T he Leaflet
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WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST Jeanne B. Van Alen President/Executive Director BOARD OF TRUSTEES Elizabeth C. Hucker Chair V. Richard Eales Vice Chair Alice E. Hausmann Vice Chair Mark T. Ledger Treasurer John F. Stoviak Secretary Bryan D. Colket Assistant Secretary
Janice Murdoch Peter S. Strawbridge Matthew E. Taylor Carolyn W. Turner James L. Van Alen II Tana Wall** Jason Weckstein Alejandro Zozaya
Timothy B. Barnard, Esq. L. Clarke Blynn Gary A. Cox William T. Howard George F. Krall, Jr. Leanne McMenamin Collin F. McNeil Elizabeth R. Moran*
The Great Room
For conferences, meeting, lectures, and events.
*Honorary Trustee **Trustee Emeritus
STAFF Todd Alleger Agroecology Project Coordinator Chelsea Allen Rushton Farm Production Manager Sue R. Costello GIS Coordinator Fred de Long Director of Community Farm Program Regan Dohm Conservation Associate Alison Fetterman Bird Conservation Associate Blake Goll Nature Education Coordinator Kathryn Kinkade Gord Director of Rushton Conservation Center Eliza Gowen Community Farm Outreach Assistant Noah Gress Rushton Farm Field Manager
William R. Hartman, Jr. Director of Stewardship Kristen Henwood Associate Director of Stewardship Erik Hetzel Director of Land Protection and Public Grants Lisa Kiziuk Director of Bird Conservation Program Kelsey Lingle Communications Associate Susie MacDonnell Events and PR Coordinator Lauren McGrath Field Study Site and Watershed Coordinator Jodi Spragins Communications and Technology Manager Molly Clark Tracy Rushton Farm Assistant Field & Production Manager
WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST 925 Providence Rd. | Newtown Square, PA 19073 610.353.2562. | LAND@WCTRUST.ORG Willistown Conservation Trust is a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3 of the I.R.S. Code. Donations are tax-deductible. A copy of the official registration and financial information may be obtained from the PA Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, (800) 732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.
The Demonstration Kitchen
To educate visitors about sustainable food systems and with local food, showcasing produce grown at Rushton COVER: Rushton Nature Keepers identify and discuss monarch butterfly caterpillars found
on milkweed growing at Rushton Woods Preserve. Photo by Blake Goll/WCT Staff.
d to inspire cooking n Farm.
Rushton Conservation Center
Opening This Fall Ah, the sweet sounds of Rushton Woods Preserve in late summer. The gentle breezes rustling the goldenrod. The hum of honey bees gathering pollen from the Black-eyed Susans. The giggle of Rushton Nature Keeper kids as they paint wildflower watercolors. And the staccato rat-a-tat-tat of a nail gun as the contractors install the board-and-batten siding on the new Rushton Conservation Center? While construction on the Rushton Conservation Center may have added new and unexpected noises to the summer symphony, those sounds will soon cease, and in their place, Willistown Conservation Trust and our community will gain a new venue for our shared exploration of nature and issues affecting the environment. The Rushton Conservation Center, a 2,800 square foot education building at Rushton Woods Preserve, will bring together all who are interested in nature, the environment, and land conservation. With this space, we will have the opportunity to reach new audiences with our programs, twelve months out of the year, and to explore new facets of conservation. The interior space was designed to foster community engagement and to provide a meeting space for our programs and those of our conservation partners, including local universities like Drexel University, Villanova, and the University of Pennsylvania, whose students and faculty make use of our preserved land as part of our Field Study Site and will now have access to indoor research facilities to augment their fieldwork. A timber-frame gathering room, with a cozy fireplace, has ample space to host lectures and will be outfitted with multi-media capabilities to present films and media-enhanced lectures. Different seating configurations will facilitate a variety of gatherings. A teaching kitchen with a full pantry will enable us to showcase the bounty of Rushton Farm, through culinary classes for both children and adults and farm-to-table dinners that celebrate local food. We will work with members of the community to develop programs for all ages that encourage a deeper, more comprehensive appreciation for nature and the environment and to support our mission of land conservation. We look forward to welcoming you with programming to begin in January 2019.
