Latest / Clean Water Conversations / Episode 9 with Carly Dean

Transcript

Episode 9 with Carly Dean · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_06: Hello everyone and welcome to Clean Water Conversations, a podcast where we have casual discussions about creating clean and clear waterways right here in Lancaster County.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_06: I'm Ken.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, everybody.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Allison.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_06: Allison, there's a lot of cool stuff coming up.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's a busy time of year.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_06: It is.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_06: Water week is coming up, as we just talked in the last uh two episodes.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_06: Uh summer's coming up, and the end of our first season of this podcast is coming up.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: We've already made it through a whole season.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Ken, thanks for getting us started on this awesome adventure of a podcast.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's been fun.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_06: It has been fun.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_06: And what is also going to be fun is our final episode of the season.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_06: Will take place during water week.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_06: We will literally be live streaming.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Streaming.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_06: We'll be in a stream.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_06: That's so so you listeners know can understand the pun.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_06: Uh we'll be chatting from a stream in Langster County live, probably on Facebook.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_06: We will let you know via social media when that is going to be exactly and how you can interact with us.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_06: And we'll send, you know, make sure that everybody is able to uh get involved.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_06: It'll be a lot of fun.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_06: That'll be a lot of fun.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_06: And but and before that, we have an interview with Carly Dean.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_06: We have some fun today.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_06: A chat, I should say.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_06: We did have some fun today.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_06: Uh Carly is the director of the Chesapeake Tributary Initiatives at the Chesapeake Conservancy.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_06: And she was kind enough, because she lives in Baltimore, she was kind enough to call us.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_06: This is our first episode where we're actually having this conversation on the phone.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it worked great.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_06: It did.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of fun.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: We'll let you all tune in now.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_06: So we are here talking with Carly Dean, who is the director of the Chesapeake Tributary Initiatives at the Chesapeake Conservancy.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_06: Did I get that right?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_06: Cool.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, we do.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_06: Well, welcome.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome to the Clean Water Conversation.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, Carly.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_04: Hi.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much for having me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really uh really looking forward to our conversation today.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_06: We are so glad to have you and thank you so much for your time.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_06: Now we always like to get to know our guests a little bit better.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_06: So we do a little icebreaker.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_06: And my question for you, we just had a holiday as of the time of this recording.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_06: It is the week of Memorial Day.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_06: What is your favorite holiday or holiday tradition?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, okay.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I let's see.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_04: So my favorite holiday is Halloween, and uh my favorite tradition is just making the Halloween costume.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: I just have wonderful memories of being a kid and my mom helping, you know.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: It's actually about the time of year where I start thinking about what I'm gonna do next year for um for my costume, but it's just always been a lot of fun um opportunity to be really creative and like low pressure, right?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: I've done some costumes that are pretty comical, but it's all about the commitment, right?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Carly, do you do a full like haunted house and this interactive costumes?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um I don't do like a haunted house or or I I haven't really had a Halloween party myself, but I always go to, let's see, in Baltimore City where I live, there's uh the Maryland Science Center has a big Halloween party.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_04: And people are super committed.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_04: There's a cash prize for the best costume.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: I haven't come anywhere close, but it's always fun to see what people come up with and the silly things that they make.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is good to know.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll be using this at future events.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Please do.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_06: What is your favorite costume you've ever come up with?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um let's see.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: A couple years ago, okay.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really putting myself out here.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: A couple years ago, have you all seen the movie The Labyrinth?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um okay, so for uh maybe for the listeners, if you haven't seen it, it's a fantasy movie from the from the 80s, the early 80s, I think.