Immigrant fosters environmental stewardship in new home

Eva-Maria Schwarz says the story of what led her to take personal responsibility for the health of the St. Johns River starts in a time and place far from the river’s peaceful banks.

On Jan. 21, 1945, Schwarz fled her childhood home along the Oder River in East Germany as Nazi and Soviet forces prepared to clash there in the closing months of World War II.

She was airlifted from Soviet Germany a few years later. Schwarz came to the United States and started a family, always telling her children about the snow-white sands of the Oder. She says her memories of the river were intertwined with an innocent youth that ended on that cold and terrifying January day. She even moved to her present-day home along the St. Johns River in 1987 because it reminded her of the Oder.

After 45 years away from Germany, Schwarz revisited the river she remembered. She found that war had obliterated the town, which nature then replaced with wildflowers, and she found that pollution had stained the Oder River, which nature hadn’t had a chance to repair.

“That day I made a promise,” says Schwarz. “I promised that the St. Johns River shall not die.”

She had always believed the river was important, but the experience gave her new vigor. She jumped right in, adopting Mandarin Park and a mile of the St. Johns River, which she cleans of debris twice a year with help recruited from her neighbors.

Schwarz became a board member of the Stewards of the St. Johns River. She worked with the environmental group for nine years, even starting a youth group called the Young Stewards.

“I realized that we need to get the word out, because a lot of people don’t know that the river’s in trouble,” she says, referring to the stormwater runoff, wastewater discharges and agricultural runoff that threaten the health of the St. Johns River.

Schwarz learned about the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Watershed Action Volunteer (WAV) Program in 1995 and “had to get involved,” she says, and has increased her involvement steadily ever since.

Her home is a testament to water resource protection. Every week she sits at a workplace in her backyard made from salvaged wood and tests water quality for the WAV Program where the river laps up to her property.

Schwarz checks water clarity and dissolved oxygen. These factors provide warning signs against algal blooms, which are often caused by runoff in the form of fertilizers from lawns in urban areas and from agricultural and dairy farms. She also measures salinity and the level of acidity of the water. She does this while watching wild birds nest in the native Florida vegetation she lets grow along the waterfront.

“It’s so beautiful,” she says reverently.

Beyond this vegetation is a pier that extends to where the grass beds in the river start. She didn’t want it longer because she knew the pier would kill the grasses by blocking sunlight. She maintains a rain gauge on the pier to track rainfall for the WAV Program.

Schwarz’s commitment does not end at the water’s edge, however. When she sees invasive vegetation in the river, she goes by canoe and pulls it out. If she sees trash in the river, she'll do what she can to get it out; she keeps a rake handy for this purpose.

Her favorite place to be, however, is out in the community doing presentations as a WAV volunteer and sharing her love for Florida’s water resources with others. She talks to groups at junior, middle and high schools — indeed, anyone who will listen — about threats to local waterways and how each individual can make a difference.

Her enthusiasm is contagious as she holds a bottle of water in the air and helps children understand that it isn’t just a bottle of water, it’s a “bottle of life.” She smiles as students begin to understand that it’s up to them to protect this vital resource.

“To be in front of a classroom and have the children following along with me, it’s amazing,” she says, “and if I've reached just one person, my life will not have been in vain.”

Outside the WAV Program, Schwarz keeps herself just as busy. With her seven children — all of them with a love for their environment — fully grown, she manages her husband’s psychiatry office.

All said, Schwarz is many things. She is a mother, a worker, an immigrant with a lifetime of experience in her laugh, and more. But beyond all else, she is a living example of responsible environmental stewardship.

 

Volunteer program opens doors worldwide

MELBOURNE — Cassie McHugh’s love of biology started in Sebastian Inlet and will lead her across the Atlantic Ocean this fall.

When Cassie was accepted to one of the world’s premier biology programsat England’s Oxford University this year, she attributed it to her experience as a St. Johns River Water Management District volunteer.

Cassie joined the District’s Watershed Action Volunteer (WAV) Program as a high school freshman. She received training in submersed aquatic vegetation monitoring, and spent two years wading through the Indian River Lagoon surveying seagrass beds in her free time.

The WAV Program matches willing volunteers of all ages with important activities indoors and out. This allows people to help protect and restore their communities' water resources.

Cassie says this experience not only impressed college interviewers, but fed her passion for natural sciences as well. She came in contact with sea squirts and stingrays. She was even there when scientists identified the invasive Australian spotted jellyfish in the Banana River.

