LEEF Speaker Series: Building Communities that Conserve Wetlands

The partnership of scientists with educators is so important for improving the environmental literacy of a community. But what does that partnership look like? As both a scientist and educator, Rebecca has been working for the past seven years to develop a template for involving the public in conservation research. Coastal Plains Institute’s research project to repatriate striped newts back to Apalachicola National Forest wetlands provides a unique opportunity for citizens to witness, and participate in, species and habitat restoration and recovery. Using the infrastructure put in place by this project, she has invited school groups and community organizations to participate in scientific data collection and to learn experientially within the longleaf pine sandhill ecosystem and she has developed a long-term ephemeral wetland monitoring program through which citizens are trained in amphibian identification and sampling protocol, and charged with monitoring their adopted wetland at least twice a year. Rebecca will discuss the successes and challenges of these programs (especially now during a pandemic!) and the many lessons she has learned along the way.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

Rebecca Means is an ecologist and science educator with a passion for backpacking, travel, and food. She has a B.S. degree in both Wildlife Ecology and Biology from Virginia Tech and an M.S. degree in Forestry from Texas A&M. As Director of the Coastal Plains Institute, Rebecca has worked with wildlife ranging from fire ants to the Florida panther but her expertise is with the amphibians that inhabit temporary wetlands. Her current focus is involving the public in conservation and research efforts through citizen science training and research site field trips.