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What Drives Scientists to Protect Clean Water? Stroud Water Research Center · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Season five of Cleanwater Conversations is sponsored by RKK.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: RKK is a full-service design and engineering firm that provides innovative solutions to complex challenges.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: As a recognized leader in state and municipal stormwater management, MS4 permit compliance, stream restoration, and ecological design services, RKK is ready to deliver community-focused water quality improvements to urban and suburban communities.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: Check out more information about RKK at rkk.com.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, RKK.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: And now on to our show.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: Allison.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: Springtime.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of stuff going on.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: Always.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_04: Celebrations.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: New growth.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_04: Speaking of new growth, congratulations on I'll let you do it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'm allowed to hit the table.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: We yeah, we finally sold our house.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: And that's been amazing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's been since last August.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, a lot of people threw it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the people that bought our house are just lovely, lovely people.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: It was really nice and we're excited to uh to move on past that stage of our life.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: So good.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: New chapter.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_04: New season.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, my new season, I know that you appreciate a good meadow, Ken.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: I do appreciate a good meadow.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: And we have a meadow in our front yard and we only cut it once a year.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm just like waiting for that day when I come home and it's like it's comfortable.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: That'll make my heart drop.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_04: Well it does.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's like that moment because you know that you have to do it so that the new growth can come in, but it's that like stark difference of what I don't have.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: But it's it's awesome because it has been this house for birds and like a sponge effect for the wintertime.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: And so yeah, time for new growth, new seasons.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: You have like kind of like a best management practice right there or BMP.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, does that open it for the rest of the podcast?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: It does actually.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, you have a basically a BMP right there on your on your own property.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: And actually, we've been hearing about so many more people that have been doing it.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_04: Alex on our team has been working with West Lamb Peter Township, and they're working with RK, our sponsor of the season, for a stormwater plan in the neighborhood there.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_04: So oh my gosh, there's so much cool stuff coming out of it.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: They had a public event last night, lots of good stuff that we'll share more of as the season goes on.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know where else you get you're getting a lot of wins and a lot of celebrations is a story map.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: That stuff is now on our website.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's such a great tool for just being able to go down and see different aspects of the successes.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can dive into the details if you like the maps, if you like the infographics.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: So right now there's a story map about the countywide action plan or the CAP is linked on there.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: And that's a shout out to the Lancaster County Conservation District and their leadership on creating that one.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: And then also a story map about our stream delisting strategy and all the different partners and all the different ways that that's showing up in individual places with that strategy as a guiding tool, but oh my gosh, there's data and stories and before and after slider pictures and all kinds of good stuff.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of lots of really cool stuff that our partners are doing.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: So hey, speaking of partners, our full partners meeting is April 14th.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: And it's very exciting.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, April 14th will be in one of those Stream D list and catchments will be in staffer run.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: And something that each of our partners can celebrate.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to keep celebrating this throughout the entire year, is the kind of stoga being named River of the Year.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell It's kind of a big deal.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell It is a very big deal.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's really exciting because we're starting to see already ways that partner organizations are customizing that celebration, like coming up with marketing ideas, events that they want to host with other people, partners, organizations locally, so that they can really lean into the river of the year.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because it really is for all of us.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: It was an opportunity we all got to vote on, and now we get to celebrate.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: And when you see those social media posts, share them.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: Respond to them.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: Celebrate with us.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: Be the megaphone.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: One of the lead partners in our D-Listing work is Droughtwater Research Center.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: And we're excited to welcome part of their team.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_04: They have a really big team, but having some of their research is essential as we pull these stories together.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: And it takes so many different perspectives.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: So today we welcome Dr.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Diana Oviedo Vargas.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: She is an associate research scientist, and Dr.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Melinda Daniels, who is a senior research scientist from Crown Water Research Center.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: And both PhDs in their work.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Check it out.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get to know you just a little bit better with an icebreaker.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: And your icebreaker question is what is your favorite dessert?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: And if have you ever tried to make it yourself?