Birding, Environmental Justice, and Green Obsidian with Sierra Taliaferro

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Sierra Taliaferro, outdoor educator and bird enthusiast about Birding, Environmental Justice, and Green Obsidian.   Read her full bio below.

This episode is sponsored by Integrity Environmental. Integrity Environmental is the premiere environmental permitting and consulting group in Alaska and Arctic regions. They have been in business for over a decade. Integrity performs high quality tank inspections to American Petroleum Institute standards, and are the 'go to' firm industrial operators turn to for help navigating complex regulatory compliance issues. They love tanks as much as you do! Check them out at www.integrity-env.com.

Showtimes:
1:58  Nic & Laura talk about  Channeling Frustration into Positivity
6:59 Interview with Sierra Taliaferro Starts
11:27  Birding
18:38  The Green Obsidian
27:07  Environmental Justice
33:42  Field Notes Segment

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. 

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Sierra Taliaferro at www.linkedin.com/in/sierrat

Guest Full Bio:
Sierra Taliaferro is a motivated outdoor educator and bird enthusiast with intentions to promote diversity in urban conservation, social justice and community advocacy. Her previous work experience consists of community engagement, urban agriculture, water conservation awareness, and land management practices. Her aim as a millennial in urban environmental conservation is to involve the public in decisions concerning natural landscapes through citizen stewardship and help bridge a lost connection between people and nature in an urban setting. She hopes to continue to make herself an advocate for diversity in conservation and to emphasize the importance of our natural resources surrounding our urban environments.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Laura 
Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental nerds Nic and Laura. On today's episode, Nic and I discuss channeling frustrations into positive outcomes. We talk to Sierra Taliaferro about birding, environmental justice, and Harry Potter. So super great interview, she's really inspiring, so please check it out. And finally, hot water freezes faster than cold water. Maybe. Physicists can't seem to figure out if that statement is true or false. It's called the Mpemba effect after an experiment conducted by a Tanzanian teenager, the phenomenon continues to provide controversy. Studies have shown that where you measure temperature is extremely important. Is that like where like physically or where is actually

Nic 
Yeah, physically where you monitor matters so much when you're actually trying to do the experiment? Yeah.

Laura 
Okay. However, the phenomenon can happen under certain conditions. So how about that? Everyone go get out your thermometer and test that.

Nic 
I think it's totally wild. It doesn't make any sense at all. Yeah. Yeah, here we are waters weird.

Laura 
Hit that music.

[NAEP Event News]

Nic 
Next NAEP webinar is on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and you can check it out on July 13th at 3pm Eastern noon, Pacific registration is now open @www.naep.org. Today's episode is sponsored by Integrity Environmental. Integrity Environmental is the premier environmental permitting and consulting group in the Alaska and Arctic regions. They have been in business for over 10 years integrity performance, high quality tank inspections to American Petroleum Institute standards, and are the go to firm industrial operators turn to you for help navigating complex regulatory compliance issues. Check them out at www.integrity-env.com. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura's Segment: Channelling Frustrations into Positivity]

Nic
So I don't know. What about from Sierra's interview? Any interesting takeaways from that? Because it was a really good interview like I really enjoyed it is excellent. Alot of different good points that she made.

Laura 
Well, I think just what we've been talking about, the whole point of something in my world that's out of my control, it's frustrating. And instead of stewing on it, being negative about it playing the victim she did something.

Nic
Yeah.

Laura
And that's what all of us need to be doing right now. Stop complaining stop being trolls on on LinkedIn and Instagram and wherever. Twitter Oh, God Twitter,

Nic
Yeah, let's not get into that.

Laura
and take that energy and do something positive with it. You know, like, yeah, bad stuff is happening but complaining about it just takes up space that you could be using to do something, you know,

Nic 
Right? Well, I mean, I honestly I'm struggling with that, as per you know, are talking here I am having a really hard time not being frustrated not being or even I would even say I'm actually really having more of a hard time figuring out where to channel this energy. How can I put my frustrations to good use? And I'm still trying to figure that out. You know, I don't think I've been this frustrated in a really long time. So it's confusing for me, you know, so I don't know how to how do we do that?

Laura 
Well, I think we're doing we're here with the show, right? This one thing is we're exposing people and we're having conversations about many different things. So we're talking about environmental justice. We've had Callie Veelenturf on the show, talking about her situation, and being a woman in this field. And so I think Nic, you need to own that that we are doing something you're not doing nothing, you know, and then also keep it simple. Sierra's solution is not she's not trying to fix everything. You know? If your mind is like how can I burst into the White House and make this but you know, what can I do in my community or even just in my workplace, something smaller, and if everybody did that, every day, one small thing and their own way they'll make a big difference.

Nic 
That is really positive. I like that. I do. I do.

Laura 
That's why we need more women in power positions because you men, you Nic, Nic, you're like the most understanding women ally, whatever. Whatever.

Nic
Yes. Go on.

Laura
You're still like your knee jerk reaction is like I want to punch somebody. You know?

Nic 
I know, I know. Very Yeah, very emotional. I can't help it. I can't help it and I realized that.

