Skimmer Says... What is DNERR?

Welcome to our first episode in this limited-time podcast series! Today we start by introducing your hosts, explaining the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR), and providing a brief description of Delaware. Listen to or watch this episode to find out who we are and how we fit in with the state and federal government, as well as our local communities. 
*Blackbird Creek is located in New Castle County 

To contact the education team about an education program or volunteer event, email us at dnerrprograms@delaware.gov.

You can follow us on Facebook at @DNERR, Instagram at @delawarenerr or on X at @DNERR.

Transcript

Welcome to the first episode of Skimmer Says an estuarine podcast from the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. We’re your hosts, I’m Laurel, I'm the Education Coordinator. I'm Sadie, I'm the Community Engagement Specialist. And I'm Akshay, the Assistant Education Coordinator. And together we comprise the Education Team at the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. We do a lot of fun things, including this podcast here that Sadie's going to tell you about in a minute.

But we also do a lot of work with schools, teachers, the community, social media, the public, volunteer programs, animal care, you name it - we have our hands in it. So we are really excited to be launching this podcast. Skimmer Says that Sadie is going to tell you about in just a second, and we hope that you're here along for the ride.

Yeah. So Skimmer Says is a limited time series that the education team crafted up just as a way to be able to educate the public a little bit better, have it more accessible to anyone who wants to listen. So here on Skimmer says we'll talk a lot about science and nature related topics. Just going back to the local community environment and research projects happening at the Delaware NERR.

Yeah, we have a really great team here at the Reserve. We have a lot of scientists, educators, obviously, and a great stewardship team and admin team. So we are really excited to bring those people to you that we enjoy spending so much time with so that you can hear a little bit about the work that we're doing from day to day.

As Laurel and Sadie both mentioned earlier that we are the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve, but what exactly does that entail? You know, so DNERR, the Delaware National Research Reserve, is a partnership between two organizations - that is the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Well, that's a lot of words, but essentially, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has 30 other NERRS around the country, and they partner with other government organizations such as DNREC, or colleges and universities.

And basically these NERRS are on coast, the Great Lakes and in other places such as Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. So they're all in estuaries and they're very, very cool places to go. I'd love to visit the Alaska Reserve. I would too. It would be wonderful. I would too. It’s a little cold outside. I'm sure of that. It's cold outside, I’m thikning. I’ll bundle up. Maybe Hawaii or Puerto Rico?

Oh my gosh. Yeah, Yeah. It's a little cold. So I think that Alaska might wait till my summer bucket list, but absolutely it's on the checklist that I would like to go to. Well, I mean, you've already been to Hawaii, so you're already ahead of us, I mean. The Hawaii Reserve is amazing and they do really great work there.

And it is absolutely beautiful. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to make a NERR bucket list myself because so far this is the only one I've been to, but I still have 29 more to go. Well, you guys are both pretty fresh in your reserve journeys. I've been here for about five years as the education coordinator, and I'm really happy to have Sadie and Akshay on my team.

So can you tell us a little bit about what your jobs entail and how long you guys have been here? Okay, I can go first. So as a community engagement specialist, my position is relatively new. I work on social media content. So if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you're welcome. And I work with volunteers. Just general outreach opportunities so tabling events and things like our Blackbird Creek Fall Festival that we hold the third Saturday in October of every year.

Sadie spent a lot of time working on that this year. Yeah, I've been working here for I think about eight months, since April. Yeah, I am the assistant education coordinator and since Laurel is the education coordinator, essentially our positions are pretty similar. However, my job is working on programs that we put out toward schools and the community and the public.

So I do a lot of work and trying to get all the research in the fun science we do here at the estuary. I'm trying to figure out fun ways to get that out to you guys so you can actually engage and learn something because it's really, really cool the amount of work that we do here. So yeah, and so as the education coordinator, I work a lot with teachers and schools.

We love to go into classrooms. So if you're looking for some education resources, we are happy to work with any teachers that are interested and just kind of overseeing the day to day education opportunities for what the Reserve is involved with. So I have a really great team here and I'm really looking forward to diving in on this newest outreach project with the two of them.

But we do want to give you a little bit of context so you know who we are. You're going to get to see a lot of us over the next 13 months. So but we wanted to give you a little bit of context as to who DNERR is and who Delaware is. I want to say that that's maybe not one of the places that most people also add to their bucket list is the state of Delaware.

We get a lot of Delaware? Is that in Ohio? Dela-what? Dela-where? Exactly. So we are really excited to introduce you a little bit to our state. As far as I know, all three of us grew up here in Delaware, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we are we have a soft spot for the state of Delaware. So we're going to give you your very quick Delaware facts so that it puts it into a little bit of context of where we are on the country.

We are on the East Coast, specifically in the mid-Atlantic region. So we are right next to Maryland. Virginia is right below us and New Jersey is right above us. So across the bay, Right across the bay. So we are so excited to be on this little peninsula, which is of area of land surrounded by three on three sides with water.

So we're excited to be on this little peninsula. Some other fun Delaware facts - Akshay, what do you got for us? Okay. First of all, I can think of is the the state dance of Delaware is the maypole. And I just learned this one from our friends down at the John Dickinson Plantation. But I don't know what the maypole is.

I don't know how to dance as the maypole or perform the maypole. I believe that there is a pole - it’s a pole with ribbons and you go around in circles. Yeah, I think it's a colonial dance. But it's easy enough. I could probably learn that. I think you could. I think that if you talk to our friends over at the John Dickinson, they would be happy to teach you all about the maypole dance.

I know that. I believe they do it at Dover days. yeah. And May Day. There is May Day on May 1st. May Day as in the maypole Day. Like everyone may. that is really neat. Okay, well, that's a fun fact about Delaware, the maypole. Sadie, did you have any fun facts about Delaware? So more common facts might be that the state insect or the state bug is a ladybug.

I love ladybugs, so I hold that one to heart. You have the state beverage, which is Milk. Who would’ve guessed it. And then we have the state bird, which is the blue hen, also found often at the University of Delaware, who are the fighting blue hens. I was thinking that when I was thinking about fun Delaware facts. I love where your brains went to the May the maypole dance and the state bug.

I was thinking a little bit about Delaware. Delaware is our first state in the country. I feel like everyone, most people, know Delaware for being the first state. So it's like, you know, like we could talk about other things, though. Delaware is special in other ways. I still think there's bragging rights for us that we're the first state. I think that that's super fun. It is pretty cool.

It is also on our license plates. If you've ever seen a Delaware tag. Yeah, we are not the smallest state that is not us. I think that's Rhode Island. Rhode Island is the smallest. We're the second, smallest state, but we're still the first state and we only have three counties. So from top to bottom, you have New Castle County, Kent County and Sussex County.

Our Reserves are located in Kent County. Yeah, Kent County. And from the top to the bottom of Delaware is about 96 miles long. So that's your longest distance, top to bottom, very short. The width is much shorter, though. Yeah. And apparently you can hike the whole width in a day. It's probably like 20 or 30 miles, which isn't much at all for if you're an avid hiker.

Unless you go to the smallest width part. I think that's like eight miles. Yeah, this is true. If you go further north, that's going to be much shorter hike than it is down south, but definitely doable for and both areas actually. So we are from a relatively flat state. There's not a lot of hills unless you get into Upper New Castle County. You start touching Pennsylvania.

Yeah, I think the tallest point in Delaware is called the Ebright Azimuth, and it's somewhere in the 400 feet. I think it's like 446. Yep. So not not very tall, Not very tall at all. But we are also the lowest lying state in the nation, which makes the work that we do here in estuaries really, really important.

So Akshay, do you want to tell us a little bit about estuaries? Yeah. So we've mentioned estuary a couple of times already, but it's just dawned on me that not everyone knows what an estuary is. And as the education team, it's pretty important that we educate everyone on estuaries. So essentially estuaries are two chemically distinct bodies of water that meet and mix, and these can be fresh and it's usually fresh and saltwater.

However, there are locations that that isn't just fresh in saltwater, it's other types of water. So estuaries are extremely important because they are biodiversity hotspots and that provides coastal buffers. And it's actually these buffers are really important also because A, they filter pollutants and B, they prevent erosion, flooding and other coastal damage. So without estuaries, all of our ecosystems where the oceans and the rivers and other bodies of water mix would not be the same, they would be they would have a lot more contaminants.

And these locations ultimately just would struggle a lot more. So estuaries are important. Yeah. As I mentioned, Delaware is the lowest lying state in the country. So I feel like the work that we do here at the Reserve is really important to study that. The mission of the Reserve is to foster coastal stewardship, provide education. That's what we do, and outreach, promote informed coastal decision making.

So I think that that is really tied into all of the work that we do here at the Reserve. We are made up by four core programs. You have the education team and we love to talk about ourselves, but I think that we've told you a lot about what it is that we do. We have the research team.

Research is our middle name here at the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. So they're working they're working a lot on things such as surface elevation tables, our sets, our systemwide monitoring program. They are burying tea bags in the marsh and seeing how long they take to decompose. A little teaser. A little teaser. Teaser. They are doing a lot of really important work here at the Reserve and we love to see what it is that they do.

Our stewardship team works a lot on taking care of our land and protecting our land. So they are working on restoration projects, tree plantings, things of that nature. And our coastal training program is working directly with decision makers and municipalities to help make informed coastal decisions. And we would be lost without our administrative team, with our manager Rachael and our administrative assistant, Colleen.

Yeah, So the Delaware NERR actually has two components. Both are estuaries. We have the St Jones, which is located in Dover. That is the middle point of Kent County. It is the state capital. Whoop whoop. St. Jones has a trail that leads into the Ted Harvey Wildlife Area and another trail that connects over to the John Dickinson Plantation.

We have our education building or yeah, we're open visitor center so you can come inside and visit us. Yeah. So we're open. Our visitor center is open on weekdays and Monday through Friday from 8 to 4, excluding all federal and state holidays. But our grounds are open dawn to dusk at both of our reserve locations. So the second one is the Blackbird Creek Reserve, which is located in Townsend, just below Middletown.

And that one has a variety of different trails, all different lengths and a public access to a kayak and canoe launch. But the St Jones River connects to the Delaware Bay. Meanwhile, the Blackbird Creek connects to the Delaware River into the Delaware Bay. Yeah. So both both estuaries, we find that our water down at the St Jones is a little bit saltier than our water at the Blackbird Creek.

But we love both of our estuaries the same. So you keep talking about estuaries, Laurel, so what's your favorite part of the estuary? That is a hard question. I love it all. I love the fact that estuaries are nursery grounds for a lot of fish and little animals that are coming to live here. I think that it's really important to jumpstart and take care of our wildlife.

So I love the fact that the estuary provides a place for that to happen. What about you? Okay, let me paint you a picture. All right. So I've been working at the St Jones Reserve for the last few months, and one of my favorite parts is actually the drive up. And so imagine a safari driveway. So our driveway is like a mile long and it's just a gravel road.

And on the left side you see a beautiful meadow. The early morning running around. Like sometimes you'll see whitetail deer. Every now and then you might see a red fox. And then the right side you see a bunch of trees and shrubs, all native species from Delaware. This safari driveway, I think is the most enjoyable because you just get to see so much nature every morning or every time you come to the estuary.

And I think it's really beautiful. Yeah. Sadie? So I think that my favorite thing about the estuary, especially here, you can just go out onto the boardwalk and you can take a look at the whole estuary. There's a lot of different views and a lot of different beautiful things about each and every estuary, and I think that's very special.

You know, I think it's really interesting that none of you mentioned the smell. I knew you were going to say the smell. I love knowing what I'm getting into work because it smells like rotten eggs. But I think that just means that our marshes being really productive. So I think that you grow accustomed to the smell and it really is a fun addition.

Yeah. Don't let the smell deter you from coming to the estuary. You might smell bad, but you get used to it pretty fast, honestly. Then it's a good time, just like Laurel said. So yeah, well, I think that that's all that we have for you today. We're really excited to go on this journey with you for the next 13 months.

In the meantime, that's what the Skimmer Says. Next month we're going to be talking a little bit about volunteer opportunities and how you can get involved in working with us and hanging out with us. So in the meantime, stay tuned. We'll see you next month. Bye bye. Bye.