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I I don't particularly like questions about what's your favorite because I always feel like I don't have a favorite in many things, but I do have a favorite dessert.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_06: That worked out well.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_06: My favorite dessert is threshold.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: Good choice.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_06: And I I do try to make it myself.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_06: It's never good.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_06: As good as I was at wish uh, you know, it was.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_06: And I have a very high standard because this is my grandma's recipe and so delicious, but I I have really really never been able to make it as good as she did.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_04: Oh grandma's recipes are special.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_04: How about you, Melinda?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so I am a definite chocolate.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_05: So my favorite dessert is any iteration of the molten chocolate cake.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, I'm there with you.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever tried to make it?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_05: I have, and it is so labor-intensive that it's not worth it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: It takes a while.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: How about you, Alison?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm kind of curious.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: What's your what's your favorite dessert?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Favorite dessert?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh my brain goes straight to creme brulee or yeah, the chocolate lava cakes.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yum.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: You ever try to make creme brulee?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: We've got the little blowtorch and try to get the sugar the exact right crispiness.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds like something I would easily mess up.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: Well, well, I have to try again and make another one.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great way to look at it.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_04: How about you, Ken?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, baklava is actually one of my faves.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: And uh no, there is no way I'm gonna try to make baklava because that's speaking of labor intensive.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: There are too many places to go wrong with that, and I'm not very good in the kitchen to begin with.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: So let me start off with this.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh can you tell us what you do at Stroud?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_06: I am a research scientist here at Stroud.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: Um part of the research team, and my background is in chemistry.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_06: I am a biogeochemist.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_06: That means I study the different chemical substances that you can find in aquatic systems and and basically try to understand why they are there, where they're coming from, how they move through the watershed, where they're going, how they interact with the physical and the biological components of streams and rivers, in that it's that's not necessarily substances or chemical substances that are contaminants when I say that, but uh I also study just the natural substances, chemical substances that are in our streams and rivers just naturally because they're just part of the environment.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: What would be an example of a natural chemical?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_06: Basically anything that you see in the periodic table could be naturally in our aquatic systems because they exist naturally in our soils, in our geologic systems, in the atmosphere.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_06: It just depends on where you are and the conditions and also obviously they're gonna be in different concentrations, some things very abundant and some things in crazy concentrations, but one thing I study uh a natur a natural uh component of the of the aquatic systems is dissolved organic matter, and that is we we here at the Shrout Center we wanna we like to call it the watershed key.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_06: And that's sort of like the result of all of the organic materials that are in the watershed and they percolate and transform and move to the aquatic system.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_06: They make that color.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_06: Sometimes you see this in the in the fall, uh, when the streams and the lakes turn colored, but not necessarily turbid, just clear, but they have this tint which is a result of the the leaves and twigs and soils, um, generating that nice organic material tea in the stream.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_06: Um that's one natural component that I study.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Melinda, how about you?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: What what do you do at Stroud?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_05: I'm also a senior scientist on our team of researchers here at the Stroud Center.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_05: And my specialty area is called fluvial geomorphology, which if you think about the state Latin translation of that, it's literally the study of landforms created by flowing waters.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_05: And so I research how flowing water over the landscape, whether that's surface runoff on hill slopes or water in streams and rivers, transports things and creates landforms in the process of doing that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: So that example that might be hill slope erosion, gully formation, and then once you get into streams and river channels, the actual structure of those streams and river channels and how they change over time in response to what's coming off the waters end.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_04: Melinda, I feel like your brain must always be thinking in time-lapse photography.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you know, that's a really important tool that we do use.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_05: Whether it's uh satellite imagery, uh aerial photography, or literally people taking photographs from the same place on the ground.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: Very high-level jobs that both of you have, very i in some cases way over my head for sure.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: So uh so let's back up then, because I'm curious what led up to that.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Where did each of you grow up?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_05: I grew up all over the United States.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_05: I am uh very unusual in that respect.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I was born in Hawaii.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_05: Uh then we moved to California.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I I tell everyone that I was sort of um imprinted in California culturally.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and bounced around quite a bit within that region, uh, moving frequently until I was in middle school when uh I moved to the East Coast, to the New York City suburbs, and I stayed there through high school and then went off to college and have continued moving ever since for work-related moves.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: So wait, so what brought you to Pennsylvania?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_05: The job.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_05: Uh the opportunity at the Stroud Center brought me to Pennsylvania.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_05: I was a tenured professor at Kansas State University, saw an opportunity to make research a hundred percent of my duties as opposed to a mix of research and teaching, and I took I took that opportunity.