Laura 
So if that's your reaction imagine other men whose that's not there. Go there go to already is, you know, like violence or anger, rage. Not that there aren't women who are doing that. But we tend to hit hard, less hard.

Nic 
I at least recognize that that is there. Right. Like I know my first reaction to a lot of stuff is emotional. And like I have to remind myself I'm like, You're being emotional. You're letting your emotions drive how you feel right now you need to kind of take a step, doesn't make it doesn't mean it works every time doesn't mean I can always keep it under wraps. But yeah, it's it's funny to think, like I say it's not all men, I'm sure. But like, for me, the motion is right at the surface. It's like right there, you know, right underneath. So knowing that it helps, but yeah, there's still times.

Laura  
 But we want to also keep people from like, crying in the shower, even though there's just like, I have rage and I'd be let it out. But then there's also like, I have rage and I can't let it out. And you know, so anybody listening, we're here to help if you need to talk.

Nic
I mean, genuine.

Laura
Depending on how you're feeling will send you to Nic, or me. Or even Kara. Kara has a great outlook on everything.

Nic 
I will say like I love being there for people. It's actually one of my favorite things like I just when people are upset and frustrated that actually helps me kind of talk through things, you know, because I get it you know, I understand where people are coming from and I want to be supportive. I think that's one of the best parts of the show is how supportive we have been to people that are listening and people that come on. It's pretty nice. So you're right, we are doing something about that. You got me. We're doing something. Yeah, I know. I know.

Kara
Okay, someone gave me some really good advice the one time when I was going through a really rough time letting go of something, an issue. They said you can visit, but you can't stay there.

Nic
Yeah.

Kara
And I always thought that was such a such great advice and I use it with so many situations

Laura
That makes sense. I like that.

Nic 
It's a good point. So what do you call it? Doom scrolling right on, it's easy to do, especially right now, with greenhouse gas emissions just coming out as well. This past week. I mean, it's easy to doom scroll, but like you say if you give it the space acknowledge that it exists because if you pretend it's not there, it's gonna eat you up anyway, acknowledge that exists, visit but don't stay. That's a good that's a good way of putting it. It really is.

Laura 
It is. I think it works for our segments too. Let's visit our segment but let's let's not stay here. Let's get to our interview.

Nic 
Perfect.

[Interview with Sierra Taliaferro Starts]

Nic
Hello and welcome back to EPR and today we have Sierra Taliaferro on the show. Sierra is an environmental leader and social justice advocate. She's also the founder of the Green Obsidian, a social media outlet that produces content centered around the Environmental Conservation topics and issues with an emphasis on environmental justice and equity to raise awareness for diversity in the conservation field, and to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders. Welcome, Sierra.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Thank you for having me.

Nic 
So good to have you here. And you know, you have a lot of experience in land management and water conservation, and a love of birds we found,

Sierra Taliaferro 
Just a little bit.

Nic
Just a little bit.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Nothing too crazy.

Nic
Right, right. We'll get to that. So where did where did your environmental career start? And how did you end up where you are now?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh, man, that's a loaded question. I would have to say like most people, I start that childhood. And that's a cliche, but I think for me personally, it definitely did, where I literally stayed outside all the time in the backyard, where my mom would force me to come inside. And I think it propelled from there but I always thought of like a conservation career or an environmental science career. It was never in my projectory Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, I did not like science at all.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Absolutely. I was more of a theater kid like I loved forensics theater, impromptu speaking. Comedy Sports. That was my jam. Okay.

Laura 
Wait, wait wait. Comedy Sports?

Nic
Yeah. Yeah. What is that?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh, it's hilarious. It's impromptu theater, essentially, where you have these skits, but it's just, you're kind of making it up as you go along. And you can make it as comical as you like, but it's, there's really no there's no framework for it. You have a topic and you just kind of snowball from there. And I have to stay on your toes. Definitely. Oh, yeah. It's about creativity in the moment. Yeah, but that is exactly what I was into. So I was not like I was like science? What? So it really wasn't until my senior year of high school, really my senior year in high school. I ended up taking this class called IB ecosystems and Society as a full IB student. For those who don't know who IB is its international baccalaureate. It's kind of like AP classes, but on steroids, essentially. And so I took this class my senior year, and it sounded interesting. Again, I love being outside. So I'm like Okay, let's try it. I have one and it was the class that like you need to fill in, aside from having like a study hall and I'm like, I don't want to study all again. It's just sitting there doing nothing. So I took this class, and I absolutely loved it. Like I couldn't. I can't describe how it made me feel, but it just felt good to learn about different topics from soil. I mean, like the composition of soil. We even raised chickens, pheasants and ducks. We have this one duck in class that almost gave us a heart attack because he like ran. He ran out of the classroom when the bell rung and if ever know anything about Rufus King High School back in Milwaukee, it is always crowded when the bell rings. So he literally what I mean you had this duck literally the size of your hand, runs out of the hallway, quacking the hallway ducking and dodging, weaving trying to find this anyway. That's why I love birds, right. But I literally took this class and it completely changed my whole trajectory of my life. Where I was going to go into theater, I completely changed my whole track. So I ended up changing like rerouting when I wanted to do looking at colleges even which is how I ended up in Florida. I said I think this is what I want to do. I want to study environmental science. I don't know what I want to do environmental science, but I know I want to do it. And so I ended up going to the Bethune-Cookman University shout out to the to the gang go Wildcats. in Daytona Beach, Florida. It's a historical black college. And I majored in environmental science or integrated environmental sciences what we call the major down there. And I was really just that's really where I got involved with birds. Like that's really because it's Florida. There's a lot of birds  that we don't have in Milwaukee. And it just completely sparked my interest and I really from then on I was hooked. I've been here ever since.

[Birding]

Nic 
We're absolutely glad to have you though. So that's great. So let's dive into this. A little bit, right? So birds you said you grew up in Wisconsin. You live in Miami Fort Lauderdale area now. Yeah, there are a lot more birds in Florida.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Tell me about that.

Nic
Is that why you stayed? What kind of prompted you to stay that way. How deep is that bird love?

Sierra Taliaferro 
A little bit of the weather helps in wintertime too. Like this transition to Florida when it's it was such a divine timing is what I go off of and I was much as I loved Milwaukee I was ready to expand that was ready to grow. And after I graduated college, I'd always talked about like I after college, I graduated and then went back to Milwaukee because I got a job naturally you go into money. And in the back of my mind, I was like I'm gonna get back to Florida eventually. I didn't know when didn't know where, but I know what's going to happen. So it was like that manifestation over time. And I kid you not. I took a family vacation in 2019 and back in June 2019. And that's when I really started to contemplate like, you know, maybe this could be possible. Maybe I could actually do this like take a leap of faith and just see what happens just jump in and a net will appear. That's what that's what I did. I went back home to him. Once I returned back home back in that that June of 2019. I started apply for jobs right away right in the Fort Lauderdale area because that's where we had our family vacation. And I ended up getting a job. Like  right away. Like maybe within a week. And so between the end of June to August, September really is when I was really packing up my life to get ready and by the time I ended up moving down there by November 4th. So it was really like in this small chunk of time where I literally sold everything in my apartment, pack two bags, put them in my Nissan Versa and hit the road and deal with that. And it from that moment forward was probably one of the most courageous things I've ever done in my lifetime at least right now. It was probably one of the most courageous things I've ever done for myself, and I'm so glad I took the chance and I'm so glad I said yes. Because I don't know ,who knows what uh, what would have happened if I didn't if I didn't count everything, right. But it was the chance that I took to bring me to this point now to even be able to talk to you all, you know, who knows if I would have stayed home. Would the Green Obsidian even exist, you know, so it's a lot of that divine timing that comes into play when we think about experiences and how they define us. Moving to Florida in the way that I did with the support that I have as hard as it was with Milwaukee. I love Milwaukee I really do. But sometimes you want a change and that change was timed perfectly.

Nic  
Do you think this may be an unfair question to ask you. Do you think your experience in theater right? You are the you know, or this experience with comedy where you're supposed to be impulsive and creative in the fly? Do you think that helped you kind of make that decision?

Sierra Taliaferro  
I think so, in some way. I also am so grateful for forensics in Comedy Sports in just in general, just impromptu speaking in general, because that was really so in forensics especially there's so many topics that you can go into that you the categories that you choose to perform in. And one of them was storytelling for me, oddly enough, where am I now? You know where I again with the Green Obsidian? I tell stories. And it's definitely been helpful to be able to use that creativity and put that into writing. And my English class shout out to my high school english teachers. They are the bomb.

Nic 
Honestly, I love that. So you mentioned earlier on fair questions and I'm gonna we're gonna have more but, you have a favorite bird?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Depends on what species? What family we're talking about. That's the hard one. How dare you ask a favorite bird question.

Laura 
Like when someone asks you your favorite song or favorite band? You're like, what?

Nic 
Yeah, exactly. I know.

Sierra Taliaferro  
Exactly. I think for me, a bird that really calls to my spirit is the Heron just because how prehistoric looking we work whether that's a great blue heron or white Egret just that here and family but the great blue heron especially I think, has just this, this presence about about it where it it stands the way that it moves and maneuvers through the water. It just reflects patience and just this oneness and also like this history when that like first personal for me like I love I love Herons, I love a lot of birds. But herons in particular, they tend to just represent so much more to me than just a bird. It's the representation of what that bird is and how they act. You know, see a bird you ever see a heron and out there You just see it's always alone. You know, it's but it's taking its time doesn't rush anything. That's what I pay attention to. When I think about birds, it's their mannerisms. That's how they maneuver through the world just like we do just in a different space and realm and mindset.

Nic 
I wish I was that kind of bird. That'd be great.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Me too.

Laura 
I think they're amazing to see them fly. It's like how do they stay in the air? They look so big.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Man, they must save a whopping on airplane tickets. I could fly.

Nic
That's funny.

