5 Lessons Learned While Working With the Sierra Club
Gabbie Buendia and Emily Rau are scholars in the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (DDCSP) at the University of Michigan’s
School for the Environment and Sustainability and are working for the Sierra
Club as Great Lakes Program interns for the Summer 2018. DDCSP is a two-year,
fully-funded research and internship program for undergraduate students
interested in conservation and environmental justice. Gabbie is from Orlando, Fla.,
and will be a senior at Rollins College majoring in Environmental Studies and
minoring in Women and Gender Studies. Emily is from Oak Creek, Wis., and will
be a senior at University of Wisconsin-Madison majoring in Environmental
Sciences with a certificate in Sustainability.
Our main focus this summer was working with the Rain Gardens to the Rescue program. This program teaches interested Detroit
residents about the benefits and construction of rain gardens. Once residents
graduate from the program, Friends of the Rouge and Sierra Club assist them in
the creation of their own garden. After three years of training residents
through these workshops, the goal is to create a secondary level program. This
new program will train original program graduates to install rain gardens for other
residents. To support the creation of this new program, we have been compiling
evidence to help validate its need. In order to familiarize ourselves with this
issue, we conducted market research on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
The market research evaluated the potential of the GSI workforce in Detroit.
The GSI workforce includes the installment and maintenance of rain gardens that
program graduates would be involved in. We found that the job market can be accessible
and profitable for many Detroit residents.
Overall, this summer was filled with new experiences that
have challenged us to learn new skills and have shown us the true beauty of
Detroit. From the beginning of our research to our last measurement taken in
the field, we have learned a number of lessons about green stormwater
infrastructure, making change in the community, and conducting effective
collaboration. Below are just five of the lessons learned
this summer that will have a lasting impact on us:
1. Rain gardens are most effective within a larger
network of green stormwater infrastructure. Rain gardens may look small, but
their impact can be big when paired with other green infrastructure all
throughout the city. Rain gardens are cost effective and low maintenance,
making them an ideal supplement for stormwater management. Additionally, rain
gardens add beauty to the landscape, bringing native plants back to the area
and removing pollutants from water. All of which leads us to our next lesson learned...
2. Fostering a sense of place and community improves the
health of the environment. The Rain Gardens to the Rescue program gives
Detroiters autonomy in beautifying their yards and pride in the landscapes that
they have created. We met many residents that were proud of their beautiful
rain gardens and excited about seeing more of them around the city. It is with
this kind of enthusiasm that the strong networks of green stormwater
infrastructure discussed above can thrive.
3. Water safety and security presents unique issues to
cities all over the country. Although we have spent this summer learning about
the Great Lakes water system, many of the issues and concerns are familiar. Among
many factors, the future of Detroit’s water is threatened by pollution,
invasive species, algal blooms, and poor infrastructure. These problems echo
all throughout America. We aim to take the information and strategies on water
safety that we learned in Detroit back to our hometowns.
4. Change requires collaboration. We went to many
meetings this summer and witnessed many different working groups in action.
Through it all, we have learned that these meetings and discussions are
necessary for real, inclusive impact. Without collaboration, the distinct needs
of the city, community organizations, and individual residents cannot be fully
incorporated into meaningful plans for change.
5. Non-profit work requires versatility and flexibility.
Our work this summer has taken us to places and introduced us to people that we
would never thought we would be interacting with. This includes a visit to an
engineering lab where we built a water sensor from scratch and a talk with a
librarian about how to conduct market research. Although we did not have
experience with many of the topics we encountered, being enthusiastic about
learning made the process easier and more beneficial to everyone in the long
run.