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, so you've seen all kinds of different water systems, and I can only imagine the different types of research involved in all of those locations.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Deanna, how about you?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_06: I am from Costa Rica originally and I grew up there.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_06: I did my bachelor's degree at the University of Costa Rica and then moved to the US to go to grad school.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_06: Um I was in Indiana for five years for grad school.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_06: Uh went to Indiana University and then lived also in in North Carolina.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_06: I was a postdoc uh postdoctoral researcher at NC State there for four years and then moved to Pennsylvania also for the opportunity to work at Shroud Center.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_06: That was seven years ago now.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: So what in each of your childhoods brought you to where you are now?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Melinda, I'd imagine that it would have something to do with the geological features of of California, yes?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I think moving a lot has definitely been very influential.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: I've lived in so many different biomes of growing up that I obviously was exposed to a lot of different environmental systems.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_05: But really, I think what made me be a river scientist is spending every summer on the Russian River in Northern California in Sonoma County, and it was really kind of a very much of a refuge for me.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: I I was a river rat as a kid and would go out and fish and canoe and swim in the Russian River and really just took my mind off of what was a very sort of tumultuous upbringing with all those changes and moves and and relocations.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_05: You know, thinking back at at it now as an adult, I think I gravitated towards this field because I've always found security and and joy in in river systems.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's great.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: The connection to the outdoors and the peace and and calmness that water systems can bring is pretty powerful.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: How about you, Deanna?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: What from your childhood brought you where you are now?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I think that, you know, for me it was a similar experience growing up where I had the opportunity to spend a lot of my time um outdoors.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_06: We had a farm in a relatively remote um area in Costa Rica and you know, every weekend we were there and we went out to the river swimming and displaying and that and I don't know what really maybe be interest interested in in environmental sciences exactly, but I think that may have had something to do with it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_06: My family is not necessarily in that kind of like same mindset.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_06: My sisters, you know, like have a completely different preferences or careers and and so I I don't know.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_06: Um but I think that maybe that interaction, that opportunity to be like outdoor may may have had something to do with that.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: So through both your stories, a river runs through it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, geez.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: So true.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a dad, I have a quota.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_04: But Stroud is such an amazing and inspirational and powerful place.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's fascinating to hear that that's what brought both of you together, the notoriety that both of us could have been highly successful and and were highly successful at other types of institutions.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: But the Stroud Center really is kind of like an opportunity to go work for a sink tank in your field.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: Like all we do is stream in river science, and that is such a powerful attraction for a stream or river scientist.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: And and most of our listeners are used to hearing about Stroud through some of our partners like Lamotte Garber.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: He has been on the podcast in the past and he talks a lot about stream side and forested buffers.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so most people know Stroud for that buffer component, but I'm so interested to hear more from you all as representing the science and research side of the organization.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us some about your research and what is the excitement of what you get to do at Stroud that is that opportunity area you're describing.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I mean, we can pick up from uh Lamont's work with riparian buffers as a good example of that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you know, the science team here has done very long-term studies of the effects of riparian buffer establishment on stream ecosystems.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_05: And we're really sort of like the primary source for information on that.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, that body of work has really been able to demonstrate the incredible benefits associated with stream worsted buffers in terms of improving the overall uh ecosystem ecology, lowering the temperature of the water, and enabling uh managers to use that as a tool to buffer against the effects of global warming, for example.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: And then also the research was done on how riparian buffers can mitigate and absorb some of the excess nutrient pollution that comes from agricultural land.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_05: So helping farmers and landowners sort of contain those excess nutrients and prevent them from getting into the waterways in the first place.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think that the Salt Center having the our watershed restoration team or group and the science team for us is an amazing opportunity.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_06: We collaborate a lot and it's kind of like a circular system where we learn from them and vice versa, and um our science help inform their activities in the ground and and then we have feedback, right, from that the implementation of of uh restoration work that they do.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's great to hear how there is such collaboration and part of those opportunities that Stroud presents is really working together for science and restoration.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: So there is that collaborative piece, and we see how how those two things fit together so well.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you were to focus on on your side of that work, uh can you go into a little more detail about that?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_06: Um I guess I can give you an example of a project that you guys are familiar with because you have helped us fund uh that work, but the restoration team had the opportunity to do uh relatively large-scale restoration work or implementation of agricultural best management practices in small watershed in Paradise Township.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_06: And you know which project I'm talking about.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so there, you know, that was I think a good example of this sort of interaction that we have with the restoration team, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_06: So they told us about the project and and it became for us sort of like uh sort of an ideal scenario to study something that is very hard to study for us as as uh Stream and River scientists, and which is the effects of some of these best the implementation of these management practices on on water quality.