Cultivating a Legacy: Reflections on Twelve Wonderful Years with the Ocean County Soil Conservation District

This month’s newsletter marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for me. After more than twelve wonderful years as Education Outreach Coordinator with the Ocean County Soil Conservation District, I will soon be putting down new roots in North Carolina and beginning my next adventure.

At OCSCD, I was very lucky to have a job that never really felt like work. I was always learning, always engaging in new opportunities to teach others what I’ve learned, and continually reflecting, growing and exploring. My job brought wonderful new opportunities to build partnerships – and friendships, and to learn about the vast connections between healthy soil, clean water, native plants, wildlife, and the places we all call home – and help others discover them too! As I prepare to begin a new chapter, I’ve found myself reflecting not only on what was accomplished, but on the countless people who made this journey so meaningful.

When I accepted this position in August 2014, the Education & Outreach program was already grounded in a strong tradition of conservation education, established by Christine Raabe, now OCSCD’s District Director. I was excited to help it grow in new directions by planting the seeds that would create a healthier environment for future generations.

Looking back, I’m amazed by how much was accomplished. Over the past twelve years, more than 320 educational programs, workshops, conferences, and community events were delivered, reaching over 61,000 participants of all ages. Through hurricanes, a global pandemic, virtual learning, and changing priorities, the Education & Outreach program continued to evolve.

One of the first programs I inherited early in my career was the Soil Health Improvement Project (SHIP), a partnership focused on demonstrating practical ways to improve the health of Ocean County’s sandy soils. The SHIP gardens at Jakes Branch County Park had been established in 2012, just before I arrived at the District, and I soon became closely involved with their care, maintenance, and educational use. Working alongside Jakes Branch staff, Michele Urban and Ben Ackerman, and wonderful volunteers, I helped keep the gardens thriving and used them as a living classroom for workshops, tours, and conversations about soil health, native plants, and sustainable landscaping. When the SHIP grant concluded in 2014, the District continued its partnership with Jakes Branch, allowing the gardens to live on as an ongoing education and demonstration resource. Over time, those gardens became part of the Jersey-Friendly Yards story as well, evolving into Jersey-Friendly demonstration gardens that showcase native plants suited to the different soil, water, and light conditions found in Ocean County.

One of the most important aspects of a successful Education & Outreach program is making personal connections with the community – one of my favorite components of the job. Soon I began presenting soil programs to students, garden clubs, environmental commissions, business leaders, master gardeners and college classes. The underlying message remained the same: soil is at the root of all life on Earth. Soil is inextricably tied to healthy gardens, clean water, abundant wildlife, and ultimately healthy communities.

As OCSCD’s Education & Outreach program evolved, so did the ways I could connect people with conservation. One of the first opportunities was creating Conservation Conversation, the District’s first newsletter. What began as a way to share news and upcoming programs grew into a regular monthly publication highlighting conservation projects, educational opportunities, partner accomplishments, and stories from throughout the region.

By 2016, OCSCD’s E&O program was reaching well beyond traditional soil education through the From Lawn to Garden—Going Green, Saving Green grant funded Jersey-Friendly Yards project supporting native plants and pollinators, rain gardens, composting, and soil health.

Community gardens and urban agriculture opened another avenue for conservation education. Through the Urban Agriculture Conservation Initiative, launched with USDA-NRCS funding support in 2016, and the Community Garden Network of Ocean County established in 2018 with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Ocean County Master Gardeners, Fulfill, and Wrangle Brook Community Garden, the work connected healthy soil and sustainable food production with food access and community.

Partnerships with organizations including the Barnegat Bay Partnership, Rutgers, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Ocean County Parks & Recreation, helped turn these ideas into hands-on experiences for thousands of people, and laid much of the groundwork for what would follow.

The first Jersey-Friendly Yards Conference at Ocean County College in 2017 brought together an impressive group of partners, including the Barnegat Bay Partnership (BBP), Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean County (RCE), Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA), Native Plant Society of New Jersey (NPSNJ), Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWFNJ), and renowned entomologist, Dr. Doug Tallamy. These collaborations made it possible to move beyond simply telling people about Jersey-Friendly landscaping – to showing them what it could look like. They saw native plants supporting pollinators. They saw delightfully fancy caterpillars. They saw birds using habitat. They saw that a landscape could be beautiful without being resource-intensive. And, perhaps most importantly, they began to see their own yards as part of a much larger ecosystem.