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um Jennifer Connolly plays a character that is um looking for her brother who's been kidnapped by the Goblin King, who's played by David Bowie.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_04: And when she enters the labyrinth, um the first uh character that she meets is this little puppet, um, which is a worm that directs her through the labyrinth.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, so that was my character, the little worm that showed up in two and a half minutes of a movie from the 80s.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um you'll have to look it up and just use your imagination.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_04: It was so bad that it was good.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_06: Oh wow.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_06: It's awesome.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ken, can we add graphics to the notes of this episode?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_06: We can actually.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_06: Carly, if you send us a picture, we'll we'll post it on the notes of the episode.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe we'll just take a screenshot of the actual movie.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, we could do that, yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_06: Well, there you go.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_06: Check out the notes for the show.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so uh tell us I'm double-transitioned to that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_06: That one kind of blew my mind, actually.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_06: So has that always been your favorite holiday?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_06: Like just growing up?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, oh yeah, absolutely.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like I said, it's not I'm I mean, I need to start.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a little bit behind starting to think about my costume for for this Halloween, honestly.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so tell us a little bit about your growing up.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_06: There's my segue.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_06: I was I saw it coming.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_06: Tell us a little bit about your background.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_06: Did you get uh started in conservation at a very young age?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_06: Um, just kind of run us through that.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so um so a lot of it has to do with uh where I grew up.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm from Cecil County, Maryland.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and actually, folks in Lancaster County, if you know 272, if you take it south all the way down to where it ends, um, which is at Turkey Point, I grew up in the in the neighborhood there, which is a peninsula that's right at the top of the Chesapeake Bay.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, I grew up at the time where your parents kind of kicked you out of the house in the summertime and you were on your own to entertain yourself, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: There would be grilled cheese on the deck, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: Grilled cheese on the cheese.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um yes.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I just remember kind of being outside and like wondering, kind of wondering why there was, for example, a magnolia tree in this part of the yard and not a pine tree, and like digging through, you know, digging through the um just the soil and making like little cups out of leaves and really starting to understand like what the differences were in the plants.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's really what sparked my interest in ecology and biology and just like learning about just learning through that experience of being outside all the time and having your favorite tree and your favorite plant.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_04: And then um, so when I, you know, fast forward when I was going to college, I was really interested in like biology or ecology as a major.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't realize that environmental science was an option until I started at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, otherwise known as UMBC.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I learned about environmental science, and then I took this course where I learned about ecosystem services, and that really put conservation into context for me.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_04: Ecosystem services are sort of the benefits or the values that um humans get from our environment.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_04: And it became really apparent to me that um I wanted to be kind of an advocate to conserve um you know our natural resources, not just for the benefit of those ecosystem services, but for how important these ecosystems are working together to provide like all of these different benefits that I hadn't really thought about before then.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_06: So how how did you wind up in China researching sustainable development?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a pretty big jump.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, so that that's another sort of university experience that I that I was so um so grateful to have had.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_04: So when I um did my master's program at Towson University, which is just outside of Baltimore, I had uh my thesis advisor, Dr.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_04: Brian Fath, had all of these different um partnerships with other universities from across, you know, across the world.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: And one of those was Beijing Normal University, which is um a teaching university in in Beijing, China.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_04: And it was working on this research project um to help real estate developers.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: I know it's kind of wild to hear we to hear it, but real estate developers better understand how um people in the West and Europe and the United States were using things like um Energy STAR and leadership in energy and environmental design or lead certification.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: I did have to look up so I didn't break your acronym rule.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna let Kim get there.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but yeah, how they're how we're using those types of programs to create um mostly commercial uh uh complexes to be more um environmentally environmentally friendly and like how to market those in a meaningful way.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: So um he had been working on that project, asked if I could stay on um as a research assistant with him after I finished my degree to um help work on this research and publish a paper.