Laura 
It takes a lot of courage to, as you said to do what you did and make that decision and make a big move around it as well. It's one thing to say I'm going to change careers but I am going to stay home and now but you uprooted your entire life to make that change for something that you found a passion in which is really awesome because you know it's hard to teach people especially young people who are looking for like what's my passion are searching what's my passion? It's like you can't really go out looking forward you have to explore and wait till it will come you know, but you you found it and then you made the change. So aside from just keeping an open mind and waiting for that spark to happen and then taking action on it. What other advice do you have for people finding their way in the environmental fields?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Always be open to learn. Always be open to expanding your mind because no one has the answers for everything. We're always in this continuous space of learning. And so always keep an open mind to absorb information. I think that would be the best the best advice that I can give to always just be open to learn more, because there's just so much. Environmental Science is so broad and that's the beauty of it. You know, it's not confined in this box. There's so many ways that you can get involved in it. So always continue to want to feed that that curiosity because it helps to expand your mind and pass them along to others as well.

[The Green Obsidian]

Laura 
 That's awesome. We also talk a lot on the show about how the scientific community still struggles with inclusivity and you're trying to change that. So tell us what the green obsidian is all about and how you use social media to get your message out.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh man, yeah. And I have to say, even the thought of the Green Obsidian and how I got started it was really like it came out of passion like it came out of fury because of it. Because literally because it was like this knowing that there wasn't a lot of diversity within the environmental science field. And knowing people wanted it but weren't really doing a lot about it was frustrating, so frustrating, and especially within the black community. Sometimes we feel like oh, environmental science. That's a white people thing. It's not. It's everybody's thing. And so I was kind of in besides the fury that I had with not having diversity in the environmental field. You're in the you also have that aspect of that. Like, how can I amplify that there's more of us out here. And so that's kind of how it literally how that's how it began at my kitchen table. And it just so happened to be Black History Month. So it just kind of divine timing. So I was like, You know what, I know there's people out there and but it's just a matter of finding them because they're not in the mainstream media, like most other people who contribute to environmental conservation are. So that's where my research aspect came into play. It wasn't the Green Obsidian then but it was just like this platform that I had this idea really to just highlight somebody every day for 28 days for Black History Month on all black people who are contributing in the world environmental conservation, and how broad it is essentially. And so it started on Facebook, just on my personal page, and then it started to get buzz that was the first year and then the second year is when it really started to take off. And that's kind of where I started to transition it over to LinkedIn and to Facebook because that's when I started to tag a lot of those individuals who I was highlighting. So for the last three years, that's what it was it was LinkedIn and Facebook and then this past year, I need to say go bigger, go big or go home, right, go big or go home. And then that's how I merged the Green Obsidion  like how can I use this platform that I have created as a landing page so that it's a point of reference for someone because my Facebook page is private, you know, so when I linked a lot of the LinkedIn posts to my Facebook page, I want to go may not have Facebook. So I understand that also my Facebook page is private. And so I wanted to find a public platform for someone to be able to go from that LinkedIn page to somewhere that you can use it as a point of reference. So that's how I created the Green Obsidian.

Laura 
Yeah, that's really awesome. And it is definitely needed. And I've, you know, scanned through them and look through all the people that you have on there. And it's a great list of people and they're all doing so many different things. Like you said, there's no one job for any one type of person. But how do you go about finding the people that you do highlight because like you said it's not like they're easy. They're not everywhere, you know? How are you digging them up?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, I keep my eyes out on the road. You know, I'm always reading and I'm always listening. So when someone's name, or someone's work kind of passes through, whether it's my my screen or my computer screen, for example. I make sure I write their name and I hyperlink any the work that they're tagged in. So it's a point of reference for me to go on latter because I make a list. I'm already on lists 2024 So I'm like middle through but I just write their names down. And I use it for later. So I keep myself on a deadline. And so I give myself a decent amount of people, but about 40 people on that list as a cap. So just as a fill in case I can't find a lot of content on that person. I can see them for another list for later. Because you never know who people are connected to. That's the thing because even though they may not have a lot of content on the internet, that doesn't mean that you can't have a conversation with them and learn a little bit more about them. And then that helps to put their work out there and connect that work to the rest of the world to show how they can support that work that they're doing. So I just keep a running list of people that crossed my mind or I see their content on either LinkedIn or Facebook or on the news, anywhere. I make sure I write it down. And I save it because Google Drive is my life. It runs my world. So I stay organized in that capacity to just write their names, hyperlinked to the article that they're tagged in and I save it for later. So come the deadline that I start actually writing these things is about like end of September early October, the latest to get started as November because I keep myself a decent amount of time so I don't stress myself out or stretch myself thin it gives me time to really write them because not only am I writing them, but I'm also reading and learning about them myself. So I'm taking the time to go through each and every one and reading them and some of these stories are amazing. I'm like dang, I didn't know that. So sometimes I read it twice you know. So there's a lot of that that goes into me and a lot of the writing it's not like copy and paste like a lot of the writing that I put on there. It's my own personal style of writing. Okay, shout out to my English teachers. They have a bomb.com that helped me put into that practice of putting yourself into the writing that you have. Because as you meet them, it's how I would talk. Essentially, it's not copy and paste. It takes time and it takes energy to write every single one and to take a bunch of content that they've been tagged in or referenced in and to compile it. Oh yes. But the most important thing, the most important thing that I do is making sure that how people can get in contact with them or stay connected to them and how they can support them. That's the most important.