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_06: It's often difficult to really understand which practices work or when they work or how soon they work.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_06: And many times that's because they are just implemented at a scale that doesn't necessarily affect water quality in a way that we can measure it, um, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_06: Or sometimes we just don't have enough time to see the results of a of a restoration project.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_06: So this was a great opportunity for us because when they told us about the work, we actually, first of all, had time to start collecting some data.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_06: So this project I'm talking about, it's a watershed that is occupied by three farms.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_06: And uh these three farms have been changing a lot of their agricultural practices and have had the implementation of a number of death management practices or BMPs, and they uh all drain into this little tributary of the Pekway Creek, and that was sort of like a perfect scenario for us because there we could actually study the water quality at that site and see how these different BMPs were going to change or not the water quality of the stream, right?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_06: So we have been working with the restoration team through the whole process and have been monitoring water quality at the site.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_06: We had the opportunity to collect pre-restoration data, which is also very hard to do many times because when you know about the project, it's too late sometimes to collect data.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and then we have now over five years of data since the restoration started, uh, which is also very unique because it's really hard to do these long-term studies for us.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_06: So, you know, that I think is a really good example of.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_06: And so then there's a continuous interaction between us and the restoration team and uh the farmers to write, who are the ones um that are allowing us to do the work there.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I think uh there's a really good point you made in there is is the length of time that some of those uh things, especially like uh things like streamside buffers.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, those trees are gonna take like 10 years plus to mature and to really start doing the work that they were put in there to do.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and those are only some of the practices that those farmers in particular have been putting in place.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: So conservation looks like lots of different best management practices, but it also looks like what the farmers need for their own goals, for their own family legacy, and the water quality benefits are part of what I'm so grateful that you and the team at Stroud are able to study along the way.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: And you can use BMP by the way, because she already uh defined that one.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, we're hoping we can be there really uh you know long term and and uh as of now we have six or seven years of data between pre-restoration and during restoration, and uh I hope to have another 10 or 15 years of data on that site.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: A question about that kind of data.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: When you pull so many numbers and so many sources together, how do you translate some of that research for an audience that's not as familiar with it or not as able to digest some of the content that is normal, normal conversation for you all as researchers?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_05: We do collect really large data sets, and they're very complicated data sets with multiple variables, many of which are complicated, like different chemical components and things that the lay public are not used to hearing about.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_05: And so this is where our partnership with the restoration team and also our education team really come into play.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_05: It can help us make sure that our messaging is digestible for everyone, not just other scientists.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_05: And so a lot of those really complicated numbers do get distilled down to much more basic descriptors.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_05: So, for example, uh the project Diana was describing, you know, perhaps they will observe a decline in nitrogen pollution or nitrogen concentration or an increase in the biological diversity of the bugs in the stream.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so we don't you don't always have to hang all of the scientific details on the message.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_05: But we have to make sure it's our duty as objective scientists to make sure we have adequate detailed data to then make those generalizations that are easily understood by the public.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I can see that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we always talk about our list of awesomeness on every show.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: What is awesome right now in yours and Stroud's world?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: What is what would be on your list of awesomeness lately?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_06: I uh will say that in my list of awesomeness right now is a paper we just published.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_06: Uh it was a a project that we have uh been doing over the last three years, and and this paper just came out, and I'm very happy I finally made it out.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_06: Um it was published in scientific reports last week.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_06: Um it's about a project we were doing looking at we were quantifying uh these contaminants called PFAS, which stands for tear and polyfluoral kill substances um or PFAS.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_06: And um the the studies about the contamination of farming soils from the use of biosolids um with PFAS compounds here in Pennsylvania.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: Those are what they call the forever chemicals, right?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's right.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, congratulations on that.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that is awesome.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_04: Melinda, what's on your list of awesomeness?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I think for me, uh the best example recently of awesomeness is the fact that I was able to offer a full-time position to a person we'd had here as the Straud Center uh as an intern for two summers while he was still a student.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_05: And to be able to see someone that you have mentored in the past successfully establish themselves in a career, and and not only that, but be able to come back and work in your lab again as a full-time staff member is just very rewarding as a scientist.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, congratulations.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: Growing capacity and team members, wonderful.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: What is next for you?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: What is next for Strat?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: What's on your goal list?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_05: Well, uh, you know, I'm not gonna lie, this is a very uncertain time for science in the United States.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_05: We are not exempt from that.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_05: My goal is to continue to be able to secure grant funding, to continue doing the work we're doing that we know benefits the people of Pennsylvania and the rest of the country and enable us to continue in our mission to advance freshwater science and freshwater conservation.