Amelia Fitch - Researcher in Forest Ecosystems

Amelia grew up in Astoria, the daughter of foresters. Through experiences working at Ft. Clatsop, going on a wilderness camp and her U of O education, she's taken on a passion for research in forest ecosystems leading to a Phd in Vermont.

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Transcript

Jan Johnson  2:28  

Today's guest is Amelia Fitch, she lives currently in Vermont, and she's working on a doctorate that leads her to forest ecosystems. Good morning, Amelia.

 Jan Johnson  3:04  

 And so, this is going to be kind of exciting. I got to meet with you last week about a possible scholarship. So that was kind of fun, to get to hear the things that you're doing that you're kind of an exciting person, I think.  And then I first knew you because you were working with my daughter, Sidney at Ft. Clatsop. So, tell me a little bit some of the things that you did there.

Amelia  3:33  

Yeah, at Fort Clatsop we were on a trail crew, so building and maintaining trails, about half the time and then the other half of our time was spent trekking through the forest looking for and pulling invasive species, sometimes on the creek as well. But it was a lot of fun and a lot of time outdoors. Definitely was one of my experiences that helped solidify that I was okay, doing a lot of hard work outside and that a field work-based career would be a good idea.

Jan Johnson  4:09  

It sounds like a lot of fun. I know that Sidney enjoyed herself and had some silly times and camaraderie and friendships that were built along the way as well.

Amelia  4:24  

Oh, definitely. Yeah,  We always we had a really good time.

Jan Johnson  4:30  

 So now currently, what are you passionate about?

Amelia  4:34  

So, in terms of my current academic career side of things, like you said, a PhD, that's gonna lead me to forest ecosystems. So, while I was at Fort Clatsop, and we were helping out on some of the research or some of the restoration side of things, you know, restoring the wetlands and the slough that used to be pasture, I got really interested in what was happening, like with the sediment in the soil because we were working a lot on plant communities and monitoring how plant communities were changing. 

Amelia  5:08  

And I, I wondered how that was affecting, like carbon storage and the way nutrients were being cycled. So that led me to pursuing research and a degree in ecology. And so right now I'm working in forest ecosystems in the Northeast. I live in Vermont, and I get to study how forests interact with microbes that live in the soil, and vice versa. So, things are above ground and below ground communities are interacting a lot and affecting a lot of things that we care about, like how soil stores carbon, and how tree communities are changing and where trees grow. And what I really want to do with my degree, what I’m passionate about, to finally answer your question is, is kind of applying all of this knowledge about how these ecosystems work, and seeing or applying that to, like forest management and the world of timber industry. And I guess a good way to put it is finding a balance between all these things we care about, you know, both having wood as a product, but also doing Forest Practices in the best way possible to protect and preserve wildlife ecosystem processes, like the ones that I study, and figuring out how to balance all those, you know, stakeholder needs.

Jan Johnson  6:43  

Do you think that there's anybody that would not benefit from your studies? And this kind of working towards balancing all of this?

Jan Johnson  6:57  

I wonder if there's anybody who would not benefit from this?

Amelia  7:02  

Oh, yeah, yeah, no kidding.  I can't think of anything off the top of my head. But yeah, I feel like the forest provide so much in so many different ways.

Jan Johnson  7:17  

Yeah. Because it's just so life giving all the way around the world. It's not just locally, it's something that transfers your information to other things. What about when you start thinking about getting into this program, it didn't turn out to be like you thought it would be? Or has it been different?

Amelia  7:39  

 I think, because I had a good taste of what research was like, as an undergrad, I was I thought I was prepared for graduate school in a lot of ways, I think some of the unexpected things, which also kind of ties into how I have persisted in getting a degree and sometimes it's a challenge that I face. 

Amelia  8:05  

So, imposter syndrome is pretty widespread. I think a lot of people deal with imposter syndrome. And I think I didn't expect it to be something that I still felt in graduate school, you know, because an undergrad, you think, okay, I’m so new to this, I'm just getting into it. You know, you see other graduate students, and they seem so smart, like, knowledgeable and like, you have been doing this for decades, or I could never be that person. And then I get to graduate school. And I'm like, Okay, I'm doing this, I’m doing the things and it's going well, but I feel it still, it doesn't go away.  You have to actively fight against it. I don't know, the best way to put it is, but I still think about sometimes, you know, oh, I'm, you know, not as good as this person. Right? You know, I'm not sure I can, do this academic career. And so, it takes practice to set small goals and remind myself of the things that I have done and are currently doing that are cool.

Jan Johnson  9:17  

I think that goes for all kinds of stages of things. I feel the same way with my writing. It's like, Am I really a writer? Or am I just somebody who thinks they might be something like this, but you just keep going. But I think what helps along the way is to have other undergrads that see what you're doing and they think you’re the greatest - how could they possibly attain to what you're doing?