Laura 
Yeah, I love it. I think this is how I discovered you. I'm always looking for people for the podcast. So I'm always watching and I'm like, okay, who's doing this and I'm looking for diverse groups of people. Oh, who's this? What's this? Who Sierra. Somebody I know must have like something you posted. And I'm like, oh, tag her. What's this like?

Nic 
And Laura's like do you want to be friends? Yes or maybe

Laura
Pretty much.

Sierra Taliaferro
Heck yeah. That's how it starts. It starts with a little click.

Laura  
And I do know that you put a lot of work into them because I've scanned through them, like I said, and it's a lot of work and a lot of really great people that you feature on there. But I mentioned the reason you're doing it is because you didn't have these role models. When I started my career, I didn't have a lot of role models in the space that I was in the time. Still environmental is, you know, mostly a man's world. It's changing a lot more women still working on the black and brown piece. But when you were growing up like you didn't see so you didn't have the interest until you took the class. At that point. Did you have any other mentors or people you know, who gave you the courage to say I can go down this road? Or was there anyone or do you just have it internally? Because that happens.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah, I think it just happened internally. Because again, it's an unknown field that a lot of black people don't go into. And so again, it's like this unknown, like, what's your major? Even my university, I kid you not. It was my university's Environmental Science program was very new when I started like we were all guinea pigs. We were guinea pigs of the program and so through orient when I went to freshman orientation, and they all they give you like, a nice little swag bag and everything and they ask you So, what's your major and I tell you environmental science and they're like, I didn't even know we have that building presence, you know, building presence about what the major is and how people can get involved that you don't necessarily have to be super scientific to get involved in conservation. That's the thing. I think that's the biggest misconception. And some of the people that I post that I post about, some of them don't have degrees in environmental science, they just contributed in they've found something that really jives with their energy and their spirit, whether it's beekeeping whether it's anything, you know, and they did it. They just did it.

[Environmental Justice]

Nic  
Yeah. That's a great point. And I think it dives right into where we want to go next with the interview. Like, you know, the current administration has placed a lot of emphasis on environmental justice and we still don't really know what that looks like from that we don't, but as a practitioner in this space, have you seen a shift on the conversation we're having about environmental justice?

Sierra Taliaferro  
I think so. I think there's still a lot of work. There's a lot of the conversation that still needs to be had and a lot of that portion of it is very hard. It's a very hard conversation to have. Because when we talk about environmental justice, we have to acknowledge the history that got us to that point of what caused it. Because if you don't, if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it. So I'm glad to hear about the direction that they're trying to go. But it's very important to have those hard conversations first to acknowledge it. It's like the elephant in the room. You don't acknowledge how we're gonna get past it, you know, those need to happen as well as much as like any of the meetings or you know, the congregation's ethnic community focus, that's for sure. But also this like systems thinking approach about how to tackle the problems with solutions, realistic solutions, not just solutions that sound good on paper that might get you a grant. You know, but realistic solutions that worked for real people. You know, I think that is the biggest the biggest conversation you need to have in this modern day and age.

Nic 
And to that point, I think historically, it's an area where we've seen data like GIS data has actually highlighted the actual dramatic inconsistencies that we see in these communities, right, we've seen people complaining, you know, like, you know, we're dealing with cancer at higher rates, and other people are like, Okay, well, yeah, I would, you know, whatever. And then you look at the actual contaminants in the soils and an air pollution that you have in areas and it's like, oh, this is an actual thing. This is really what's happening. So we have we have the data and the data has only gotten better, but I still feel like are we seeing the environmental outcomes we want for disadvantaged communities? What's the answer to that question.

Sierra Taliaferro 
And most importantly, do those communities even know?

Nic
Yes.

Sierra Taliaferro
You know, how are you informing them? So that's the other aspect of the work that I do is citizen science. I love citizen science. We don't do enough of it. Honestly. The benefit of having citizen science is that you have community being in like, intertwined with scientific research, to be able to find those pockets, you know, like where are those levels happening? What high levels of lead are happening? When you have water quality testers who are like high school students, you know, more just like bird nest monitoring, which is what I do. Which is what I do bird nest monitoring, to check for PCB levels, but it also gives the community a chance to get involved in the hands on experiences to see it without necessarily going into debt for it to go to college or doesn't you know, it's the exposure. That's what I tell my students. It's the exposure whether you do this work or not, that's okay. But it's the exposure that lives with you. It gives you like a an elevation of knowledge. This exposure helps you to kind of maneuver around certain topics like you know, I, I kind of know about that, that keeps you intrigued and engaged in some capacity. And that will depend on each person like how engaged they are, but that exposure is probably the most important thing I if without the exposure, none of us would know none of us would know.

Nic 
It's a great point, like, you know, we talked about, you know, lead contamination, right. You know, we have a community that that didn't know they're being contaminated for 40 years, or longer, whatever it is, and then suddenly, it's like, oh, yeah, we knew that so long ago. Nobody told you and you're like that experience that exposure there is another example of okay, I as a citizen can be mindful of the things that I this is what I can do to make sure that doesn't happen to my community. You didn't even know it's an issue until you hear that story. It's incredible. So what more do you think we should be doing? To get the environmental justice initiative to have that stronger, better viability?

