Gadgets, Gizmos and Good Science: Measuring Success in the Paulins Kill Watershed, New Jersey
Michelle DiBlasio
The Nature Conservancy (NJ)
Chester, NJ
The New Jersey Chapter’s on-the-ground freshwater work is focused in northwestern New Jersey on the Paulins Kill watershed, which connects to the Kittatinny Ridge, part of the central Appalachian Mountains. Our freshwater restoration strategies have focused on reforesting floodplains and removing dams in more degraded areas of the watershed. Since 2016, we have implemented a 10-Year Measures & Monitoring Plan and now, with 8 years of data, two dam removals complete and over 58,000 trees planted, we are telling the story of watershed health and changes over time—including, we hope, the role that our restoration work may have played in those outcomes. The goal of this session is to share lessons learned from these efforts, demonstrate how to effectively collect scientific data in collaboration with key stakeholder groups and showcase the results of on-the-ground restoration (primarily floodplain reforestation and dam removal) efforts on key biologic and physiochemical indicators of ecosystem health.
About Michelle DiBlasio
Michelle DiBlasio, Freshwater Restoration Manager. Michelle is the Freshwater Restoration Manager for The Nature Conservancy's New Jersey Chapter, where she works closely with upper management staff, regional partners, volunteers, and the community to conserve and restore the unique and biologically rich freshwater systems in Northwest New Jersey. Michelle joined the New Jersey Chapter in 2015 and helps to lead the on-the-ground field efforts, where she oversees the implementation of various freshwater conservation projects ranging from aquatic connectivity projects (i.e., dam removals) to floodplain restoration management, including planning and designing reforestation projects, to collecting, managing, and assessing water quality data for watershed-scale water quality monitoring. During her time with TNC, she has successfully restored over 130 acres of floodplain forest and led a tree planting initiative, where over 100,000 trees were planted throughout NJ's degraded floodplains. She developed a variety of field assessment protocols for a watershed monitoring plan and has led the Chapters 10-year Measure and Monitoring Program since 2016. In 2022, she removed the County Line Dam and is working on several other dam removals in the state. She received her Associates in Communications from Sussex County Community College and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Science from the State University of New York-College of Environmental Science and Forestry.