Amelia  9:47  

I do really enjoy working with undergrads. That's been a definite highlight of grad school is getting to work with people who are younger students and want to get into this kind of thing and I can help them do that in a small way.

Jan  10:00  

And I'm sure that your enthusiasm is contagious. Also, I bet your parents are proud of you.

Amelia  10:10  

Yeah, I think it’s funny, it's come a little bit full circle, because they're both foresters. And for a very long time, I was like, I'm not going to do forestry or I'm not going to do the same thing that they do. And then, you know, here I am studying for key forest ecosystems wanting to get in back into the forestry world. And anyway, it's kind of funny, but yeah, I think they're proud.

Jan Johnson  10:34  

And do you see yourself staying on the East Coast? Are you going to come back to Oregon

Amelia  10:42  

I am hoping to come back to Oregon, I do really like living. Here, Vermont is awesome. I've made some really good friends. And I bought a house and I'm fixing it up. And that's also been really fun and challenging. But I I just feel drawn to the Pacific Northwest. And you know, I love Oregon, because I grew up there.  I would be happy to end up in Oregon or Washington, you know, working on this kind of thing. I'm not totally sure if I will continue to pursue an academic track. But I know that I love doing research. And I want to keep doing that and making the biggest impact that I can on, in sustainable forestry.

Jan Johnson  11:29  

So when you were in high school, you went on a trail up in the rainforest. Correct? 

Amelia  11:36  

Yeah, so I got to do this awesome program in the middle of high school for three weeks in North Cascades National Park. And it was this completely free program, I got to meet students from other places in the Pacific Northwest. And the program was centered on climate change and how our ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest and specifically in North Cascades, higher elevation, places, how those ecosystems work, but also how they were changing already with climate change, which, you know, this was a decade ago, it was 11 years ago, actually. Yeah, it was a long time ago. Oh, man. 

Amelia  12:21  

 But at that time, it felt like a new concept. It felt like climate change affecting our ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest, this is such a haven for just, the most amazing weather and seasons. But we were able to learn some really interesting things and look at glaciers and how they've changed. We go to talk to experts in their fields about a lot of different things, fish bears, glaciers. And that was just so awesome. 

And I felt like, okay, you know, this is what I want to do, I want to be like these people, the graduate students who are leading the trip, I was there with such great role models. And so that definitely led me to pursuing research and you know, going to study biology in college in the first place. But it's also interesting to think back about that and how, like I said, how new a concept it was that climate change is already affecting the places where we live, and now it's just like, it's everywhere. 

Jan Johnson  13:28  

I saw somebody post a picture of Mount St. Helens with no snow on it. And apparently, that's the first time in forever with no snow.

Amelia  13:45  

I went to Mount Hood this year when I was visiting family and it looks so different from the years that I remember.  So little snow. Yeah. So, if the climate crisis is here, I mean, it's been here for decades, but now we're really feeling the effects that this kind of rolling ball was put into motion years and years and years ago, and now we're feeling those effects. You know, I don't think it's too late.  We don't really have any choice we have to change things and that's part of part of the reason well, a huge reason why I'm doing this kind of research is because across all of the things that we need to change, I want to help make forestry something that we can do sustainably to both positively affect where our climate is going. But continue to give us a resource that is so much less potent in carbon emissions than other materials that we use like concrete.  

I mean, it's hard to see forest cut down like that. It feels very personal sometimes and it even hurts me to see that but it helps for me to be a researcher in that and to know what goes on, what happens even at the end of the season? So, for example, in, one of my research projects here in Vermont is understanding how after tracts of forest are cut, depending on what trees are growing there before, you know, what trees can we plant there that will do really well. So, kind of thinking about like tree species shifting with climate change, but also invasive pests and, you know, fungi there, there are several tree species that are on the way out here in the northeast, Ash and beech, and also possibly have walked. So, anyway, we're trying to figure out, Okay, what's going to go on with these tree communities? And then long term, like, what is that going to do to the soil properties. But right now, we're just tracking trees. So even from the forest being cut several months ago, and then we replanted, there's still a lot of natural regeneration. And the other the herbaceous communities, the shrubs and the small plants that don't normally get that much sunlight, like they have just exploded across these plots. And it was really cool to see that happen so fast. And I know, I've been seeing like footprints of deer, like browsing here and there throughout there, because it's kind of an open meadow. Now, it's really cool to see. And I know that there are a lot of flowers that I hadn't seen before. And those are good for pollinators. So, it’s good to think about it. For me, it's like a longer term, even on the scale of like, a year. 