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I actually got to go to Beijing for a month to finish up my research and to present to that real estate developer that the um Beijing Normal University had had this um sort of relationship with to do this research.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds amazing.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: It was wild.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: It was my first time out of the country, and I flew over there on my own.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's a long trip.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: It was your first trip.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: It was uh I was pretty nervous about it, but um, luckily I was set up really well and and everything went really smoothly.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_04: And talk about you know a trip of a lifetime.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I hear that Vienna has also been on your passport now.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about what took you to Europe.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: We do our research early.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, so Vienna, so it was a similar situation.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: Same uh same professor from Towson University um had another project that he was working on with um the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis or EASA.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um and that project that was super cool.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um again, I started doing the research um here when I lived in Baltimore.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: I still live in Baltimore, but when I was um going like in the Towson area following my um following my graduate degree, started the research here and then got the opportunity to travel to Vienna to finish up the research and and work on the publication that came out of that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: But um, that was based on using concepts of ecological resilience.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: So, for example, how does a forest recover after a forest fire or um, you know, if there's a major flood or landslide or lava flow?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how what what what are the components of an ecosystem that makes it resilient?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: How does it come back from these events?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_04: What are those uh concepts that we can then apply to social systems in the face of a number of different potential shocks?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: So maybe um electrical outage or a stock market crash.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_04: And one example was a global pandemic, which to me is so like so interesting to me how I had the opportunity to kind of be thinking about that before, you know, before it actually happens.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: But that was the research that I worked on there.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And um yeah, what a cool, another cool experience that I had.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: With all that research in your background, kind of where you are now, do you do you miss the like lab-based work or do you feel like research is really integrated into what you're you're doing now professionally?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I definitely think that it's it's integrated into what I do now.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't really realize or or think about the path that I had been on at the time.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: So none of the work that I had done was lab-based.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_04: It was about taking a lot of complex and in a lot of cases like very, very deep research topics that seemed disconnected in ways and bringing them together into something that was kind of actionable.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: Or like what do all of these things have in common with one another that will help us solve a real problem that we're facing either environmentally or socially?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I think a lot of what I do now at Chesapeake Conservancy is similar.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, sort of taking all of these um, well, we can talk, we'll talk more about it, I'm sure, getting into more detail about all the mapping work that we do.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_04: But taking this these concepts that might be more of like hard science and saying, like, what are really the lessons that we can pull from those every day and apply them in a way that's meaningful and not overcomplicated.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I found myself in a lot of ways being like a translator of that of that data into something that we can use.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sitting here looking at the a very small book called Good to Great and the Social Sectors.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's exactly what you're describing, but I love hearing how you've done it and you've made that possible both from your research and then what you're doing now.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for sharing with us some of your journey.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and I wanted and I wanted to know a little bit more about that, about the the the GIS or geographic information systems, the mapping strategies.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_06: That's the context in which you and you and I uh were introduced, um, because I had just started here and this was a big thing that was a big project that that uh I needed to know about it.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_06: Um so you're one of the people that I talked to about it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_06: So how did you and also how did you, meaning the uh the conservancy, uh get involved in you can use GIS now, by the way, since I already explained it.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_06: Get in get involved in in uh in GIS mapping and and and what do you hope to accomplish through it?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Our organization got involved with GIS before I started.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um we had a very brilliant staff member, Jeff Allenby, who um spiders for the the Lincoln Institute.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Jeff was Jeff's a fellow alumni of the University of Richmond.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you all knew each other well before, well before I met him, right, Allison?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: So he had this kind of grand vision for what the future of of at least part of Chesapeake Conservancy's work could be.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_04: So at the time we were focused more on um land conservation, which we still do, public access, which we still do, a relationship with the National Park Service, um but had this grand vision through um through his sort of GIS-based mind about how we could use mapping data to inform the most important places to do conservation in particular?