“Every time I went out there, it was something new and different,” she says.

Her sophomore year, Cassie did a science fair project on Caulerpa brachypus. She explained that this is a type of exotic algae in the lagoon that may threaten its health. Her project won first place, going on to place sixth in the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair.

“I learned that there’s nothing in the world like going out there in the field,” says Cassie. “I just loved it so much that I want to do this for the rest of my life.”

Lauren Hall, the District environmental scientist who worked with Cassie, says she was a top-notch volunteer. Hall says she’s seen the simple experience of working in the field open eyes and doors for many student volunteers.

“It’s always nice to see when the District can make such a great impression on young minds,” says Hall.

Cassie’s mother, Devin McHugh, has “no doubt in (her) mind” that her daughter’s commitment to volunteering spoke volumes to university interviewers. Cassie says it came up in interviews with most universities she spoke with.

“I think her early experience spending two years working with biologists and loving what she did was a big bonus in the interview,” says McHugh. “It makes me really believe in the importance of volunteer programs like this.”

Cassie flew to New York for the Oxford interview. The school only talked to 14 people from North America for acceptance into the program. It only accepts 100 students every year worldwide.

Cassie wants to pursue either biomedical research or gene therapy, she says. She recommends the WAV Program for anyone, young or old, considering a future in biology.

“It was difficult and tiring at the end of the day, but it was so much fun,” she says. “And now I see how much I learned from it.”

 

Volunteers watch for subtle clues to river’s health

CLAY COUNTY — For volunteer Barbara Beyerl, it’s what’s beneath the surface that counts.

Off of Scratch Ankle Road, along the St. Johns River south of Green Cove Springs, Beyerl looks out over the St. Johns River.

“It’s one of those places you go to and want to hang out all day,” says Beyerl.

She was there with the Watershed Action Volunteer (WAV) Program. Several times a year, she comes out to help monitor submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). These grassbeds run for hundreds of miles along the river’s shore. They provide valuable clues about the health of the river.

Jennifer Sagan led the team into the water. A professional biologist, Sagan has coordinated SAV monitoring in the St. Johns River since 1998. She is a contractor with the St. Johns River Water Management District.

WAV Program volunteers have proven indispensable to Sagan’s monitoring efforts.

“I could not collect all of the data alone,” says Sagan, adding that she visits sites from Jacksonville to Palatka, areas that are part of the St. Johns River’s lower basin. Most sites are surveyed quarterly, and one monthly.

As of April, WAVs have provided 2,800 hours to the program since Sagan began, an average of 400 hours a year.

This is in addition to ongoing seagrass monitoring efforts in the Indian River Lagoon. Carole McCauley, Brevard County WAV coordinator, facilitates volunteer efforts there.

In the water

Sagan and the volunteers begin their task by marking transects with survey tapes. This delineates the portion of the study area to be monitored, allowing the location to be accurately surveyed.

Some WAVs use a meter stick to measure the water depth and plant height every few feet. Others carefully record the identity and quantity of each plant, as well as observations about the sediment and any creatures or algae that are seen.

Sagan trains WAVs to make accurate observations, provides them with a field guide and helps them identify plant species.

“It only takes about five minutes to get someone up to speed to record the data,” she says. “A few elite volunteers also learn how to collect the data. Beyerl is one of those special few.”

Beyerl says she was surprised how quickly she learned to identify the plants when she began volunteering.

“At first I was afraid to walk in the water and had a hard time telling the plants apart,” says Beyerl. “But I could recognize the plants by my fourth or fifth trip, and now I know all the plants on the list by sight.”

A healthy SAV bed is dominated by Vallisneria americana, or eelgrass. These long, green grasses have flat, tape-like leaves. Other natives include water naiad and widgeon grass.

Hydrilla, on the other hand, is bad news. With slender, pointy, rough-edged leaves, this exotic can grow out of control and displace native vegetation.

A small ecosystem

Within these grassbeds thrives a micro-community, providing food and habitat for insects, crabs, and fish and manatees. Grassbeds add dissolved oxygen to the water, which aquatic animals need to survive.

“Ask any fisherman about the importance of eelgrass when trying to catch a bass,” says Sagan.

They also act as “canaries in the coal mine,” as their health is indicative of the health of the river.

“We monitor SAV because if grassbed communities begin to decline, many aquatic organisms may also begin to decline,” says Sagan.

