Group Restores More Than Wetlands

The Watsonville Wetlands Watch took over 1200 students on trips into local wetlands in 2011, is restoring more than 1000 acres of compromised land to its natural state and operates an education and resource center on Pajaro Valley High School’s campus. The group does all this with a small staff.

“We have all this amazing amount of work that we’re doing but we don’t have actually very many staff members. So we rely very heavily on volunteers,” said Kathy Fieberling, the organization’s volunteer coordinator.  “We just couldn’t do what we’re doing without our volunteers.”

Volunteers do everything from work at the Wetlands Watch greenhouse or library to becoming a docent and leading field trips and wetlands tours. This month, the 2012 docent training program gets underway. Over the seven-week course, volunteers attend classroom sessions on Wednesday nights and then head out to the field for a few hours on Saturday mornings. The docent program provides comprehensive training so people do not need to know about the local wetlands to take part.

“In our docent training program we basically take volunteers, and many of them they know nothing about the wetlands, they know nothing about science, nature or anything like that. They don’t need to know,” said Fieberling. “We take them on tours of the wetlands we teach them about the ecology of the wetlands; birds, the plants and animals and the restoration of the wetlands and why the wetlands are so important.”

“It’s a first class training with wonderful resource people who know the birds, the hydrology of the sloughs, who know about the environment,” said Joan Rose, a docent for the last five years. “You really have a contact to the earth and planet and environment right here where you are.”

Rose is one of the docents who regularly works with local Pajaro Valley students during field trips where they have the opportunity to spot local birds, learn about water quality, wetlands restoration, and evaluating the habit for the best places for animals to find food and shelter.

“The kids are just wonderful. They’re so enthusiastic and excited about this,” said Rose.

The experience with the students was actually something of an unexpected benefit for Rose who was drawn to the group for its environmental mission.

“I thought I was joining an environmental group,” said Rose. “What gets me even more excited is that we’re building community leaders for the future and we’re using the environment to do it.”

The investment in the Watsonville community, kids and the environment also brings a personal return.

“We get so much reward for doing that,” said Rose. “It’s personal satisfaction. It’s a feeling of giving and it’s very interesting. Other than that there’s no reason to do it.”