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Bringing Conservation Science to Life at Westtown
TRUST BIRD INITIATIVES TAKE NEW CURRICULUM
C
an we inspire high school students to care deeply about land conservation while simultaneously teaching them data analysis, geography, and science lessons? Yes. And birds are the powerful hook. The Trust’s leadership in bird conservation has already attracted local involvement of all ages and vastly enriched our knowledge about saving birds, many of which are in serious decline. But now the Trust has become a launchpad for potentially engaging students across the country in understanding the conservation messages embedded in bird study. Thanks to a recent grant to the Trust from the R. James Macaleer Foundation, students at Westtown School will study multiple topics through the exciting lens of the Motus network this fall. Motus is a research network that tracks birds’ movement, and the technology-based nature of the system creates a dynamic platform upon which to build conservation literacy in students. Caitlin Welsh, a Willistown Conservation Trust intern and University of Pennsylvania graduate student, created the new avian learning module that will be piloted at the Westtown School. The effort is Caitlin’s capstone project for her master’s degree in Environmental Studies. Beginning with materials developed by Liza Barney at Bird Studies Canada for grades four through eight, Caitlin and Liza created a program of study suitable for American high school students in grades 9 through 12. The learning module focuses on bird migration ecology and conservation, and emphasizes research and technology used by research collaborators in the Motus network. The organization and progression of activities in the
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curriculum was inspired by Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds Without Borders program for students in grades 7-12. A sampling of the units in the curriculum includes: an introduction to Motus; the perils of migrating bird populations; loss of land and habitat; tracking birds with Motus; calculating distances using Motus data sets; migration mapping and North American geography. Arts-based exercises are designed to promote conservation to other students. Flexibility is built in to the design, enabling teachers to tailor areas of study. Caitlin’s primary challenge was to elevate the learning module for older students and to align it with American educational standards. The interdisciplinary learning module will include data literacy practice, where students are required to translate visual information such as migration paths and patterns into written text and vice versa, fostering growth in key skill areas such as inference and deductive reasoning. TJ Costa, Director of Sustainability at Westtown School, has helped to integrate both the learning module and the installation of a Motus receiving station at the school. The station will generate exciting data from birds migrating through the Westtown School campus and will allow the school community to have a direct impact on bird research by contributing to the Motus data collection. Mariska Batavia, upper school science teacher at Westtown, is a key collaborator, enthusiastically offering the new module to students seeking independent study projects. Following this pilot, Caitlin will refine the curriculum using Mariska’s feedback. In the future, teacher workshops will be hosted at the Trust’s new Rushton Conservation Center to train teachers from other schools to use the new learning module.
School
WING IN A DYNAMIC WHICH PLACES ARE MOST CRITICAL FOR BIRDS’ SURVIVAL?
MOTUS RADIO TELEMETRY TRACKING SYSTEM CAN TELL US Receiving Station Canada
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Motus
United States of America
The Bahamas
Mexico Puerto Rico
Belize
Barbados
Jamaica
Motus High School Curriculum Topics
French Guiana
• Scientific inquiry • Geography Colombia • Avian research and conservationPanama • Loss of land and habitat • Avian migration ecology • Climate change impact on bird • Data analysis and exploration populations • Inference and deductive • Environmental health reasoning • Translating visual information into • Migration mapping text and vice versa • Calculating migration distances • Informational art
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“Birds matter because they give us wings. And because if we save the birds, we will save the world.“ —Pepper Trail, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensic Ornithologist
BELOW: Birds have proven to be a powerful hook to conservation science for high school
students at the Trust’s Rushton Woods Bird Banding Station. High school students are shown here practicing scientific observation skills, recording species, sex, age, and condition of birds captured and released at the banding station. The new high school curriculum to be piloted at Westtown School using Motus as a platform will build upon this experience with dynamic digital data.
