Bosque School student discussing her poster on students’ relationships to snakes
On Tuesday, March 1st, 2016 BEMP held its annual Crawford Symposium. It was an incredible night of sharing, learning, and inspiration. Students of all ages presented posters on topics ranging from “Why the Love BEMP!” (presented by the Belen Family School with presenters as young as 8 years old!) to graduate students showcasing their work regarding episodic drying events of the Rio Grande river in New Mexico.
The speakers were dynamic, enthusiastic, and demonstrated the passion and commitment learners of all ages have for the Middle Rio Grande and its beloved bosque. Lauren and Grace, of Bosque School, talked about their continuation of a cottonwood caging project (to protect the trees from beaver herbivory) that started over 16 years ago with another BEMP and Bosque School alum, Thomas Nichols. CB, current UNM fine arts student, showed her sustainable art puzzle of the changing river channels and Yasmina of Amy Biehl School highlighted her research on upland shrubs encroaching into the bosque’s riparian ecosystem.
BEMP Staff Kim Fike and Sean O’Neill with Rio Rancho Cyber Academy students
Many high school students spoke eloquently about their year-long research projects and three students (Caramen, Kinsey, and JoJo) from Rio Rancho Cyber Academy wowed the audience with both their poise and the quantity of Personal Care Products and artificial sweetener they found in river sampling above and below Albuquerque’s waste-water treatment plant.
AIMS students present about their weather station programming project
A number of BEMP scientists and professionals spoke about what BEMP has found in terms of arthropod communities of the bosque and fuel loading and fire potential in the bosque. Rowan Converse, formerly of BEMP, presented her research about the astounding number of BEMP interns that go on to become professionals in the natural sciences, environmental activism, or education, 75% claiming that they did so based on their encouraging experience with BEMP. Cameron Weber presented her master’s thesis findings about the usability of BEMP data by water and land managers, noting that the fact that BEMP data is collected by citizen scientists, is not a barrier to its usability. BEMP staff is energized by her findings that BEMP data can be more usable to land managers and policy makers with additional analysis and timely reports. Jennifer Rutgers of UNM’s Department of Biology discussed the importance of biological soil crusts at the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research site and BEMP looks forward to collaborating with her on future monitoring projects. Barbara Garrity, former Executive Director of Environmental Educators of New Mexico, celebrated the incredible success the Environmental Education Memorial which passed all committees and both houses of the New Mexico government without a single “No” vote! Congratulations to Barbara, retired teacher Molly Madden and the Los Lunas 4th graders that courageously testified to our representatives. Well done!
Keynote Speaker: Writer Laura Paskus
Laura Paskus presented an inspirational, humorous, and galvanizing keynote address to the attendees about how we need the kind of scientists BEMP is ushering toward the future. She said that BEMP is doing the work of the curious and the steadfast. But this work is getting more challenging, because the science and the research produced by scientists, is increasingly politicized. She noted that the voices of scientist are so important in bringing knowledge to the public in order to “set the record straight with facts and data.” She ended with a wonderful nod to BEMP’s place-based mission. Laura said: “to love a place means sustaining it and building a relationship to that place.” We hope to continue in this work in the next year – welcoming more and more students and future environmental stewards to the bosque through science and exploration.
Gary Goodman, Cebrin Goodman Youth, Leadership, and the Environment Project
BEMP was thrilled to honor four individuals outside the BEMP staff that have been working with BEMP for over 10 years! Molly Madden, retired teacher from Rio Grande Elementary School has been working with BEMP at the Belen field site for 17 years and now does educational programming at the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area. Delphine Baca is still working at Rio Grande Elementary School, teaching 2nd grade and has been a long-time monthly monitoring teacher for BEMP, also in Belen. Mary Erwin, middle school science teacher at Wilson Middle School, has been monitoring and working with BEMP for over 10 years, first at Bandelier Elementary School and then she continued to work with BEMP when she switched to Wilson. We’re thrilled to have her and her students monitoring one of our oldest BEMP sites at the Rio Grande Nature Center. And finally, Phil Tonne has been doing botany surveys for BEMP for 10 years and we would not have the robust vegetation data set we have without his hard work and love of the bosque. Thank you so very much to all our dedicated and long-time BEMP enthusiasts.
BEMP was overwhelmed by the community’s support on Tuesday night and happy to see this type of event so well-attended by bosque-lovers of all ages. We look forward to seeing familiar and new faces at future BEMP events.