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: How do we take all of this data that's been collected and produced throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed on um land cover or habitat ranges, even things like public access, how far are our residents from parks and boat launches, for example?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_04: How do we combine all of that data to make good decisions?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, ideally we'd conserve every last tree that's out there, but the reality is that's not the way things work, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_04: We we don't have enough funding if we if we were able to, and you know, we have to accommodate the people that live here as well.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: So um, given limited resources, both you know, financially and otherwise, um, how do we target those resources into the places that are gonna help us achieve our conservation and restoration goals?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: So that's really the kind of the start of the vision for the conservancy's involvement with GIS.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I always found it to be a really powerful communications tool.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I first got exposed to GIS when I was at UMBC.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: Again, that's University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: We actually have a lot of um a lot of alums from there at the Conservancy now too.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I just thought that cartography, which is more of the design aspect of GIS, to be such a powerful way to tell a story.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: How do you visually show where the important places are?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: How do you use this as a tool to bring people together and point to where they think we need to work on restoration and conservation?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so that was sort of my big interest in it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_04: Like I just thought that it was so valuable.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: And starting at the Conservancy over um nine years ago now, um I worked closely with Jeff to sort of figure out, you know, how this mapping data can be used for restoration, not just land conservation, but how we can actually make improvements to our ecosystems guided by all of this data that all of these different organizations have been collecting for decades.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what a lot of my work focuses on now.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_06: When uh we know now how Alison and Jeff met.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_06: We know how you and Jeff met.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_06: I'm really curious, how in the world did you and Allison meet?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um We can both give our versions.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious how much overlap.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alison, do you want to start?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: No, please go ahead.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, all right.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I actually learned about like this this vision for the clean water partners.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_04: I think Alison, before you before you started, um Chris Thompson with the Lancaster County Conservation District had reached out and he was like asking a bunch of different people that had worked on these kind of collective impact models or um, you know, ways to bring people together, improve collaboration, have share goals, uh measurement systems, constant communication.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: There's a whole school of thought around this collective impact model.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: So Chris had been um asking a number of different people what their experience was with that.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: They wanted to start something up in Lancaster.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um so I so I learned about it this way.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then um when Allison was hired for the job, we had set up sort of an introduction meeting.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: And it was like you all know, Allison is just an absolute joy, like so smart and cheerful and just an easy person to be around.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, one of the big things I remember was us sort of reflecting on how important our our work experiences in customer service are to this theory.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_04: True, yes.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, so I had worked at, I actually had worked at a car dealership for a little while.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's a whole nother chapter.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it was tough graduating college in 2008, I'll tell you that.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I ended up at a car dealership.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: And Allison, you had some customer service background as well.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: And I think we kind of bonded over how important that is to this, to this role that we now play as like coordinators, facilitators, bringing people together.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, that's great.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: I can remember us with the watershed action team when we were first starting to put together that GIS layer system, but the decision-making process to get there was where you helped us so much with n getting us down to the nitty-gritty, like the essential decision-making points, so that we as a group could do that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then you could translate that as appropriate to into something that was a communications tool.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: So like the collaborative mapping tool is where we are now.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I remember Chris in particular was asking about the restoration reports and other tools and and um uh mapping pieces that you all had had put together uh initially before things like the collaborative mapping tool and the delisting strategy and all the other amazing pieces we get to work on now.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I do remember you being here with us trying to get us down to well, what should the waiting system be for this level or this attribute that we're trying to trying to use?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate very much those times in person that you and I got to meet and like you said, anchor in the communication and customer service elements and then blend it into the science.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I've it was a little further into um our working relationship.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it I remember us being on Zoom calls during COVID, and you in particular and I saying, How are we gonna do this during COVID?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: But then also saying, as we got to know some agency partners and independent.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: individual organizations just saying they are our new BFFs and this is going to be fine.