Steward of the Month: Kelsi Tjernagel!
Welcome our Steward of the Month, Kelsi Turner Tjernagel! Kelsi is an IAWP Busy Beaver, and brings an abundance of energy as well as an infectious laugh to every event. She participated in invasive weed pulls, piezometer monitoring, beaver mimicry, attended a variety of educational workshops, and more! Thank you for your stewardship and your dedication to learning Kelsi, we appreciate you! Read the Q&A below to find out more about our Steward of the Month!
Q&A:
1. What is your favorite thing to do within the watershed?
I love tromping – which is my family’s version of hiking, walking, meandering and looking at stuff, asking questions, drawing things and collecting interesting objects to study and learn from. It’s basically just puttering outside.
2. What excites you most about GWC's mission?
The Gallatin Watershed Council most impresses me with their commitment to community education and individual empowerment. I am intentional in my personal life about making informed choices about the way my lifestyle effects the earth. Once I sort of got my arms around that responsibility, I felt it was time to find a place to contribute in my community. And the GWC has been more than helpful and welcoming of me. I always learn so much when I attend a talk, participate in an event, or read books as part of their book club. I ask a lot of questions, and they answer them!
I am most grateful for the opportunity to practice stewardship as a verb, and not just let stewardship exist as an abstract idea. I find this particularly important for my children: being a part of the volunteer crew for the GWC has shown them that stewardship is alive and well and important to many, many people in our community. (It’s not just mom at home asking them to take food scraps to the compost pile, showing them how to sort our recycling, mending their clothes, using cloth napkins, sending hand-me-down clothes to their cousins, air-drying our clothes.) Practicing stewardship with guidance from the GWC helps my entire family feel more connected to and responsible for the health of this community. I love, love, love how people of all ages are welcome to help and are given meaningful work.
Finally, every gathering I have attended is suffused with joy. I look forward to volunteering because I know it will be fun – even if we’re just gathering trash and pulling noxious weeds.
3. What element of the IAWP restoration project excites you the most (return of specific birds, community opportunities, etc.)?
I am excited about the unexpected, the unknown. Already, volunteering at the IAWP has brought me into contact with a beautiful community of people who have bolstered my hope in the future health of our watershed. I did not expect this. Also, I am hopeful that we will be able to create a community nature center alongside the IAWP.
4. What's your favorite book?
I love so many books: My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara, Devotions by Mary Oliver, The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, The Girl Who Drew Butterflies by Joyce Sidman, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero, Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon, Explorers’ Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure by Huw Lewis-Jones and Kari Herbert, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, The Wolves of Currumpaw by William Grill, Out of the Woods by Rebecca Bond.
5. What do you want the Lower Gallatin Watershed to look like within 5 years?
Within 5 years, I hope we have established a lasting culture of awareness and stewardship in the Lower Gallatin Watershed. As a result, people will treat water as the precious (priceless) thing that it is: We will restore and protect more wetlands! People will pick up their dog’s poop! People will take proper care of their septic systems! People will stop treating their toilets like a garbage can! There will be fewer lawns, and more native plants and flowers growing in their place! People will stop pouring harmful chemicals down their drains! People will stop watering their lawns (and sidewalks)! We will utilize grey water!