The JFY program was increasingly focused, not only on educating people about conservation, but on giving them ways to put that knowledge into practice. One grant funded JFY pilot program, Experience Jersey-Friendly Yards, provided residents with classes, educational resources and native plants – with a goal to install a Jersey-Friendly garden at home. The “before and after” progress was amazing and the home gardens were impressive! It was so inspiring to see the passion, determination, and beauty that unfolded over several planting seasons. I witnessed lawns turning into vibrant gardens full of food for pollinators, nesting material for birds, and shelter for wildlife. Rain barrels were installed to conserve water, and composting stations were created. Ordinary yards that were once food deserts for wildlife became colorful, life-giving oases. Many participating residents exceeded expectations and became ambassadors for Jersey-Friendly Yards. I am grateful for these opportunities to change behavior, change lives and change the community, one yard at a time.

In 2018, the Jersey-Friendly Garden at OceanFirst Bank’s Hooper Avenue Administrative Office (created through funding through the From Lawn to Garden – Going Green, Saving Green grant initiative) received a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Garden of Distinction award. Seeing a conservation concept become a beautiful, functioning landscape, and then having that landscape recognized, was especially gratifying. Expanding the JFY program through workshops, conferences, webinars, educational resources, school certification projects, and countless presentations throughout the county and state has been an absolute privilege and joy. Watching schools transform ordinary landscapes into thriving native pollinator gardens has been especially rewarding. Every garden became an outdoor classroom where students could discover that their own actions truly make a difference.

By 2019, the Education & Outreach program had expanded well beyond Ocean County classrooms and community programs. Jersey-Friendly Yards was being presented at statewide conferences and professional gatherings, while school gardens, community gardens, and soil-health programs continued to bring conservation education to new audiences.

The Barnegat Bay Environmental Educators Roundtable, OCSCD’s flagship event, had continued to be an important annual gathering for environmental educators, providing professional development and opportunities to connect teachers with scientists, naturalists, and conservation professionals. The NJ Envirothon continued to grow as well, with the Wildlife Station becoming an important part of my work.

2019 also brought an unexpected personal milestone: I received the New Jersey Association of Conservation Districts’ Award for Outstanding Service as a Professional Conservationist. I was being recognized for work that felt to me more like opportunities to help save the planet. Over the prior 4-5 years at the District, I felt the urgency to spread the word about the importance of soil as a vital natural resource. Looking back, that recognition represented something larger than a single accomplishment. It reflected the growing reach of the Education & Outreach program and my determination to make soil conservation education relevant to people far beyond the traditional conservation audience.

In good company, my OCSCD colleagues working in the regulatory side of the District were recognized for their “Outstanding Implementation of the Soil Erosion & Sediment Control Program”.

Another opportunity to branch out in the Barnegat Bay watershed came through my work with the Barnegat Bay Partnership’s Volunteer Master Naturalist Program. Beginning around 2017, I assisted Karen Walzer of the BBP with program preparation, and later instructed Master Naturalists in watershed-wide stewardship and conservation activities. Weekly visits to educational facilities around the watershed, including the Forest Resource Education Center (FREC), Wells Mills County Park, Island Beach State Park, the Sedge Islands, Double Trouble State Park, Jakes Branch County Park, the Pygmy Pines and more, helped deepen knowledge, make personal connections, and build a cultural and historical foundation of this beautiful place we all call home. Through this BBP-OCSCD collaboration, I developed and produced The Naturalist, the program’s newsletter, created to help keep this growing community of volunteer naturalists connected while sharing their stewardship projects, educational opportunities, and stories from around the bay. It was especially meaningful to introduce people to places in their own backyard that they had never visited prior – from the headwaters to the bay – learn about these resources, and then put that knowledge into action.