Sierra Taliaferro 
I think bringing leaders from our community to those talking tables, to those tables is important, because we know that they're having the conversations, but it's more important to know who's at that table and who those people are connected to you on the ground level and how they can take those conversations and kind of digest it. To take that information and digest it so that it's in because I love to reference food. It's all about food, right? You can't maybe you can I can't eat a whole pie at once. I would love to try. You know, but when it comes to whether it's pie or lasagna, I can't eat that whole thing once. That's a lot of lasagna. That's a lot of carbs. A lot of cheese. You know, but what I do is I make sure that I dissect it into chunks. leftovers. That's the most important thing when you talk about big information, like the common person in the community may not know a lot about what TMDLs are. Right? Right. So that can be very intimidating for them. That's one piece of the job. The whole design is TMDLs right? If you cut it into pieces so that they're digestible pieces for them, for them to be easily break down. To have more of a more realistic perspective, like you know, and I never thought about it that way. That's how you connect to people and those bigger concepts and breaking them down into smaller chunks, not dumbing it down by any means, but just still stays informative, of getting the main sources of information but using common language in common perspective, so that it sets in it digests easily within their system. They probably will take some home leftovers, right? They'll take those leftovers be like you know what, that was pretty good. I would take them home and pass it to somebody else.

Nic 
Right. And the best part is time. You don't eat leftovers all at once. You can'tThat's not what it is. That means tomorrow the next day, a month from now hopefully not a month from now. That's a bad lasagna.

Sierra Taliaferro
Unless you freeze it.

Nic
Unless you freeze it. That's right.

Laura 
Yeah, I knew Sierra and I would be friends. We're going to heat some lasagna and some pie next time I'm in Miami and talk about TMDLs. It will be great.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Come during mango season. That will be our dessert.

[Field Notes Segment]

Nic 
There you go. That's so awesome and well. Like I say we love to have fun on the show. We really do. And you know, it's a kind of when we talk, we have a field notes segment where we hear about stories of people in the field and the and the funny and scary things that have happened. So you are a birder right you've done some bird banding you've done you have a really great story about an incident in one of the state parks there.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Oh man. Yeah, when I was an undergrad my research project was based on birds but it was the grey cat bird and how resilient they are to prescribe and burn areas and it's Mountain State Park. So I was bird banding, essentially. So catching birds in the net and putting a ring on them. The best way to describe it again, dissecting it. So we set up these nets on the trail so that we can see that the birds fly into the nets and catch them in a safe way of course, safe way ofcourse. And in the park. I mean I get up as early as 3:30, 4 o'clock so I can be out there put up the nets because my birds are early. So you need to get there early. So we'd get them out three by the quarter to 3:30, a quarter to four and start setting up our nets, be out by six. And it's still dark by the way. It's still dark. So you don't know what's out there. And I mean, we've seen we would run into all kinds of things Bob Cats, deer. Oh, deer are the worst to get out and bird nets. Oh my god, the worst or the worst. But one but one in particular was I was going down the trail and saw diamond eastern diamondback rattlesnake eating a bird. They weren't eating  a bird, well they were eating a bird out of the net but he was across the trail that we had to cross and he was I say he was at least seven feet. He was , he wasn't long. I'm sorry mom, because she's never heard this story. Because when she hears about all of my adventures that I've had in Florida when I was an undergrad, I mean I've gone through a lot of wildlife adventures from being chased by wild boars to things that would give a mom a heart attack. And so this rattlesnake I'm like, I'm super intrigued but I'm also like scared as heck because nothing could do some damage to me. And so the person that I was with he was absolutely not terrified of snakes like he grew up in Florida like this was his jam. He's like, Oh, it's just the diamondback one that. I'm like I really I really want to take a picture of it, but I'm just so petrified to like step over like the body of the snake was so long like one half of its body was still on the other was on the left hand side and then the head was like wrapped in a coil on the right side with the tail rattling. It was a little long snake, it was a long snake. So I was like can you just hold my hand and I have like one camera in my in my in my hand and I say click okay we can go. This is the picture I ever had. Petrifying.

Laura 
That's awesome. I can only imagine what your Wisconsin mom is thinking about Florida adventures and alligators and everything else.

Sierra Taliaferro 
I will tell you there was this one time I got attacked by fire ants. I didn't even know.

Laura
Fire ants in Florida are terrible.