Jan Johnson  16:48  

Yeah, that's exciting. Well, I was even as you're speaking, you know, thinking about how this research could possibly benefit. The increase in dryness and forest fires, and, you know, maybe replanting different ways or, you know,

Amelia  17:07  

Yeah, definitely, there's, there's so many different ways that we need to kind of understand our forests, both in the context of how we use them, but also how our changing climate is going to affect them. So like wildfire, maybe use prescribed burn, and uneven age standard management. So, I actually just recently read a paper about some research group who looked at how, when you cut forests, leaving that bigger older tree helped. With forest regeneration, it helped longer term carbon storage. So even very small changes like that can be really impactful for a regenerating forest community. And like some of those numbers that we're after, like increased carbon storage, and, that kind of thing. 

On just playing devil's advocate, because we have to think about, both of the research and  the ecosystem, but also on the production or extraction side of things, when you are thinning a forest. And when you are not necessarily clear cutting, but taking trees here and there or making smaller patches, you have to increase your roads. And so, the impact from roads might go up. So all of these things, need to be taken together. They all work together. And they also require a lot of different brains going into it. 

So, one project that I'm super excited about that, hopefully will become a reality is the Elliott state research forest in Oregon. So, it is it is a public forest, and it would continue to be a public forest. But the cool thing about this proposed project is that it would include an advisory committee that's made up of all kinds of different people from different backgrounds. American Indians, foresters, loggers, researchers, environmentalists, from both like, you know, bird people, salmon people. So, there's, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of different brains have to come together to make this work.

Jan Johnson  19:35  

What a great collaboration, huh? Can you tell me a little bit of your vision of doing another hike or creating some kind of a hike for girls?

Amelia  19:48  

Yes.   So, I mentioned the, the program that I got to do in high school in the North Cascades and how impactful that was for me. So, I'm hoping to help start something similar in Oregon. I met an undergraduate student who started a program like this. And it's a backpacking program, where students learn about ecology around them. And she started this program in North Carolina, and then helped other graduate student groups start similar programs in New Mexico and California. And when I heard her give a research talk, and then also talk about this work that she had done, starting this outreach program, I was like, oh, man, this is very similar to what I did as a high school student. And here I am, I could do this to too in the graduate students shoes, so I am still looking for a source of funding, it's very hard to apply for grants, if you are not a nonprofit, or don't have access to a nonprofit. So I either have to start my own nonprofit, or find a funder who would be interested in that kind of work.

Jan Johnson  21:05  

How much do you think it would cost to do that kind of a program?

Amelia  21:08  

The first year, I think it would cost five to $6,000, depending on if I could have gear also donated. I think that's like on me.

Jan Johnson  21:16  

Yeah, like that's attainable. That's not out of the realm, to fund for the start,

Amelia  21:21  

No. And I made a budget. I have my own kind of lesson ideas. But I also have access to this graduate student is like, totally open to working with anyone who wants to start something similar. So, it's like a nice support network already. And, oh, I want to mention, I think the best thing that could come out of this project is, it's for women and students who are gender non- conforming. Just to help those kinds of students, get into this kind of research, because academia is still a lot more male dominated.  Part of the program would be students doing their own mini research project, which is so important for, just building confidence and working together and that kind of thing.

Jan Johnson  22:21  

At the end, would it be possible for me to put contact for you in case somebody listening here would like to help with that?

Amelia  22:29  

Yeah, absolutely.

Jan Johnson  22:31  

Okay, that'd be great. Tell me, what are you doing for fun? Besides, you know, this work?  What are the kinds of things do you do? What hobbies or activities that you like to do?

Amelia  22:44  

Sure. Well, when I moved to Vermont, I adopted a dog. So, he goes on lots of adventures, with me and my partner. One of the many things he loves is going mountain biking. So, we've been we've been training him the last couple of summers to be a good mountain bike dog— not to get in front of the bike, because you can get pulled over. That's been really fun to see him kind of come into that and learn, grow and go with us on mountain biking adventures.  Oh, sorry, we got a lab.  He's a cattle dog. His name's Waldo. I named after Waldo Lake in Oregon. But it's just a good name. Because anyone can connect with that with that name. Yeah, where's Waldo.

Jan Johnson  23:36  

And you like to bake. I like to bake.

Amelia  23:38  

And Jan, I don't know if you remember this. But you were the first person to give me sourdough starter when I was in college. And I tried it out a little bit. And that particular starter didn't last all those years. But I got back into it when I started this graduate program. And it was really fun. It was a good distraction during the pandemic to kind of lean into the sourdough and try all kinds of new recipes. Yeah,

Jan Johnson  24:08  

Yeah. Baking is always fun. Because there's always a reward at the end.

Amelia  24:14  

Yes, yeah. Definitely. To get a little love language. Yes, good to give to friends and really nice to bring to potlucks or get togethers.

Jan Johnson  25:20  

All right Amelia, Thank you so much for sharing who you are and I wish you the best in what you're doing.

Amelia  25:49  

Oh, thanks, Jan. It was good to see you too. Okay. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai