Hi! My name is Fiona Monahan. I’m a senior at Reed College in Portland, Oregon completing a degree in environmental studies concentrated in biology. I applied to work for IRWA because I had heard amazing things about their restoration and conservation work and felt that their mission aligned with my enthusiasm for informed stewardship.
I am passionate about restoration and about rebuilding our connection to the land. I believe that we can’t restore an ecosystem without first restoring our relationship to the land. I’m an avid backpacker, climber, mountain biker, and bird watcher. Recently I have enjoyed paddling the Ipswich River after work to listen to the birds and admire the beauty of the natural communities that call this watershed their home.
This summer I have been lucky to be working for IRWA as an intern on the restoration team. I love the variability of my job. I get to analyze data in RStudio, work in the field to survey culverts, process bacteria samples, and recently have worked on grant writing. There are also days where I can be found carrying kayaks, helping people sign in to go paddle, or tearing down shelves for our “garage clean out extravaganza” day. It has been amazing to find real world applications for the skills I have been developing in college, and to learn more about this specific ecosystem.
I enjoy data analysis and data science, and have become proficient in RStudio. I have been able to utilize my skills in the coding language “R” to process data that IRWA has collected and have begun to make an interactive dashboard using the RStudio package “shiny” to display our data in a user-friendly way. While analyzing this data I have been struck by the dedication and care our staff and volunteers have shown for stewardship of the Ipswich River Watershed. So many people have spent time working towards investigating the health of our river and ensuring that our stewardship practices come from a place of informed care.
Learning about this amazing ecosystem has been incredibly rewarding, getting to know the red-winged black bird, the great blue heron, the peeper frog, the red oak, and unfortunately the mosquitoes has led me to a greater appreciation for this ecological community and all its members.
Come find me on the river, or coding in the office!