There is a lot to learn when you call a place as ecologically rich as Aquidneck Island home. From forest to grasslands, freshwater wetlands, streams, ponds, and coastline, Norman Bird Sanctuary’s 300 acres are central to a wealth of habitats and species. This diversity gives us an extraordinary opportunity to observe, study, and understand the natural world around us, while using what we learn to inform how we care for the land and educate the public.
For years, Norman Bird Sanctuary staff, students, interns, and volunteers have been monitoring wildlife, studying watershed health, documenting changes in our habitats, and building a deeper understanding of the ecosystems we protect. That work has led to meaningful discoveries and analysis that helps guide our conservation practices. We are excited to build on that foundation and create the capacity to go even deeper in the year ahead.
With that in mind, we are excited to welcome Kathleen Matthews and Isabella “Bella” Villanueva to the Norman Bird Sanctuary in full-time conservation positions. Both Kathleen and Bella came to NBS as service members of TerraCorps, an AmeriCorps program that places emerging conservation professionals with environmental organizations across Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Kathleen has spent the past two years as a TerraCorps Land Stewardship Coordinator, helping us develop and expand our Water Quality Monitoring program.
As our new Water Quality and Conservation Coordinator, she will continue growing the program, working with our properties team, volunteers, and students to expand our ability to study watershed health. Her work with aquatic macro invertebrates and other indicators will build a stronger understanding of our waterways and the ecosystems they support.
Over the past year, Bella has created a wildlife monitoring program using trail cameras and other tools to better document and understand the wildlife found across the Sanctuary. Her work led to the first sighting of otters on the property in ten years! As our Wildlife and Conservation Coordinator, Bella will continue our monitoring efforts and use what we learn about wildlife behavior to help guide our habitat management and conservation practices.
With dedicated staff focused on water quality and wildlife, we can build long-term monitoring programs, collect more data, analyze changes and patterns over time, and use what we learn to make increasingly informed decisions about the natural and cultural resources we protect.
It also means even more opportunities to bring that work into the classroom and the field. Students of all ages will continue to participate in real research happening at the Sanctuary – learning to monitor nesting boxes, identify aquatic macro invertebrates, document wildlife, and collect data about the habitats around them.
At the Norman Bird Sanctuary, conservation, education, and community are deeply connected. The more we learn about the land, the more informed our conservation can be and the more we study the natural world, the more opportunities we have to invite students into that discovery. We are excited to see Kathleen and Bella advance that work in these new roles. If you see them on campus during your next visit, be sure to say hello!
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