HOW CAN MOTUS IMPACT LAND CONSERVATION? The volume and quality of data provided by Motus is revolutionizing avian conservation science. It spotlights the important places necessary for birds’ survival, enabling researchers to pinpoint the greatest threats and prioritize land conservation initiatives. Thanks to funding from various grants and individual donors, Willistown Conservation Trust continues to be instrumental in further developing and promoting the Motus network in the United States. Together with the Northeast Motus Collaboration, it installed the first statewide array of Motus receiving stations across Pennsylvania earlier this year, and is providing training and technical assistance to several other conservation organizations to further expand the network. Motus uses a centralized database managed by Bird Studies Canada which is available to the public, fueling global collaboration. With most of its 550 receiving stations located in eastern North America and South America, and some in Europe, the number of research organizations extending its development and application is growing. Using Motus as a platform for a multidisciplinary learning module (pg. 4) is a great example of the power and collaborative nature of the bird data network. What is its full potential? Still unknown—but Motus is already accelerating the pace of conservation. Read more about land conservation and the Trust’s work to help declining bird populations at wctrust.org/birds.
STAFF AND TRUSTEE NEWS
Movers and Shakers Jason Weckstein PhD, is associate curator in the Department of Ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and associate professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES) at Drexel University. Jason has been involved with the Trust for a number of years as an active member of both the Education and Bird Conservation committees. He has used the Rushton Woods Bird Banding station as a field study site and research resource for his BEES Co-op students. Jason lives in Wynnewood with his wife, Stacey Hoffer Weckstein, and their two boys Benji, age 14, and Jonah, age 12. They love spending time in the outdoors together on adventures camping, hiking, fishing, and exploring nature.
Field Study Site Agreement With Academy of Natural Sciences Is Signed The Memo of Understanding designating the Trust’s focal area as a Field Study Site for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANS) was finalized this summer. The group assembled for the offical signing and celebration included (shown above, left to right) trustees George Krall, Dick Eales, Jim Van Alen; Drexel Professor Donna Murasko, PhD; Trust Executive Director Bonnie Van Alen; Trust Director of Rushton Conservation Center Kat Gord; Drexel Department Head David Velinsky PhD; trustee and Board Chair Beth Hucker; New trustee and Associate Curator of the Department of Ornithology at ANS Jason Weckstein, PhD; Trust Director of Community Farm Program Fred de Long; ANS Director Roland Wall; and President and CEO of ANS Scott Cooper, PhD. FALL 2018 | 7
2018 INTERNS AND CO-OPS
Interns and Co-op students are wor acquiring new skills, and preparing Teagan Aguirre is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, double majoring in Communications of Public Service and History, concentrating in American History. She joined the staff as a Communications and Marketing intern for the summer of 2018. With a background in graphic design and communications, she learned about land conservation and polished her skills while helping tell the many stories about the Trust’s conservation work with social media, web, email, and print. She has been a fantastic asset to the team. This fall she will be traveling to St. Andrews University in Scotland to study for one semester. Teagan has a strong interest in environmental conservation and hopes to become an environmental conservation lawyer. She grew up locally in Lower Merion and graduated from the Agnes Irwin School in 2016. In her free time, she likes to run and travel.
Cooper Schlegel is a senior at Great Valley High School, and has a deep interest in birds, hydroponics, beekeeping, and all things agriculture. He joined the Rushton Farm staff as a summer intern in June, and rotated through all areas of the farm. Cooper has been enormously helpful to the farm staff. An honor roll student, Cooper has expanded his education beyond the confines of the classroom in myriad ways. He attended Agdiscovery Camp at the University of the Virgin Islands where he studied hydroponics and entymology. His interest in hydroponics started after he attended hydroponics camp at Delaware Valley University. Cooper is active in several environmental clubs and volunteers to count mating horseshoe crabs in Slaughter Beach, Delaware. He is also an avid beekeeper and member of the Chester County Beekeeping Association, maintaining several colonies of bees. In his free time Cooper enjoys birding and learned about internship opportunities at Rushton Farm while volunteering at the Rushton Woods Preserve Bird Banding Station. 8 | W I L L I S TO W N C O N S E R VAT I O N T R U S T
king on important projects, to forge their own paths in conservation Prem Trivedi is a sophomore at Drexel University studying Environmental Science. Prem joined the Watershed Protection staff as a co-op student in April, and is focusing his semester project on the impact of serpentine geology on aquatic systems. Prem has become integral to the watershed team and significantly helped the Trust launch this new initiative. During his time with the Watershed Protection Program, he showed great aptitude in creative problem solving a large variety of subjects including engineering solutions to the new EnviroDIY Sensors. With a natural gift for education, Prem was key in developing watershed events with Rushton Nature Keepers. Through his experience at Drexel, Prem has had many opportunities to explore his broad interests, ranging from engineering and design to integrating earth science with his passion for photography. He hopes to move into the world of oceanic research, specifically discovering the strange things you find when you delve deep into the abyss.
Ben Walsh is a senior at Franklin and Marshall College, majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Environmental Studies. Ben joined the farm staff as a summer intern in June, and worked in all areas of the farm from seeding and greenhouse management to cultivation and harvesting. His work on the farm has been enormously helpful. He is an avid runner who competes on the Franklin and Marshall track and field team as a sprinter and mid-distance runner on both the indoor and outdoor teams. He likes to travel and has participated in archaeological field research in Maya ruins in Belize. An avid reader, Ben can sometimes be seen taking a quiet break from the field at Rushton under a tree, reading the musings of Edward Abbey.
There are many ways to remember the Trust in your will. Join the Legacy Society today by including the Trust in your estate plan. No matter the size of your estate, and
regardless of your age, you can support land conservation now and well into the future. Help us ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the same beautiful, natural places that we enjoy today. Contact the Trust at 610-353-2562 land@wctrust.org for more information.
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2018 INTERNS AND CO-OPS
Caitlin Welsh is a University of Pennsylvania Masters of Environmental Studies candidate who returned this year to work with both the Community Farm and Bird Conservation Programs. She works with Agroecology Project Manager Todd Alleger documenting biodiversity throughout Rushton Woods Preserve and is an active member of the Rushton Woods Bird Banding team. She is conducting research and creating a high school curriculum based on the Motus wildlife tracking system. The completed curriculum will be piloted this fall at Westtown School, and submitted as her capstone project for her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more about her curriculum project on page four.
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Anna Willig is a sophomore at Middlebury College who is working towards a degree in conservation biology. Anna joined the Watershed Protection staff in June, and with a strong background in ecology and geosciences, immediately jumped into field work, spending her first day collecting macroinvertebrate samples from Ridley Creek. Last fall Anna wrote a research paper studying the ways in which open space is preserved in Chester County, focusing on the work of land trusts such as Willistown Conservation Trust, which led to her internship. Anna grew up outside of Phoenixville, and graduated from Great Valley High school in 2016. When not working hard in the field, Anna likes to spend her free time hiking with her dogs or going on runs with friends and family.
Made possible with help from
Bob and Carolyn Turners’ generosity gives students and others the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience while furthering their educational and career aspirations in conservation and environmental fields. As paid interns or coops, these talented individuals help further the Trust’s mission by supplementing staff capacity in their respective fields. The extraordinary gift of Bob and Carolyn Turner (shown at right) created the fund in 2015.
KELSEY LINGLE/WCT STAFF
The Bob and Carolyn Turner Fund for Interns and Conservation Associates
BELOW LEFT: Drexel University Co-op student Prem Trivedi helps a budding scientist record a stream observation in his journal at a recent Rushton Nature Keepers event. RIGHT: Prem Trivedi and intern Anna Willig examine larva of aquatic insects taken from the Ridley, Crum, and Darby Creeks. Photos by Blake Goll and Lauren McGrath/WCT Staff.
Interns and Co-ops in Action FALL 2018 | 11
The Leaflet
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID SOUTHEASTERN, PA PERMIT NO. 96
Make a Splash! October 21, 2017*
MARY HUNT DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY
WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST 925 Providence Road Newtown Square, PA 19073
Oct. 20, 2018* Tickets & info
wctrust.org *rain date October 21st
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