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_05: But you, Deanna?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_06: Can you just replay what Melinda said?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_06: I think she said it perfectly.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: That will be our our goal.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Do our best and continue to do what what we do.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: Very good.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well then we have come to my favorite part of the show, and that is trivia.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's trivia time.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: I understand that both of you are outdoorsy and both of you like to hike.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I have put together a list that is around hiking at any at any rate.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: So first question is the word hike comes from the English word hike, spelled with a Y, H Y-K-E, which means to walk vigorously.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: Now that original word with the Y, hike, was first used in print when you can give me the century.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: 18, 18 1800.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: That is correct.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_03: Nice job.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: Earl Schaefer.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Earl Schaefer was the first person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in 1948.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: He was a resident of what?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Pennsylvania City.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: I wish we could claim this one, but we can't claim them now.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: Philadelphia.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, sorry.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: He was from York.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: Really, really close to home here.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then he did he uh hiked the entire thing again in 1965 and in 1998.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: How many states does the Appalachian Trail pass through?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give you uh multiple choice here.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is it seven, twelve, fourteen, or nineteen?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's fourteen.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: How many miles of hiking trail are managed by Lancaster Conservancy?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Miles.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'll say between fifty.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're close.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give it to you.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: They have sixty sixty miles of hiking trail.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: And they're adding more every day.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: So that was probably fifty like two minutes ago.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: What I I know they just picked up picked up land in York County.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: So there's, you know, there's probably uh there's probably more hiking trails already.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: So uh of those sixty, how many of those trails are universally accessible?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is it one, two, or three?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, three, yes, yes, three of them are universally accessible.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_03: True or false, according to adventure.com, hiking is the most popular activity in the US, having overtaken running, fishing, and biking, and its popularity is still growing.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that true or false?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: The most popular outdoor activity.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would like it to be true.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: Go with it.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because it is.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's fantastic.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: Now, this one I absolutely do not know because I don't know this game.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: However, the word hiking is worth how many points in a game of Scrabble?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_06: I have never played Scrabble.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_06: No, I yeah, no idea.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my goodness! Ken, I learned something new about you.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna have to play this game as a team.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, sounds good.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: In the meantime, sorry.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, in fairness to you, I did I wouldn't have known it either.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's 14, 14 points.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: What is hiking called in Australia?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hiking has that vast wild area that they have a name for.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Close.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I want to add another one.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: What is hiking called in Costa Rica?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_06: So we actually do not have a verb for that, but we would say hacer or practicar senderismo.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_06: And senderismo senderos would be trails.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it'd be trail.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: And since you obviously got that one right, I'll go ahead and give you the buzzer.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Finally, what is the average hiking speed in miles per hour?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: Two and a half.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: It is two and a half.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: Good job.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: Probably one and a half if you're chasing a toddler or something.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, probably.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Depend depends on how fast the toddler is, really.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, the toddler just does zigzags and walks back and forth.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_04: So in reality, you're only going that fast.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my golly.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's our trivia.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: That is our show.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: Deanna, Melinda, both from Stroud.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: Water Research Center.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: And doing amazing work over there.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for your time in uh talking to us about the amazing work that you do.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you all so much.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for having us.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_03: And we will be back in just a couple of weeks.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: Till then, take care.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_04: Bye, everybody.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: This episode of Clean Water Conversations is sponsored by RKK, Creative Solutions, responsive people.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: And produced by Lancaster Clean Water Partners, striving for clean and clear water by 2040.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you have comments, suggestions for show topics, or are interested in becoming a show sponsor, please contact us at infol at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners.com.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for listening.