As I am reaching the end of my fellowship experience I realize there is a lot to catch up on! This year one of the most exciting events for me has been planning a day of activities for the Solar Eclipse back on April 8th. We were on the “Path of Totality” and I knew that I wanted to help create a welcoming atmosphere.

With March being Women’s History month, I got to organize a panel of speakers highlighting women in conservation. For this event we got to hear from Brittni Anderson, the Volunteer Coordinator for Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper; Claudia Nusstein, the Conservation Education Program Coordinator for Genesee County Park & Forest; and Cody Anderson, Fish Biologist for the Lower Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office. Even though the weather was a little off with us receiving quite a bit of snow the night before, the participants that showed up were very engaged and asked a lot of great questions!

Being an Urban Community Engagement Fellow has allowed me to challenge myself in finding different ways to interact with nature and the work that is done in conservation. As a part of this I got to recently complete a painting program, highlighting the only species of clover that has been recorded on the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge species list.

As I continue my time at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, I am excited to learn about the unique area that Western New York is. Learning about the Great Lakes closest to us to even the specific watersheds that flow across large expanses to feed into these lakes has been a very rewarding experience. The more and more that I learn, I am able to connect with the public and listen to the connections that they have to the area. As I am attempting to see where I can best offer support to the urban environment, it is clear that the history that lives in the city thrives in the people here.

Hello everyone!

My name is Stephanie Ibarra and I am the current Urban Community Engagement Fellow for Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge in Basom, NY. For my blog posts, I will cover one of the main projects I am working on in partnership with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper (BNW). For the duration of my fellowship, I am dedicating one day a week to help with outreach in creating a restoration plan for Scajaquada Creek, an impaired waterway that is listed as an “Area of Concern” as a part of the Niagara River (Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, 2023)!