Environmental Leadership Program
The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary service-learning program housed in the University of Oregon Environmental Studies Program. ELP matches student teams with non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and businesses to address local environmental needs. This was the 12th year that the Environmental Leadership Program had been involved in monitoring and restoration activities in the McKenzie Watershed. Students gain leadership, communication, and professional skills by engaging directly in applied problem-resolution while providing valuable assistance to our community partners.
Team Members
Daniel Baldwin
Daniel is a senior in the Environmental Studies department focusing on social science and public policy. He grew up near fragile river ecosystems in southwest Oregon, and was fortunate to have been raised spending much time in nature. He hopes to channel that appreciation into new restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest after completing his undergraduate studies.
Rachel Berner
With a background in neuroscience research, Rachel has developed skills pertaining to research such as critical thinking, observation, procedural efficiency, and stamina. Rachel enjoys being outdoors for hiking, backpacking, and mushroom foraging. Aside from her passion for biology and ecology, she is excited to see conservation efforts coming to fruition in real-time projects, in our Stream Stewardship program. Her goal is to learn how ecological projects are successfully implemented and monitored, and gain practical skills related to taking consistent and seamless data from the field, removing invasive species, and restoring riparian vegetation.
Frian Mardhani
As an Environmental Studies student, Frian has a great interest in sustainability, conservation, and restoration. In his spare time, Frian loves to watch movies, hang out with friends, enjoy many outdoors activities, and also travel to places he’s never been. His years of studying on environmental-related subjects have taught him the important skills for reciprocation with nature. Frian’s interest in conservation and outdoor activities motivated him to take a wilderness survival class here at the UO. He learned essential skills and emergency procedures such as how to treat hypothermia, read maps, and backpacking. He also learned useful skills from his volunteers and internship hours that can help his team. By working along people from different backgrounds and skills, he hopes to learn new organizing skills, to be a good team member and to gain new skills from other team members. Moreover, Frian knows the ELP project is going to teach him many valuable skills, including procedures in restoration or conservation projects, and to give him experience.
Eric Mullen
Eric is a senior in the Environmental Sciences department at the UO. His main focus is fluvial geomorphology, particularly in the purely physical dynamics which describe how water interacts with Earth’s landscapes, although biology and physical river dynamics are unarguably related. Eric chose to focus in fluvial geomorphology not because of the title, which is undeniably fun to say, but because he genuinely believes that we as a global society need to understand and conserve natural freshwater resources. In his opinion, the Pacific Northwest in particular has the most fascinating hydrology which allows humans, salmon, plants, etc. to thrive. Eric believe global interest regarding responsibility of water resources must start at a somewhat local level, such as an individual watershed. He hopes to gain valuable hands-on experience in the field and the opportunity to learn the mechanics of how project and planning decisions are made.
Jacqueline Vasquez
Jacqueline was born and spent her first 18 years in Orange, CA, but would like t
o think she was raised in Eugene, OR. As an Environmental Science (ESCI) student, Jacqueline is incredibly passionate about learning as much about restoration and field methods as possible. Her recent volunteer work with the Walama Restoration Project provided introductory hands-on knowledge regarding the removal of invasive species using non-chemical methods. Meanwhile, her education in ESCI with a concentration in life sciences has provided more information in the ecology, biodiversity, biology, chemistry, and geology of our study sites. After graduating from UO, Jacqueline will teach high school chemistry in South Louisiana with Teach for America. She hopes to continue her conservation science work after her teaching commitment is finished.
Natasha Wibawa
Natasha is an international student from Indonesia and is a senior majoring in General Social Science. Unlike her other teammates, Natasha does not have a lot of background in science since Environmental Studies is just her minor. However, she does have experience working with nonprofits doing volunteer work, including invasive species removal. Natasha is very excited about learning and understanding the methods of monitoring and then applying these methods in her work. She has never done anything like this before and is elated. Natasha is also very thrilled to be working together with her teammates on this project and learning new things from them.
Project Manager
Euell Macke
Euell is an avid ecologist who has worked in many field positions at sites such as the Great Basin, Argentina, the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Galapagos, and Honduras. He focuses his current work on cultural perspectives relating to ecological issues and he finds activism avenues through art and conservation biology.
Community Partners
Formed in 1989, the McKenzie River Trust is a nonprofit land trust that aims to protect habitat and lands in the McKenzie basin. Later in 2000 they expanded their service areas to also protect the watersheds of the Long Tom, Upper Willamette, Coast and Middle Forks of the Willamette, Umpqua, Siuslaw, and coastal streams and lakes from Reedsport to Yachats. The McKenzie River Trust currently protects and owns over 2,000 acres of land in western Oregon and these lands are managed by the Trust for clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, and productive natural landscapes.
The McKenzie Watershed Council consists of stakeholder volunteers, which they refer to as Partners, representing diverse stakeholders and varying interests across the watershed. These include representatives of commercial, recreational, community, conservation, local, state, and federal interests, as well as agricultural and sand/gravel commercial interests. The McKenzie Watershed Council focuses on restoration and enhancement of the McKenzie River and they involve community members through outreach and educational programs.
The U.S. Forest Service is a multi-faceted agency that manages and protects 154 national forests and 20 grasslands in 44 states and Puerto Rico by promoting sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation internationally. Their mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The U.S. Forest Service augments their work through partnerships with public and private agencies that help plant trees, improve trails, educate the public, and improve conditions in wildland/urban interfaces and rural areas, just to name a few.
Acknowledgements
Peg Boulay
Co-Director of the Environmental Leadership Program and coordinator of the Conservation Science in Action projects. She provided our team with invaluable instructional and supplemental information, as well as technical support in the field. Additionally, Peg provided our team with numerous opportunities to gain hands-on experience collecting professional field data. She also led workshops which further strengthened our professional skills.
Jared Weybright
Jared is Projects Coordinator for the McKenzie Watershed Council. He has done considerable work to plan and implement many restoration and conservation projects around the McKenzie River, including both sites visited by our 2016 Stream Stewardship team. Jared was very helpful during our work at Berggren Watershed Conservation Area, visiting us in the field to ensure we were properly following monitoring protocols.
Kate Meyer
Kate is a Fish Biologist for the U.S. Forest Service in the McKenzie River Ranger District. She adapted a federal monitoring survey protocol to fit our side channel floodplain surveying in Deer Creek as well as helped us gain a better understanding of our protocols in the field.
Euell Macke
Graduate student in the Environmental Studies Department, Euell oversaw each team meeting and field day over the course of our restoration efforts. He aided in identifying plants in addition to lending support throughout our monitoring work. Without such a dedicated project manager, our team would not be as coherent and successful in reaching our goals.
This project was made possible by the generous support of a private donor.