw it to Catherine. Catherine, Damaris would like to know what are some small changes that people can make in their community or their lifestyle even if they don't live near water or they don't see direct effects of water pollution, what could they do?
Catherine Estes:
Yeah, that's a great question. So something that we started talking about and see several years ago were DOTs. A DOT is a do one thing. So if you can at least pick one DOT to have for yourself and maybe charge everybody in your family or your group of friends to think of a DOT, it can help to broaden the impact, the positive impact. There are a lot of things that you can do that don't take a huge amount of effort, from planting some small native pollinator plants, if you have any space where you live. Or in a nearby park, you could talk to some local city officials about doing some sort of plantings and getting engaged with an organization to volunteer and do some plantings in that regard. Just going out and take ... We have these handy dandy little cleanup tools that we use in SEA, but you don't have to have this to just get out there on your own and make any day Earth Day.
You can do a cleanup to help your local water bodies. Anytime you go out for a walk, you could just grab a bag. My dad used to do that. When he would just go for a certain walk in the day, he would always grab a bag with him and pick up any trash that he found. If you're a youth and you don't have a car, so maybe you're not polluting in that way, you could still try and get around without asking parents and guardians to drive you places. Maybe you encourage your family or guardian or peers to walk or bike more often because that contributes to less pollution obviously, and you get exercise. It makes you feel better. You could do a meat-free day of the week, because eating fewer meat products helps to decrease the amount of pollution that's generated in our environment as well. So there are a lot of DOTs you could come up with, those are a few.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Those are all such great pieces of advice and I really love the DOT idea of do one thing, because if you have a lot of DOTs, you make a really big impact. So I think that's wonderful advice, thanks Catherine. And thank you also Holly, Jorge, Shaniequa, all of you guys are so wonderful to talk to you today. This was such an inspiring conversation, so I really hope that you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.
And I'd like to also thank everyone who joined us today and is watching and I hope that you had a wonderful summer with us. Like I said, today is actually our last Teen Tuesday summer program, so thank you for being with us all summer long and we'd love to hear your thoughts on this program. You'll be getting a survey at the end of today and we'd love to hear more about how we can make this program great for you in the fall. But that is all the time that we have today. Thank you again, Jorge, Catherine, Shaniequa, Holly, you all were so wonderful and I really appreciate all of your time today. Thanks so much.
Holly Sweat:
Thank you.
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Thank you for having me.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Bye.
Catherine Estes:
Bye.
Jorge Bogantes Montero:
Bye.