Sierra Taliaferro
Oh they're terrible got it and I didn't. We don't have those in Wisconsin.  So I wasn't paying attention but I just I was paying attention to something else to my school, I was at a football game for my school, and I just remember I'll send was actually like I was looking at the band but I can't remember dang like my foot itches  so bad. And I looked down at stepped in a whole hive of fire ants, covered my foot completely. And of course you just brush them off you go about the day. And then the next day I go out for field to do my bird banding. And I just remember my my shoes were so unbearably tight and I couldn't figure out why. I literally took off my shoes and my feet exploded like they ballooned and like pink and purple. And I'm like, Oh that doesn't look good. But I'm like I'm trying to like play it off because like I also have like this calculus test coming up someone I'm gonna pass this I can't miss class. So I'm literally limping across class across campus in like 90 degree weather. And I was like, I'm fine. And then a friend of mine convinced me like you need to go to the infirmary. And so she helped me walk, hobble over the there. And the nurses like we need to take you to urgent care. And the whole the whole, ride I'm like, What am I going to do my mom. My mom is going to flip, which she  did, because I needed to use her insurance for the medicine. Naturally, I had to tell her what was going on and she's like what's so so then so to this day, even still when she comes down here when she sees ants or just fire and she stomps on them. She's like, take that.

Nic 
Yeah, not on my baby. How dare you.

Sierra Taliaferro  
Kind of like the audacity.

Nic
Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. It's love.

Sierra Taliaferro
Yeah, it's love. That's it.

Laura 
Oh, yeah, this is the kind of experience that every toddler in Florida has. You got the toddler experience with college because we all we learned that growing up and it still happens. You'll get them your whole life. Oh, soon as you're paying attention to something else. They're like, Okay, it's time to go.

Nic  
They're like waiting. Here's our time.

Sierra Taliaferro 
I know it. They covered my feet.I mean, they covered me.

Laura 
And you know, anytime we're in the field with someone you have to be like, Whoa, fire ants. You know. You're always warning other people where to step.

Sierra Taliaferro  
And I was just I hadn't experienced that. And man, did I have a wild ride of a lifetime?

Laura 
 Yeah. So let's bring that back to the stepping stone for the urban community which is a lot of times community gardens are scary. Still outdoors still plants. Not quite as scary, right? Yeah. Are you I know you have some work with urban gardens. Right now?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Not yet. Not at least I'm still exploring the South Florida growing community, so I'm connected with a lot of urban farmers. I support local farmers. I go to the farmers market every weekend, shout out to Yellow Green farmers market. I'd love to support those local farmers because they need our support more than anything, especially during like the pandemic where they have such a high food waste rate. And it just hurts my spirit because there's so much energy that goes into growing food and people don't realize that when they go into the grocery store. And so that's where I tried to bring that that teaching into what I do with urban gardening and even with like my students or just people in general, like you see it wrapped in plastic, but do you know how the energy took to just grow the seed or watering aspect? Because it's more than just growing food is what the garden teaches you. It teaches you you know, dedication and patience and time and abundance. And then when you really work hard you literally get the fruits of your labor. And so I love, love the garden because it teaches us so much about life in general. We all start from this dark space, and with the right nutrients and resources, we can bloom to our full potential to be just a help to others to nurture them and provide abundance for them too.

Laura 
Yeah, that's awesome. I know that you often hear people will say well, eating healthy is too expensive, especially when people are talking about becoming vegetarian or something like that. It's too expensive. Of course what you said there's a lot goes into making food well, if you're encouraging people to grow their own food or eat healthier, and people's thing is like well, I can't because it's too expensive. You know,

Sierra Taliaferro 
I'm all about balling on a budget. You know,

Laura 
even in college, you know,

Sierra Taliaferro  
listen period. balling on a budget is very it's very real for people. And so I really tried to emphasize the importance of finding the best buckk, the best deal for your buck. And so sometimes that's you I'm all about coupons. I'm all coupons my goodness. You know, but not just coupons, but like we're in comparison and contrast for some of the items that you have, or that you want to have. You may not find it necessarily in store for a cheaper price than that you would at the farmers market and sometimes it's vice versa. That's not to say the things that at the farmers market are cheaper. You know, it's it might be quality, but it also you're dealing with a different bracket. You know, you're going straight to the middle man or middle woman, sometimes in be mindful of that, but it's definitely especially with inflation right now. It's a challenging medium. It's a challenging medium to maneuver. And it's going to change, it's going to adjust according depending on the people and depending on their circumstances if they have a larger family. That also takes into account too. So it's hard to tell people how to be less how to have this particular circumstance be less hardening on their pocket. If I can't really know their circumstances but I can give them resources. That's the best thing like where the best deals might be or where you can get it for cheaper because I love putting you on. Like why you buy over there when is when is that all these for $2.99? You know, because you just gotta beat the system. I mean, the system is its high out here period. And I can't lie so it's just about you know, being a community and letting our our community let us know like somewhere where I may not see someone else may have and they can tell me oh, there's a deal going on at Target. Or get this deal right now before it's too late. You know, stuff like that. That's why at least that's what I do.

Nic 
My whole life right there. You just described everyone's

Sierra Taliaferro 
sometimes even at farmer's markets, like you might get something cheaper at this farmers market as opposed to another one because that farmer is selling it a little bit less. It just really depends and that's what variety comes in. So just expanding your wheelhouse of where you go. It's also important.

Laura  
I think what I'm hearing is like don't just say it's too expensive and then that's your end, you know, explore figure out where you can get things because there are deals out there to be had right?

Nic  
Yeah, on as we're wrapping up you know you have a seamless segue from food to Harry Potter and

Sierra Taliaferro
I live for Harry Potter references.