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_04: We definitely spent a lot of time during the, you know, during the the early times of the pandemic trying to figure out, you know, how we were going to continue what we had spent so much time working on with that watershed action team and prioritizing the places across the county.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I just really appreciate you being such a good friend and support system to each other.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think that was, you know, that's really a lot of reason why we do the work that we do, right?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's the relationships that we build and continue to support one another.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_04: So I appreciate you bringing that up.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I appreciate you very much, Carly.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_06: So on that same communication piece, what can we in Lancaster County be doing better to not only clean up the waters that eventually lead to the Chesapeake, but communicate how we're cleaning up those waters and the good work that's being done?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well I have to say, you know, talking about my experience in Lancaster County, you know, I wasn't around during that time where where, you know, there was a lot of talk about silos and and people not really working together.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I've just seen a tremendous amount of partnership and trust built collaboration, you know, increasing the resources, working together.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I don't know how much I could say that you could be doing better.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: Honestly, you know, that's a really tough question.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I hope it's not, you know, I don't know.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_04: I just really think that continuing to do more of that partnership, you know, we've got so many resources available to us now in the Chesapeake and in particular places like Lancaster.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: Just sort of, you know, keeping things as simple as possible and not overcomplicating things.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_04: Whether it be you know you know just really trying to understand the root problems.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I think everybody's doing such a great job of that.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: I do think that communicating, you know, which is why we're so glad to have you Ken on the team, right?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_04: Communicating is is always a struggle, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_04: I think that, you know, there's I was just talking with one of my colleagues this morning about how important monitoring it is.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: So like in stream monitoring where we're actually not just talking about the things that are invisible to us like you know concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, which is all extremely important to measure, but things that people really can touch, like the aquatic insects and the fish.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_04: And you know making sure that we're getting out into the streams after these trees have been planted and these farms have been restored and showing that the fish are coming back, the bugs are coming back, making a really big deal out of that because that's really what this is all about, right?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's improving our ecosystems and the health of our streams.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_04: And and I think that we can continue to do more of that and really celebrate that not just you know not just in Lancaster but across the Bay watershed it's something that is so important for communications.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Carly I'm curious in your communications work has the audience demand been on the ecosystem side like the recovery you're talking about of fish and insects and trees coming back is that the driver or is the economic side of it as important or do you think that's changed from over time the that uh the need that people or the demand that people have for that information to show that this was a good ret there's a good return on my investment, whether that's a taxpayer or a real estate developer like you were talking about.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: I definitely think that there's you know it's it's both.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: I can't say for sure how much it's changed between like you know like you said the benefits to the ecosystems and the wildlife you know that alone that intrinsic value going back to that concept of ecosystems the intrinsic value of having a diversity of species is you know it's hard to find somebody that that doesn't resonate with the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about the economics of it to me I'm thinking more about climate change.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like that's coming up more and more where we are going to have to get out in front of the impacts of climate change in particular in Pennsylvania we're looking at increased storm events and flooding for example you know what are the costs of not having trees along our streams what are the costs of not having a diversity of plants that are you know occupying our natural areas where um climate zones are are starting to change so um that's the sort of thing that I think of when I'm thinking about you know more discussions on economic benefits of conservation and restoration has to do with looking in the future and how our how our um how our climates are changing and our ecosystems are going to be changing 50 100 200 years from now who needs to be involved that's not currently involved well I think the you know what I've seen that the Lancaster Cleanwater partners you know you guys have done such an amazing job being welcoming being proactive about inviting so many different organizations and residents and partners to to be a part of the of the efforts.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: One group that I've been thinking a lot about lately is building more relationships with universities and colleges.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: I think we've got some solid partnerships you know Franklin and Marshall's been so involved in Lancaster.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_04: We've got a great relationship with Sispahan University where we've got um some staff up in Ceilings Grove with some shared offices there.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_04: But we are hearing more and more about capacity workforce capacity and technical skills of people you know entering a conservation workforce you know that's becoming a bigger and bigger issue.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: So I'd love to see more university partnerships getting young people ready to you know to start on day one because there's so much more work that needs to happen in conservation and we're just hearing from partners not just in Pennsylvania but across the Bay watershed that the workforce simply isn't there.