Avalonia eTrails: Semester wrap up

A note from Beth: This has been a super year with the students of the Goodwin Niering Center for the Environment. Their projects were diverse and energetic. We got some great deliverables, from an amazing Barberry harvest to 1000 likes on Facebook. I always learn so much from these students and their energy and enthusiasm gives me hope for the future. I hope you enjoyed hearing from them as well.

by Alan Lau

As the spring semester comes to an end, all of the sophomores at GNCE have enjoyed the time spent collaborating with the Avalonia team.

One day Emma Brooks and Julia Neumann ‘20 went on a boundary walk of the Moore Woodlands in Mystic with longtime volunteer Joellen Anderson. They were very lucky to also have Margot Greener, who is a part of the family that originally donated the property, accompany them. Boundary walks are important to make sure that the property isn't being encroached upon and that the wishes of the original landowners are being upheld. Each property should be walked at least once a year (which is a huge undertaking). Joellen had handheld GPS units with the layout of the preserve loaded up so they could follow the boundary all the way around. One way surveyors indicate boundaries is by creating drill holes in stationary rocks as permanent markers. As the day went on, they did their best to pick up some trash as they went but mostly just tried to keep up with Joellen's fiery pace. She made sure to educate them with lessons in history, ecology, local lore, and land conservancy. It was an absolutely beautiful day and a great reason to get outside and help Avalonia.

While we have some students working outside on the land, one student, Haruko Tateyama, has been researching the history of that land. Haruko has been working on a history project that could potentially be used for newsletters and archived on the website. As of now, she has conducted research on Pine Swamp and Avery Preserve both in Ledyard. She also interviewed Ms. Nancy Avery in the course of her research for the Avery Preserve. Furthermore, she will be working on condensing earlier documentation done by past GNCE scholars on Perry Natural Area and Pequotsepos Brook Preserve. All of these properties have great trails and are open for exploration-check the website for more information.

Bailey Aust and Sarah Stephanset up outreach tables at the Stonington Farmers’ Market and at the Mystic Aquarium Earth Day event. They did a great job informing people about Avalonia and even recruited some new members.

Yiyan Ma is working on getting some elementary students out onto a preserve to enjoy the trails and introduce them to Hike and Seek.

Last but not least, the two masterminds that have been running social media for Avalonia this past couple of months are none other than our Marcus Vinicius Pinto Pereira Jr. and Jennifer Rojas, both class of 20’. They have been working on social media outreach for Avalonia, specifically on Facebook. Their objective has been to analyze weekly posts and see which kinds of posts generate more attraction from the pages’ followers. Their goal was to get 1000 likes on Facebook and they achieved that on May 2. They will continue to post until their semester is done. Hopefully Maureen Dewire, Chair of the Communications Committee who has been mentoring them, will be left with information on which types of posts are the most productive. This will benefit Avalonia greatly in the long run because outreach is one of the most important aspects when dealing with non-profit organizations like Avalonia which relies on its volunteers and members.

In conclusion, it has been a wonderful semester for all of us sophomores. Time has flown by so quickly; it feels like I met Beth for the first time yesterday, but it has been several months. As we move forward in our personal lives, we often have a tendency to take the smallest things for granted. Therefore, on behalf of all the sophomores of the GNCE class of 2020 I would like to thank all of the amazing teachers like Beth Sullivan, Jennifer Pagach, and all the mentors who have guided us on this wonderful journey.