{"id":1004,"date":"2023-12-11T16:49:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T16:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2023-12-11T16:51:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T16:51:27","slug":"holding-onto-hope-a-class-visit-with-allarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/holding-onto-hope-a-class-visit-with-allarm\/","title":{"rendered":"Holding onto Hope: A Class Visit with ALLARM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is no secret that the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries suffer from a multitude of environmental challenges: sedimentation, pollution, and invasive species, to name a few.\u00a0 In 2010, the Bay Goals were established with the purpose of reducing pollution in the Bay. At the current rate of progress, the six states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed are not on track to meet these 2025 goals, a fact that is disheartening to the scores of individuals who seek to protect their waterways. A struggle of environmental stewards here in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed is how to continue working towards a better future without becoming overwhelmed by the seemingly endless environmental hardships we face. Enter: ALLARM.<\/p>\n<p>Here at ALLARM, we seek to recognize and leverage the power we have. We know that one organization alone can not expect to solve all of the world\u2019s environmental challenges, but we can do our part. We recognize the critical work that our volunteer scientists conduct as the local experts and stewards of their waterways. Being surrounded by the voices of those who share a common goal of understanding and protecting our waterways boosts our livelihoods and fuels our desires to keep going.<\/p>\n<p>This was the topic of our recent class visit and presentation to Professor Deb Sinha\u2019s <em>Radical Hope in the Age of the Anthropoene <\/em>class. Speaking about her experience with ALLARM, Charlotte Kratovil-Lavelle \u201824 articulated \u201cI whole-heartedly believe that the environment is a unifying issue. When was the last time that someone in your life told you that they were anti-clean water? Hopefully never, because, as I\u2019m sure we all know, a cleaner, healthier environment is better for all of us. I believe that by establishing common ground in our shared environment, we can work towards achieving our goals of a better future for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1005 aligncenter\" style=\"text-align: center\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Charlotte stands before the class, explaining her personal journey and how she remains hopeful. \" width=\"544\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-444x333.jpg 444w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/IMG_1599-500x375.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maintaining optimism is no small feat, and yet, it is absolutely vital. Working at ALLARM, a fundamental component of this optimism are the success stories that we have been fortunate enough to watch unfold over the years. One such story is that of Lettice Brown and Mark Lentz, which Phoebe Galione (Outreach Manager) shared with Professor Sinha\u2019s class. After noticing a spike in sedimentation and nitrate-nitrogen levels at their monitoring site, Mill Creek, Brown and Lentz hypothesized that an upstream construction site may be to blame. They reported this issue to the city, resulting in remediation efforts. As Brown and Lentz continued monitoring, they observed the success of this project as both nitrate-nitrogen and sedimentation decreased.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With environmental work, it can be difficult to remain hopeful, especially in the face of so many challenges that, in many cases, don&#8217;t seem to be making positive progress,\u201d says Galione. \u201cWorking with community scientists, seeing how driven they are to make a difference and collect data, and how excited they are to share their findings, keeps me incredibly hopeful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1006\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-1024x577.png\" alt=\"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead \" width=\"587\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-1024x577.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-768x433.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-1536x865.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-500x282.png 500w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5-666x375.png 666w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/files\/2023\/12\/Stream-Team-Collage-5.png 1640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is no secret that the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries suffer from a multitude of environmental challenges: sedimentation, pollution, and invasive species, to name a few.\u00a0 In 2010, the Bay Goals were established with the purpose of reducing pollution in the Bay. At the current rate of progress, the six states in the Chesapeake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":1008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/allarm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}