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_04: Jobs are sitting open we're hiring people that aren't quite job ready for a number of different reasons.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: So the more we can get university partners involved it's such a natural relationship right to give young people on the job training and exposure to conservation jobs so that they you know really have a better understanding of what they want to do when they graduate.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_04: They know how to find the jobs they've done the networking and you know there's so many bright minds out there that we really need in our in our field.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: So universities and colleges is is a place that I'd really like to spend more time exploring with partnerships.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us some of the things that make you most excited about the work that your team is doing with Susquehanna University Yeah so we have um internships we host internships every semester um there's uh some some wonderful support to make sure that those interns get paid for their time working with us which is just so important especially when we're talking about access to these types of careers right um so we have internships where we give um students specific projects and they get exposure to all of our partner organizations.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_04: We also host uh AmeriCorps members and Chesapeake Conservation and climate corps members that's a program that's based out of Maryland um but we're also just exploring a new kind of workforce readiness program.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: We've done a pilot um last summer and then our summer workforce trainees just started yesterday um so we're helping um get them their pesticide applicator license and doing some other professional development trainings for them and um giving them on the job trainings for riparian forest buffer maintenance.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: So all of the tree plantings that we're doing up in central Pennsylvania around Sealings Grove and some nearby counties those need to be maintained to ensure survivorship and it gives the students an opportunity to build their resume with those professional certifications and and see if this is you know a path that they ultimately want to take in their career.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: So when we started this this summer program um we realized that there's a greater need for this type of this type of training experience.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: So right now we're working with a consultant um Chilfire Productions a person's name is Carolyn Hill that we're working with we've surveyed over 83 partner organizations to see what their challenges have been with hiring most of those are based in Pennsylvania but we've got some regional and even some national organizations that participated in that survey just to get a better feel for what our university partners can be doing to make sure that those um that those students are job ready.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_04: So we're looking at providing some additional technical trainings through uh through a new program and um you know it's just the start of just the start of this effort but we really want to be proactive especially with our relationship with Susquehanna University and they've been just amazing partners there at the Freshwater Research Institute to explore this with us.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds so cool.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I know that you have grown that program and kudos to you and your team for what you've created and the vision you have and how you're making it a place for capacity building at a level that is necessary.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: Just the survey data and the way that then you take action that is a true gift and a true gift to us as the conservation community.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for what you're doing.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely I mean I think that this isn't something that we necessarily invented right it's something that people have been talking about for a long time and it's you know we're we're just trying to chip away at one challenge after another right so we can all keep moving forward.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: So how do you talk about that as the Chesapeake Conservancy?
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_04: You're working in Sealins Grove, Pennsylvania so this whole watershed community how do you guys explain that or how what's the tone what's the dynamic of that within your organization and then how you talk about it outside I think the the main thing that I like to emphasize all the time is that while the Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts were originally focused on like the deep water portions of the Chesapeake Bay proper, right?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: Which is Maryland and Virginia too um it's really this this Chesapeake restoration movement has evolved to think about the entire watershed right 64000 square miles of the watershed is what we are aiming to restore not just those deep water portions of the bay itself so you know the thinking is that if we can restore these smaller tributaries, the headwaters, there's so much research that shows that restoration in the headwater streams can have some of the biggest impacts downstream right so that's kind of what what our focus has been through the Chesapeake Tributaries Initiative and generally as an organization right we talk about the the GIS data the high resolution mapping data that helps us get down at a very very fine scale and I think that's also an appropriate scale to focus our work we want to concentrate our efforts in small geographic areas where we're going to be able to see an impact and those might be headwater streams in central Pennsylvania around Ceilings Grove.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: There might be some headwater streams in Lancaster County but for me it's about bite-sized chunks working in in feasible like setting feasible goals in smaller concentrated areas and that's what the tributaries initiative is all about and as an organization you know it's it's all about the Chesapeake right and again it's not just the Chesapeake Bay itself it's the entire watershed that deserves our attention I love that it's the whole community and it's everybody working together as neighbors as a community um and that's not always a positive tone that's associated with that.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Pennsylvania has had their fair share of headlines lately.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm curious when that tone is negative because you get this zoomed out perspective of being Chespi oriented but really working everywhere.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: How do you address that?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: How do you turn that to the progress that Pennsylvania has made and then how important is it or how are you seeing that shift happening to be automatic with our partner organizations?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't I don't feel like it's the same finger pointing that it was six or seven years ago.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm curious what you guys are experiencing and how you approach that.