Date/Time
Date - 04/02/2016
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Location
Brewster Chapel, Plymouth MA
Student Presentations
Cole Gustin will speak about his work pulling purple loosestrife
For the grand finale of our speaker series, Making Waves in Coastal Conservation, we will hear from young adults who are passionate about making the world a better place through service, education and understanding of and for our natural heritage.
We will provide these presenters with a friendly and supportive atmosphere to present their projects, ideas and research. Prepare yourself to be inspired and motivated.
Each will be allotted 10-12 minutes for their presentation. When all are finished, there will be a panel question and answer period. Come and support our local students…and learn from them!
The speakers:
Cole Gustin, a freshman at Plymouth North High School, will discuss his experience in controlling a very invasive, nonnative plant – purple loosestrife. His work helped to restore wetland plant diversity and natural hydrology next to the Eel River in Plymouth.
Cole started taking care of the environment at a very early age by picking up trash at the beach. Just walking along the beach he would see how much trash was washed up on shore or left behind. To Cole, it wasn’t okay to leave it sitting on the beach. As he got older, this led to other projects within the community such as pulling purple loosestrife, a wetland plant originally from Europe, which can take over marshes, pushing out all the native plants.
The biggest influence on the way Cole views the environment has been his grandfather, Thomas Fugazzi. When Cole was little the two of them would walk together in the woods or on the beach and Tom would teach his grandson about the plants and animals. Tom also related the history of the beach and the areas around town. Cole realized early on how very fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful community.
Cole is on the school soccer and spring track teams, plays hockey and teaches younger kids how to skate.When Cole is not in school he enjoys hunting, fishing, woodworking , sports and going to the beach.
Spencer Mazzola will speak about a solution to overfishing
Spencer Mazzola, a senior at Plymouth South High School, is interested in environmental science, geology, and conservation. He is a self-avowed lover of the outdoors and enjoys spending time hiking, camping, rock climbing and skiing his way around New England. Spencer has taken many steps to positively impact his community. Recently, he constructed and installed bat boxes around Plymouth with Wildlands Trust to help increase populations of small and large brown bats call southeastern Massachusetts home. Spencer has also volunteered for COASTSWEEP, an international effort to collect data on marine debris, and in Plymouth’s town wide cleanup.
Spencer’s presentation is entitled Restoration Fishing: The Solution to Overfishing.
Cameron Ryde (on left) and James Addsion (on right)
James Addison and Cameron Ryde, students at Plymouth South High School, are actively engaged in learning about local ecology…just outside their school’s doors. The high school, and most of Plymouth, is located in a globally rare and very special ecoregion: the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. James and Cameron will speak about what they learned doing a transect study and a field lab on ecology of and succession within the Pine Barrens.
Quinn Liddle, a 10th grade student at Plymouth South High School, will discuss how the natural environment benefits from better means of disposal and recycling, so that less trash ends up in the wilderness. Quinn chose this topic not only because of how surprised he was at the amount of trash he found during COASTSWEEP (a marine debris research project), but also because of what he learned in biology class – that excess trash generated by a community has local, regional and even global consequences to wildlife, humans and the environment.
Pre-register for the event to receive an email reminder about it a few days before the date and a message if it is postponed due to inclement weather.