A decline in a SAV bed is most likely due to poor water quality conditions that prevent light from reaching the plants. Other conditions also affect the growth of SAV.

Beyerl says it makes her think about how her actions affect the river. “It makes you feel really guilty when you see the effect of pollution, especially excess nutrients like fertilizer.”

Monitoring is a small but important part of a larger effort, according to Sagan. As volunteers survey SAV and the District monitors water quality, a picture emerges of the river’s overall health, and what must be done to protect it.

 

A lady with a mission

PALM COAST — Rachel Williams and her husband, Amos, spend innumerable hours in their backyard enlivening onions, peppers, bananas and other fruits, vegetables and flowers. Rachel also goes into the community and plants seeds of a different kind.

Rachel is a Watershed Action Volunteer (WAV), spreading the word about the resource that means most to her as a gardener: water. She spends an hour each day encouraging others in her Palm Coast neighborhood to help protect that resource.

With a purposeful gait, Williams crisscrosses her neighborhood. In her backyard, her tools include gloves and a spade; but on the road, she wears an orange vest and carries a tube of water-resistant glue.

Whenever she comes across a storm drain, Williams glues a marker to it that says “Let only rain down the storm drain.” She does this to educate people that storm drains lead to natural water bodies, so pollutants allowed into drains can impact water quality.

“People will come out and ask me what I’m doing,” she says. “I tell them that we live in a beautiful city, and we have to protect the water and nature if we want to keep it that way.”

Nearly every storm drain on the network of streets surrounding her house bears testament to this commitment.

She was well known for this in Boston, where she lived for 23 years before moving to Florida. In addition to sharing a community garden there with her neighbors, which is where she met her husband, she also gladly helped plant and maintain flowers for her whole block.

When Williams moved to Florida three years ago, though, she learned that the rules she knew didn’t apply.

“The weather was completely different and the soil is so sandy,” she says, so she took a Florida gardening course at her local agricultural extension office. She kept going back and is now a Florida master gardener, which is evident in her vivacious landscape.

Williams met Louise Leister at the classes. Leister is the county’s WAV coordinator and helps coordinate classes in Florida-friendly waterwise gardening. Leister explained the WAV Program to Williams and told her about the many volunteer opportunities available.

“In gratitude for what I learned, I had to give something back,” says Williams. “Now I do it for the entertainment, to give to the community and to help the young ones in our neighborhood learn something.”

Leister says that several dedicated volunteers mark storm drains in their communities, and Williams leads the charge.

“She must have 100 miles logged this year, checking them and remarking the ones that are missing or damaged,” says Leister.

Williams also volunteers for cleanup efforts, such as the one held at Gramm Swamp in March, and helps with educational programs at Earth Day and other events.

It’s really not work, according to Williams. “Every day that I’m outside and it’s a nice day, I’m in heaven,” she says, then with a smile, “you should see the onions we have coming up right now.”

For Williams, it appears, gardening is an allegory for life. A few seeds, a little patience and the right knowledge can produce a delectable bounty.

Or, in her words, “If we keep the water clean, the plants will be healthy, the animals will enjoy it and the people will like looking at it.”

 

Watershed Action Volunteer honored

FLAGLER COUNTY — December 2006 was a time of sorrow for a special group of individuals known as Watershed Action Volunteers (WAVs), as one of their own announced retirement.

December is typically a time for celebration and awards for WAVs; however, top volunteer Cecil Elliot announced his retirement from the program this winter. Elliot, a master gardener in Flagler County, has volunteered his time for many years to ensuring his community and future generations have a safe and health environment.

“Volunteers are very important to the St. Johns River Water Management District. The work they do with schools, cleanups and regular water testing plays a vital role in the preservation, restoration and education of their communities,” says Kirby Green, executive director of the District.

According to his peers, Elliot was not your regular volunteer. When a job needed to be done he was the first to be right there in the middle of it, shoulder-high in muck and loving it.

“He was always there when you needed him and always had a smile on his face,” says Louise Leister, WAV coordinator, Flagler County.

Elliot’s passion for the environment acted as a motivator for the many people he worked with during his service as a WAV.

“Elliot is known as a WAV but to his community, various volunteers, organizations and children he is known as a hero. His dedication, service and passion will act as a reminder to future volunteers that one person really can make a difference,” says Eileen Tramontana, District education and volunteer manager.