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah I I like you said six or seven years ago there was a lot of um a lot of pressure put on Pennsylvania from the EPA about you know the strategies that were outlined sorry EPA.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: What did I say?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_04: Oh EPA oh no sorry oh you caught me that's fair enough Ken um so the US can I say US Environmental protection agency thank you sorry I I apologize if I messed up your uh the flow your thoughts there no all good all good um yeah a lot of pressure put on Pennsylvania from the Environmental Protection Agency about the strategies outlined to to address some nutrient sediment pollution you're absolutely right Alison and I think that um I think Pennsylvania's from from what I have seen in my time working here has taken that really seriously and put a tremendous amount of effort into supporting the local partners again getting down to the scale where restoration happens which is project by project and stream by stream I think that that's really like that's really a a commitment to the local communities and the bay will you know will recover in time if we focus on a stream at a time and so um so you talked about um you had asked about how do you um how do you shift that perspective from you know that it's almost like a legacy of that negative communication.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah that's true you know several years ago but it's so interesting to me now because through the work of the Lancaster Clean Water Partners for example and and some of our partners working in central Pennsylvania as well now it's like the fingers being pointed as that's what we want you to do.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: We want you to follow what they're doing in Lancaster because you all are starting to figure it out right the whole Watershed Act in Maryland is a really good example of that.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was passed uh earlier this spring and it and it references and and um was inspired by the work that that our organizations are doing together you know restoring small streams you know one by one and I think that that's really been a turning point but I do think that you know there will be this legacy of that of that negative communication around Pennsylvania and the way that we turn it around is just to continue to make progress in the way that we're doing I think that stream monitoring is a huge part of it.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean the bugs and fish coming back is kind of undeniable.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: So we'll just continue to work hard and to show that progress in ways that are going to be meaningful to everybody that's involved.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I'm I can I know the answer potentially to this question because you keep talking about monitoring and finding bugs and fish.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_04: But how do you like to have fun with your growing team oh man we were just talking this morning about doing a mini golf day um yeah I think it's I think it's spending just time to get to know each other um and make like understanding how important it is to recognize each other as whole people right yeah like we we have important work we have hard work that we're faced with every single day you know saving the planet right it's it's uh it's a heavy burden that we feel even doing our own small part but I think that um I think that recognizing that we're complete people with with our own interests and our own families and things that like we all have slightly different motivations in this field and just trying to spend time to understand that get to know each other outside of work um we went roller skating a few months ago we've done some fishing days you know people really taking the time and being vulnerable and sharing about themselves I think is is just so important these relationships that we've established you know if you stay in restoration and conservation in the Chesapeake Bay watershed you're gonna have these relationships likely for the rest of your professional career if not the rest of your life no matter which organization or agency someone goes to eventually you're still going to know each other and you think that taking the time to have fun together to take breaks from the hard work to support each other is just so important.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds like super fun.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_04: Ken I don't know what you'd do to me if I said we were going roller skating though it has been a long time well I don't know that everybody on the team would want to go to would want to go again but I know there are a few people that really enjoyed it.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_06: I'll take you some time Alison if Ken doesn't want to go so how'd you break your hip Ken well it's a long story um it was a work related event.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my God here sign this waiver we've come come to my favorite part of the show and that is trivia.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_06: I am going to do something a little bit different than I normally do uh Carly I know with your work with the Chesapeake and following a mostly vegan diet a little trivia in and of itself there I have two different quizzes and I'll let you pick which one you want the it is either Chesapeake trivia or medicinal plants native to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_06: Let's try Chesapeake trivia all righty here we go the Chesapeake Bay's name comes from the Algonquian word Chesapeakeok which means what oh I wish I knew what it was and now you will it's Village at a big river village at a big river interesting I don't know that I knew that at all Ken now you can stump your friends the bay's main stem stretches 189 miles from Havertrace Maryland to what Virginia City is it Norfolk it is indeed Norfolk the Bay's deepest part is over 170 feet deep and that area is called what that is called a hole yeah good job what is the bay's average depth is it seven feet it's twenty one feet it's the average over the whole thing yeah so finally name three bay tributary rivers okay that I can do how about the Potomac Susquehanna and the James yes very good good job on that trivia she threw trivia in during the conversation as well she was like just in case you know 64000 square miles guessed guessed after my own heart you know well that is our show thank you so much Carly for for coming on and uh and telling us what you're up to and uh what the Chesapeake Conservancy is up to and just you know chatting with us it's been fun.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks Ken thanks Allison as always great to speak with you both Carly thanks so much for joining us and all that you are doing for the Chesapeake and for Lancaster absolutely absolutely look looking forward to our continued work together.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_06: You guys have a great rest of your day well that is our show we will be back in just a couple of weeks in the meantime take care cleanwater conversations is brought to you by Lancaster Cleanwater Partners if you have comments or suggestions on the show topics please contact us at infol at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners dot com.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you for listening