2020 also marked the beginning of the New Jersey Bay Islands Initiative (NJBII), a collaborative effort formed in response to the growing loss and degradation of the small bay islands that protect New Jersey’s coastal communities and provide critical wildlife habitat. OCSCD was among the initiative’s founding partners, bringing the District’s soil, conservation, education, and communications expertise to a partnership that grew to include municipalities, federal and state agencies, universities, nonprofits, and concerned citizens. I became part of the Communications team, helping tell the story of these often-overlooked islands and why their protection matters. The group, originally led by Virginia Rettig, former Refuge Manager at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, and currently led by Angela Andersen of LBT Marine Field Station and Amanda Archer of JCNERR, works toward developing educational and outreach materials, documenting island conditions, participating in field trips and site visits, communicating about erosion and habitat loss, and helping connect the science of coastal change with the people who live, work, and recreate along the bay. The initiative also provides opportunities to bring together scientists, educators, municipal officials, conservation organizations, and community members around a shared concern: protecting the small islands that play such an important role in the health and resilience of New Jersey’s coastal ecosystem.

2021 also marked the beginning of the Lakewood Township Stormwater Basin Retrofit Project, a four-year watershed restoration initiative funded through a Federal 319(h) grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Working with Eileen Miller (South Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council), Craig McGee (Camden County Soil Conservation District), Phil Roux (Lakewood Township Department of Public Works), Brittany Moore (OCSCD), and other partners, the District helped transform conventional stormwater basins into functioning ecological systems.

The project ultimately brought native grasses and wildflowers, improved soil and water infiltration, wildlife habitat, and stormwater-management education to selected basin sites throughout Lakewood Township. Over the grant project’s four year implementation, the project grew to include a New Jersey Stormwater Basin Toolkit, a self-guided Stormwater Basin Tour, educational programming, and, seven interpretive signs that explain to residents what happens to stormwater after it leaves their streets and parking lots and flows into stormwater basins. The signs explain how this infrastructure protects water quality and supports wildlife.

The signs required a bit of creativity, artistic talent and technological know-how. They proved to be fun to create and several staff and an intern helped to create the signs, again underscoring the benefits of collaboration and teamwork.

In 2022, I began connecting my Principles of Environmental Soil Science course at Kean-Ocean, where I taught as an adjunct professor for 6 years, with the work of the Ocean County Soil Conservation District. It was a natural fit, particularly when my students reached the chapter on Soil Erosion and Sediment Control. Ramon Mejia, OCSCD’s Assistant Director, and Ben Hayden, OCSCD Inspector II, created a presentation and organized a field trip that brought the subject to life, taking my students to construction sites and introducing them to New Jersey’s Standards for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control. The connection between classroom learning and real-world conservation work continued beyond the course, with several students going on to intern with OCSCD. Perhaps most rewarding of all, two of my former students are now employees of the District!

In 2023 and 2024, the new Jersey-Friendly Certification Program expanded to provide schools and municipalities opportunities to achieve JFY Certification, with a framework for creating landscapes that protect soil, conserve water, support wildlife, and reduce environmental impacts. Building on the success we had with Resident Certification, we began reaching out to schools to assist with their School Certification. School certification projects gave students the opportunity to turn their school grounds into living laboratories. Pinelands Regional High School was a natural fit; science teacher, Jim Ardoin’s From Barrens to Bogs curriculum provided the perfect foundation on which their JFY School Certification took root. Classroom programs augmented outdoor explorations. Interpretive signs – with artwork created by the students highlighting native trees, shrubs, perennials and wildlife – lined the trail through the bogs on the school property.

Brick Township High School teacher, Gary Paxton, and his students created a magnificent garden that not only supported pollinators, but it also addressed a soil erosion concern on the school grounds. STEM students explored the soil on campus, learned about soil erosion and control, engineered a remedy to the erosion problem, then designed and installed the garden.

In 2024, I marked a decade of Education & Outreach program success since joining the OCSCD. Ten years is long enough to see the effects of a program that has been nurtured over time. By then, the program included statewide conservation education initiatives such as the NJ Envirothon and NJ Conservation Poster Contest, numerous grant initiatives, Jersey-Friendly Yards, BBEERT, community projects, professional development, and an ever-growing collection of educational materials and online resources.

One of the most rewarding things about this stage of the journey was seeing how many of the seeds I had planted had established roots and grown into established programs. The number of certified Jersey-Friendly residents and schools was multiplying, and several municipalities were engaged in the certification process. The Newsletter, Annual Report and Blog were becoming annual records of conservation work.

The Common Grounds community garden in Lakewood offered another wonderful example of partnership, collaboration and turning vision into reality. Through a grant received from the Xerces Society Pollinator Habitat Kit Program, a pollinator garden was installed at the community garden, bringing together urban agriculture, native plants, pollinators, soil, food, and community in one place. The Finding Common Grounds partnership was borne and continues to grow. At the garden I provided soil programs to community members, which paired nicely with Shari Kondrup’s (BTMUA) water conservation lessons.

In the later years of my career, I also became involved with the District’s Local Working Group (LWG), a collaborative process led by OCSCD and USDA-NRCS that brings local stakeholders together to identify and prioritize Ocean County’s most important natural resource concerns. In 2025, I helped facilitate the District’s first LWG meeting, bringing together residents, municipal representatives, educators, conservation partners, and others to share their perspectives and help shape future conservation priorities. It was a fitting extension of my work in education and outreach—creating a space where listening, learning, and collaboration could help guide conservation action.

By 2025, the Education & Outreach program had become a broad network of communications, conservation initiatives, school and community outreach programs, and community engagement. The Pinelands Short Course, where I first presented early in my OCSCD career, was still part of my professional life in 2026. Twelve years of returning to the same kinds of conversations—about soil, water, habitat, climate, and the places that make New Jersey special—made my final year feel especially meaningful.

On May 9, OCSCD hosted the New Jersey Envirothon. Envirothon hosting responsibilities are shared by all Soil Conservation Districts throughout the state on a rotating basis. Although my responsibilities with the NJ Envirothon had begun many years earlier with co-coordination of the Wildlife Station, along with Freehold SCD colleague, Holly Reynolds, OCSCD had not hosted the event since before I arrived.

One of the things I value most about these twelve years is how many wonderful people I engaged with – all extremely dedicated to the work. So many colleagues and partners became familiar faces and collaborators at the District’s Barnegat Bay Environmental Educators Roundtable, Jersey-Friendly Yards events, the NJ Envirothon, workshops, conferences, and field programs. They offered a helping hand when needed, shared ideas and inspired passion in conservation and education. They generously shared their knowledge, time and talents. I began listing everyone, and it went on for pages… and that’s really the point. Conservation education is a collaborative endeavor. The best programs were the ones where someone brought an expertise, someone else brought an idea, someone opened a door, and together we created something none of us could have created alone.

Every new opportunity stretched me professionally. Every grant taught me something about turning an idea into a project. Every conference introduced me to someone with knowledge I didn’t have. Every student reminded me to stay curious. Looking back, I realize the District’s Education & Outreach program wasn’t the only thing that grew over the past twelve years. I did too!

Although I’m leaving New Jersey, I won’t be leaving conservation. Nature has a wonderful way of following us wherever we go, and I look forward to exploring new landscapes, new soils, new birds, new native plants, and new opportunities to continue sharing my passion for environmental education.

I leave knowing that OCSCD’s education program is stronger than ever. The partnerships are thriving, the momentum continues to grow, and there are many exciting opportunities ahead. I have every confidence that the District will continue inspiring future generations to care for our natural resources.

I’m grateful to be part of the Barnegat Bay watershed conservation journey! Warm “thanks” to everyone who has been part of this incredible journey with me – OCSCD’s Board of Supervisors and staff, watershed partners, educators, volunteers, students, community members, and newsletter readers. Thank you for your friendship, your encouragement, your support, your collaboration, and your commitment to protecting the places we all love. It has truly been an honor to serve this community!

Please visit OCSCD’s website to explore the many projects, programs, events, and resources offered, as well as the District’s newsletters, blog and annual reports.