Nic
I mean we heard, we heard that you're a die hard Harry Potter. I don't know I don't know who told us. So wierd.

Sierra Taliaferro
I should've brought my wand, and my cape. My house robes.

Nic
Yeah right. I love that. So, what house are you?

Sierra Taliaferro 
I'm Gryffindor all day. It's been proven. I've taken the tests and

[Harry Potter]

Nic 
I knew that wasn't what's gonna happen how deep is the obsession go but I think we know actually. It's pretty deep. So what got you onto? Why Harry Potter? Why do you love it?

Sierra Taliaferro 
Man, I used to read the books when I was a kid. I was a book nerd. Bookworm to the core. I would rather read a book and go shopping with my mom. That was me. That was me. And it is still kind of me to some extent. But I really, I just dove right into this series. Like I like I said, I'd love to read and my mom kind of picked up on that and it was all the praise when I was younger when it was just coming out. And I just fell in love with it. Just book after book. I'd even go to just like the premiere of the premiere showings that they would have and

Nic 
In your house robes? Did you dress up as well.

Sierra Taliaferro 
In my house robes. You know, just it was just, it's more than just like the series or just like the franchise that they've created, right? It's what the book itself the timeline or the storyline, what it represents. It represents sometimes real life like you have a good group of friends that you start off with. And you face a lot of these challenges together. You face a lot of well now I understand it college or like being in school in general. You know, like, like, I can tell you like when I got to college, I couldn't wait to call my teachers professors. I'm really good. Fit. I really, I'm sure they're sick of me. Professor Guido, how do you know? I'd love to do it, but it's just like the whole genre represents just life challenges and experiences that you go through and how Harry in particular and all of his people that are all of the characters that were in that series. All of them go through different experiences that are relatable. That was the main thing. It was very relatable to a lot of the stuff that was going on in the book that happens in real life. You know whether you may have a big family like the Weasleys you know, or you may have a professor that you just despise, that actually really loves you. Professor Snape RIP. There will never be another you know, so that's what I took into reading the book since it was when I got older. That's what I realized it was more than just the franchise itself. It was actually just what all of those characters are represented and represented a lot of people that I know, you know, and so on to this day. I'm a book nerd. I listen

Laura 
Have you move on to Fantastic Beasts?

Sierra Taliaferro  
Oh, most definitely. It's like the adult version of Harry Potter and I'm here for it. No matter if I always saw myself in this moment during the holidays. I have to watch a Harry Potter movie. I'ts just by routine. Oh yeah. But if it ever comes up on TV, I'm watching it. I'm definitely watching it. I'm stopping whatever I'm doing. Oh, Chamber of Secrets is on?  Where's this?Gonna get comfortable.

Nic 
It's not even the best one. It's just just a one. That was absolutely perfect.

Laura 
That's great. You always have something that will bring you joy, and that's wonderful.

Sierra Taliaferro 
That's the most important thing. You know, we're not here long enough to do the things that don't make us happy. Yeah. And I really emphasize that even as I get older, in this day and age where the pandemic and we're losing a lot of loved ones, we are just here. We're just not here long enough to not do the things that make us happy or bring us authentic joy. So I just I tell people just you know, how are you maintaining joy, especially I had to change my language during COVID like our people maintaining joy in this hard time and so I still ask that not only maintaining joy, what is how was joy to fun for you? Because that's different for everyone. Right Harry Potter brings me joy. Wine brings me joy. Lasagna and mango season brings me joy.

Laura 
This dinner, TMDL, Harry Potter date just getting better and better. But speaking of, so we're getting close to the end of our time here. So what's on deck for you in the coming year? Oh, do you already have a list.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yeah. And I'm hoping to just broaden the concept of what diversity in conservation can be and what it can look like. And exploring topics, perhaps a documentary of some kind. Definitely focused around water especially within this realm of water conservation and water justice. But bringing a more visual component to you that's more realistic. Not saying that it's not realistic already, but a different perspective of it but especially being down here in Florida whether you have your living on the coast, or like in Biscayne Bay, or even my other heart, which is the freshwater springs in Florida. I absolutely love. Bringing that perspective into especially fresh water bringing that perspective to life in a different capacity is what I want to explore within this upcoming year. So let's see what happens.

Laura 
Awesome. Anything else you want to mention before we jump off?

Sierra Taliaferro 
I'm just so grateful. I hope that people continue to cultivate joy and love and abundance in whatever capacity works for them. Continue to watch out for the Green Obsidian.  It only goes up from here.

Laura 
Well thank you so much. This has been great. We have really enjoyed talking to you and tell people where they can get touch with you.

Sierra Taliaferro 
Yes, you can get in touch with me on LinkedIn with my URL, Sierra T. Or you can connect with me on Facebook, either through my regular handle or the Green Obsidian as well.

Laura 
Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.

[Outro]

Laura
That's our show. Thank you Sierra, for joining us today. This has been a lot of fun. We also want to thank our sponsor Integrity Environmental. Check them out at www.integrity-env.com Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Bye.

Nic
See you everybody.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai