Check out our website!
Home (el4biodiversity.ca)
Follow us on social media @el4biodiversity for more updates and events!
Check out our website!
Home (el4biodiversity.ca)
Follow us on social media @el4biodiversity for more updates and events!
hello, and welcome to all my fellow polar dippers. I'm your host Meredith Meeker. And this is another episode of how do I do this and environmental career podcast. It officially feels like winter, but that doesn't mean you can't still explore the outdoors. The key is finding new and fun ways to be outside and keep engaging with nature. Our guests this week would be the first to tell you that exploring the great lakes or really any body of water is a great way to do just that. Gregory Ford is the executive director of the Niagara, coastal community collaborative and the great lakes manager of science and operations at swim drink fish. He is passionate about protecting our great lakes and is here to share his story. So let's get into it.
Meredith Meeker:Perfect. All right, Greg, thank you so much for chatting with me today to start us off. Could you just say your full name and your pronouns?
Gregory:Gregory board and my pro nouns are eating him.
Meredith Meeker:Actually. Do you prefer Greg or Greg?
Gregory:Either way works professionally. I go by Gregory with emails. But in person it's correct.
Meredith Meeker:Okay, perfect. So Greg, it's a little gross out here today, but you know, it's warm. So I'll take that as a win. Do you have a favorite activity or thing you like to do outside to connect with?
Gregory:Yeah, definitely. It, for me, it's gotta be paddle sports. So whether it's canoeing or kayaking or paddle boarding, just being on top of the water is always a pretty surreal experience for me, even after I've been doing it for decades. And then mixing that with other hobbies is just, it just makes the experience that much better. So camping with the canoe, definitely reading on a paddleboard, you betcha. I just love being surrounded by water. So as long as I can get that
Meredith Meeker:Okay. Well, I love your answer for that. And I think it's going to really connect well with the next question of right. Can you tell us what you do and why does so important?
Gregory:Sure. Yeah. So I do a couple of things, but they all revolve around the great lakes and the water of the grid. So first and foremost, I'm the executive director of the Niagara coastal community collaborative, which is a collective approach to environments that governments in the Niagara region in Ontario that brings together community groups, governments, educational institutes, and the NGOs together to address these problems in a collaborative. And secondly, I'm also the great lakes, water monitoring manager would spoon Greg fish, Canada, which is a federal charity where I'm responsible for the operation of our community-based water monitoring pumps throughout each of the great lakes. Yeah. And so I do this because, well, first I've just, I love the great lakes I always have. And second, because they're an incredible natural resource to the people of Canada and America and the first nations. I think it's home to approximately 40 million people, two countries, two provinces, eight states and 64 different first nations. So maintaining the health of the resource for everyone is crucial, especially as our great lakes system, starting to experience a high level.
Meredith Meeker:As somebody who lives in Ontario, you know, great lakes are just a huge part of my own personal experience. Especially if I'm outdoors or even in the cities, right. Like Toronto or our biggest city is right on lake Ontario. It's super important to make sure that these systems aren't getting overstressed. And I love that, You love being out on water and you get to help, like really make a difference for these bodies of water through your work. So I'm interested to hear, about your journey. Did it start with your love of water? Like how did you get to where you are now?
Gregory:It definitely started with my love of water. I always knew that I wanted to work outside and I wanted to hear your waters. And I always knew that it was going to be the great lights. When I was around six or seven, my mom took me on a trip around the great lakes. And to this day, it's still one of my most vivid memories. I remember getting into each of the lakes when, well she told me to, but I also remember it being August and all of the lakes were warm except for lake superior. Despite that it was so beautiful. I loved it. I was blown away and I knew that from that point on, in my life, I had to keep coming back to these great lakes because it was my first experience with suction large amounts of water. So I continued with that. And if we fast forward a little bit to 2011, I'd been visiting the great lakes, every chance I could. As soon as I got my driver's license car, I was driving there every week. And I continually remember going to lake Erie to Marvel at some of the coastal wetlands and the bird species that would use them. And just how interesting and how new it was after growing up in the middle of central Ontario or Southern Ontario. I remember going to pili island actually in 2011 and being told that I couldn't swim in the water due to harmful algae. And I was shocked because this was the first time. Someone had told me don't go in the water. And so I knew then I had to redirect my entire education plans to try and address that specific issue. So if we fast forward a couple of years from then I realized I couldn't work on the great lakes without living on the great lakes. So coming from Gwelf, I decided to move to the Niagara region, which is nestled between two of the great lakes where I could start finishing my schooling and start building my network amongst the great. And so that gets me to roughly where I am today.
Meredith Meeker:Wow. A trip around the great lakes. Sounds pretty amazing. Especially right now, a lot of people are looking for more local trips and ways to get outside. So I know I looked at traveling up to lake superior this year. I thought like, if I'm not going to do it now, when am I going to do it? So I think that's such a cool idea. And I think it would be a really interesting experience. I know my, one of my mom's really good friends. This is a little bit off topic, but for Canada, one 50, she decided she would swim in 150 different light. And just that experience of going to like all these different places and I'm sure the same would be for the great lakes. You really get a sense of how important these features are on our landscape and how we need to protect them. And yeah, growing up in Toronto, there would be swim advisories on the beaches. So we need to do a better, better job, I guess, of taking care
Gregory:of them. Well, absolutely. That's a good point. So in 150 different lakes would be such a surreal experience. I like to think of lakes and freshwater as similar to people in that they're all different. They all have their own attitudes. Have different characteristics. And so that would be a very exciting trip. And I remember my trip around the great lakes was just like that each of the lakes and each of the shorelines that I was on, had a different feel to them. I remember like you're being really warm and inviting and just lake superior being well cold, but also majestic seeing like sleeping giant in the background and just the immensity of the way.
Meredith Meeker:Yeah, I'm sure it took you a really long time to also just drive around the lake. So maybe it also gives you a better appreciation for scale, rather than just standing on a shore and, and looking out and not being able to see the other side. It gives you a different perspective.
Gregory:Definitely. And that also introduced my love of camping because we got the camper on the great lakes. So that was pretty phenomenal.
Meredith Meeker:Sounds like a very influential trip for you. So Greg, I guess, speaking of going back to, you know, prior to being established in the Niagara region and with the great lakes work, is there any advice you wish you could give yourself before you started your career or yeah. Any advice?
Gregory:Yeah, I think the big one for me would be to not be afraid of networking and to know the difference between networking and working on. There are lots of people who could go into a conference and meet everyone and exchange cards and ideas, and really work a room. And that's an extremely powerful skill, but I was never one of those people at the start of my career. I think I had the wrong mindset when I would go about it. And I would get in my own head a little bit about like, you know, am I doing the right thing? Do these people think I'm coming on too strong or something like that? Eventually I had a mind set shift, and I started to think of it more as building that network. Not necessarily for me, but everyone in that network, multiple different nodes, talking back and forth effectively, building a community of people that you knew that you could share ideas with. You could get people, sorry, put people in touch with other people's. And I found that for me to be a much better skill to try and establish, because I was a little bit shy. I couldn't just go up to the strangers in the room and say, Hey, what do you do?
Meredith Meeker:I think that's a really great piece of advice. Networking as like a really important skill on this podcast all the time, which I don't think is natural for a lot of people in our field. So I think sharing that mind set shift is actually really important and also a really important key for successful networking. I think we go into this being like, oh, I really want to meet these people because it will benefit my career where really, if you lead with what you can offer, You know, I already have a network or I have ideas I'm looking to build community. You actually have something to offer the people you're networking, which will give you confidence and also hopefully build some stronger relationships at the end of the day.
Gregory:Oh, absolutely. I remember once thinking, well, I can't do this project or I can't help with this project that this person is trying to get up and running, but you know what? I know something. Who would be perfect for them to talk to. And just that much that set our mindset shift, where it's building that network, not for me, but for them definitely helped strengthen that relationship. And I remember just seeing that project flourish on the back end, just feeling very like fees that I was able to bridge that connection between these two.
Meredith Meeker:Yeah. That's, that must be a very satisfying feeling. And also probably helps you feel, even though maybe you're not directly benefiting it from it, but making you feel more connected to the community.
Gregory:Yeah, absolutely. And eventually, you know, this community is so small, this community of practitioners that anything you do is going to come back and it's going to come back to you. These are people that you're going to be chatting with. Three years the next five years. And so they'll remember you putting them in touch with someone that really helps their project at that moment.
Meredith Meeker:It's a very important also to like what you were talking about to remember how Maul this field can be. So even if you're not doing it for networking purposes, just making sure that you keep good relationships with people, even if they're difficult, relationships is also. Good thing to
Gregary Ford podcast interview-20211126_102551-Meeting Recording:keep
Gregory:in mind. Oh, definitely.
Meredith Meeker:So I'm curious about this next question for you because you kind of wear multiple hats for, for two different organizations. But what does a typical project or day look like for you?
Gregory:That is a good question. And addressing, it might be a little bit complicated. Well, let's start with the stone drinker side of things. So, with books and drinkers and an agricultural community collaborative, I've been put into more of a managerial role, which means more oversight on the administrative and resourcing side of things and less attention on the actual going out into the field, conducting field work, like taking water blog examples. For the most part, this shift is. It's been a great but it is balancing shifting priorities. So one day it may be working with the team to put together a project proposal the other day, it might be in the fields to oversee a new implementation of like a water sampling strategy. So it can be very variable, which I really like about this career. You kind of have your hands in everything a little bit, and you get to dip your toes in a lot of different parts. What the field has to offer as we're transitioning now into late autumn, the field season's over my typical day is really just looking at spreadsheets, putting together funding proposals, reporting on grants. It's a lot of that backend admin, which is very exciting because if you can get that planning out of the way and do it well during the winter months. Come field season. You don't really have a whole lot of time in which to, you know, restrategize or reprioritize what you're doing. It's really just addressing things as they pop up. So you really rely on what you've done in the previous winter season. With all of that planning. Yeah. Typically, it's a lot of that shifting priorities, but it's a lot of working with my teams which is always kind of the best part about the job, because it's working with these really passionate people in the environmental field who bring a lot to the table and they all have their unique spin on it.
Meredith Meeker:That sounds good. It sounds like you're very busy, but I also kind of like your perspective on. The winter months as well about, you know, how that planning can really set you up for a good field season. Because I think, we get really excited about the field season and sometimes the winter can be a bit of a slog to get through if you're at your desk quite a bit more. But I think if you keep that, that forward focus, it just gets exciting. Especially if you are into planning like me.
Gregory:Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the idea of planning a new project from start to finish, just anticipating what's going to pop up in the summer and what you can do to address it now to make your job that that much easier in the summer is just it brings a special kind of joy when you're in the summer and you see something pop up that you accounted for. You see your contingency start coming into action and you think, well, that was a very productive winter leading to a very successful summer.
Meredith Meeker:That, that must be a pretty nice cycle to see and be a part of. Is that the best part of your job or what's the most satisfying part of your job?
Gregory:That's a bit of a tossup. So when I was doing more of the. I used to love explaining to people that my job is literally a walk on the beach and it was, and a large part of that is still true. I get to go into the field with my teams and we get to walk on the beach. We get to see just how beautiful the great lakes can be. And we also get to talk to. And I think I'm shifting what I love most about my job to more about connecting with the people in this field and connecting with the communities that use the great lakes. It's a community of passionate individuals who obviously care about the great lakes. That's why they live there. That's why they visit there. And a lot of them want to work together to keep the great lakes resilience. So meeting someone new and uncovering these shared passions through the inaugural conversation is a special founder. Joel. That gets me giddy every time. And it sort of facilitates that thought process of, yeah, let's work together. Let's let's address these issues together and let's build that resilience system.
Meredith Meeker:That sounds like an awesome part of the job. I know working with the public can have its own challenges, but we need to reach beyond just our environmental. Field, if we want to make a real change. So seeing you spark that in somebody else, I feel like that's a real place to make change in. That must be really awesome to be a part of.
Gregory:Yeah, absolutely. I firmly believe that people protect what they love and that love is fostered by their connection to major their connection to water. And. Seeing that and building on that and making that informed community that is striving for an increased resilience to their natural ecosystems, to their great lakes is a really powerful tool that we have at our disposal in the environmental field. And that is what excites me, I think the most about it.
Meredith Meeker:That makes a lot of sense. And I can see how that would be, really exciting, especially like I used to work with camps and. Seeing kids discover something for the first time. It's just, it's a different level of joy and it definitely gives back so I could see why you would enjoy that part of your job.
Gregory:But I was also a camp counselor and I got to say that that was a lovely experience. Just watching like that joy to spark in their eyes.
Meredith Meeker:Yeah, it's cool that. you get to carry forward that, that experience a little bit into, your life after camp. So that's very cool, I guess not every part of the job can be a walk on the beach. So what is the most challenging or unexpected part of your job?
Gregory:The most unexpected was definitely the shift into a management. I think in the environmental field you often get promoted because you're good at your job, whatever it was that you were doing, whether it was taking samples in the field or doing the outreach. But when you get promoted that next step is management and we're not often trained to be managers. So it's an interesting transition to make. Suddenly you're no longer that person in the field taking samples. You're the person directing the team that is conducting that sampling and. It helped me realize that the passion that people bring into the environmental field with them is a resource like any others. But it can unfortunately be exploited or it can be prone to exploitation. It's something that I found myself I needed to remind myself out. So I wouldn't put unrealistic expectations on myself or my team. That would also just be unfair. I found that. It's important that we remind ourselves like, yes, we love this work, but it is the work. And there needs to be that healthy balance. And so shifting into, responsibility for making sure this project happens and that it's successful. And then realizing that, the passion of your team is a resource that you have at your disposal. It can be a tight balancing act.
Meredith Meeker:I think it's funny that this is something that we've talked about not recently, but that shift to management can be really difficult because we don't get training in it. It's hard to train. I think like in school, when you don't have experience, it's kind of hard to train for management experience at the same time, but there needs to be, I think something in our, in our education that helps prepare us for it. Maybe it's just, you know, social, emotional skills or intelligence. I mean, it sounds like you really care about your, your team and. It's good that you respect a little bit of a work-life balance because I know it can be really challenging when you're first starting out. You want to prove yourself, you want to give it your all. And sometimes that leads to burnout. So it's really important to have managers who've been there and can empathize with that position as well. So yeah, that sounds like a little bit tricky, but it sounds like you're navigating it quite well. I'm just curious if there's any challenges that come with working for two organizations at the same time.
Gregory:Yeah. So that is something that I've been asked before. The biggest challenge is definitely the time constraints I put on myself. I find myself working more than I perhaps should be, and then telling my staff on the other hands and not work as much as I do, which is definitely an interesting position to be in. I'm a firm believer in the idea behind collaboration that if we collaborate, we can accomplish more together than we can apart. The Niagara coastal community collaborative operates under the collective impact model, which is a governance strategy. That means that all of these organizations can work together under a common agenda to accomplish like just goals that we've all agreed. And so I found that in wearing these two hats and then working with these two roles, it's managed to bridge a lot of connections between both these two organizations and also their expanded networks, allowing us to work more efficiently together and accomplish more together than maybe we otherwise would have. So I really liked doing it and I certainly intends to keep doing it, but it's definitely not forever. And I think that COVID in particular and the fact that there wasn't a whole lot else going on in my life at that point really was the only reason I was able to, you know, work this much.
Meredith Meeker:I definitely put you on the spot with that question. I was just, I'm just curious and yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I do feel. Our industry can get quite siloed. So almost having some, internal, I guess, overlap could be really beneficial to help, meet some of these bigger goals that one organization can't meet on its own.
Gregory:Yeah, I just think that collaboration is really key, especially in the environmental field when it's so multidisciplinary. So being able to build a bigger network between just even organizations that are working towards accomplishing the same goals, definitely increases our availability as an industry to accomplish what we set out to accomplish. If we want. Well, all of us working together are much more likely to accomplish that clean water goal than just one of us alone.
Meredith Meeker:Yeah. That makes, makes total sense. And, okay. So through our conversation, you've talked about time management, networking you know, collaboration, but is there any particular skill set that you think helped you break into the industry or that you think might help others do the same?
Gregory:Yeah. So I give a little bit of thought to this a little bit beforehand, but the advice not be like, it might not be a one size fits all, but I think maybe being comfortable exposing your vulnerabilities not necessarily a skillset, but just maybe a character trait that could be beneficial in breaking into this industry. So I think a willingness to go out on the limb for something you want is definitely a key driver into breaking into this industry. For example, I remember how I got my job with the Niagara coastal community collaborative that eventually led to my role with some fish. I just moved to Niagara in August of one year. And in October I caught wind of a community organization who was doing work on the great lakes. Not her coastal. I remember going to one of their meetings and hearing about some of the habitat protection work that they were doing. And I offered, well, I insisted that I could volunteer my time for them and create a map, delineated, coastal wetlands, and their geography. At that point I really, I didn't know anyone and I was new to the area. I was relatively new to what I was trying to do. And I remember being really nervous thinking, well, they don't want a student doing these things. I'm just making a fool of myself. The reality was, it was a group of people who were working together to accomplish the goal of lake Erie, shoreline resiliency. We were just excited for someone to have offered, to delineate coastal wetlands for them. So I think that willingness to put yourself out on a limb to offer someone to someone else and just expose your vulnerability a little bit is an easy way to start bridging those connections and just putting yourself out there.
Meredith Meeker:Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you took a pretty big leap and that's, you know, really brave of you and clearly it's worked out. So I think that would be definitely a way where people could break into the industry using those kinds of skills. So I think that's a really great piece of advice. And I guess getting a little bit more down to like the nitty gritty of job applications, because. Job applications are maybe one of the least fun parts of trying to get into this industry, or at least that's how I feel about them. But is there, you know, a piece of advice, if someone were applying to work for the fast program or maybe with Niagara costal that would, you know, something they could do to make their applications standard?
Gregory:Yeah, I think, I think it's so difficult because we're often taught not to celebrate ourselves or if we do so it should be done humbling. But when you're doing your, like a job application, you're supposed to be selling yourself, you're supposed to be celebrating yourself and convincing someone that, you know, you are the person for this role. My experience is predominantly within the non-profit world. I think the biggest thing that can really make your application stand out is focusing on telling the impact story behind your work. It's really easy for us to get wrapped up in what we did, but the important part for an employer and for the public even is why you did it and how it impacted people. So from my perspective, I might have said in the past, oh, I took water quality samples, all of a sudden. Instead what might work better is saying I took 400 water samples and I shared the results with over 21 or 2100 people on this platform. And in, so doing, I provided them with the data to make informed decisions about how to safely interact with the water. So that tells the impact story. It tells the person reading my resume, what I did, why I did it and what it resulted in and why.
Meredith Meeker:That is huge, I think. And it doesn't even sound like it's a huge shift in what you would have to put on your resume. You just need to, I guess, add that impact element to it. And I think that really helps tell a, tell a story quite a bit more than just listing what you you've done.
Gregory:Yeah, definitely. I was very guilty of just listing all of the things that I had done and not talking about why it was important. And so when I'm reading that as a hiring manager, someone who puts their resume together like that, it's just a laundry list of I did this, this, this, this, this, well, I know you can do these things, but you know, do you know why you're doing these things? Do you know why it's so important? And as importantly, would you be able to convince someone else why this is. If you can't convince me why this is important, how are you going to convince the public or a grantor or a when you're doing impact reporting for a grant?
Meredith Meeker:Yeah. That makes, that makes total sense. And you know, I've heard a lot, a lot of advice is like, yeah, you need to convey what you can do in your resume or your cover letter, but it's not just what you can do. It's what you can do for that. That's kind of like the next piece and I feel like the impact really speaks to that.
Gregory:Absolutely.
Meredith Meeker:All right, Greg, thank you so much for chatting about all the career stuff. I kind of want to switch gears a little bit, get down to my favorite part. Do you have a favorite nature moment? We call it nature because nature is so neat. So it can be a moment while you were out on your own exploring. Camping, perhaps. I'd love to hear a favorite moment from
Gregory:you. Yeah, definitely. I think for me, everything goes back to the great lakes and one of the phenomenon in the great lakes that is just so neat is. So Sasha is the French word for dry. And so what a stage is, is when we have the great lakes, don't have tides, not as we traditionally know them, but they do have stations. And so when we have a sustained winds coming in from one direction, for a number of days, with a certain amount of force, it can actually take the water from one base of the great lakes and push it into another basin of the great lakes, creating an inbound. And this is particularly prevalent in lake Erie because it's so shallow. And so oftentimes if we have like a, an easterly wind, it can push the water in towards the Western basin and effectively empty out the Eastern basin. So it drastically increases the length of the beach and you can find yourself walking. On what was three days ago, the bottom of lake Erie. And you can see all of the muscle beds, you can see the dried allergies and you can see even just the old coral fossils from when it was an inland seat. And so it's a really cool event that doesn't happen over the often, but it does happen traditionally in like November to February. So right now I've got my eyes peeled. I saw one once when I was younger and I'm really hoping to catch another one.
Meredith Meeker:It's so cool. I actually had no idea that that happened in our great lakes and that would be, you know what, I love that it's like a winter kind of event as well, because we need more reasons to get outside when it's cold. It's easy to head to the beach and the middle of August. But yeah, that, that's super cool. I've never heard of that. So thank you for sharing that moment. Definitely. Greg. clearly you've loved the great lakes. I think that comes across very, very well, but what keeps you, I guess, inspired to keep fighting for them. And for clean water,
Gregory:I think it's definitely. I feel really fortunate to work in an industry that's constantly growing. And so the community of people who care about the great lakes and who care about the environment is growing and growing and meeting those new people and hear their passion shine through really invigorates me, hearing the stories that they have when they were young and they were first experiencing the great lakes is just it's really amazing to hear that and hear how it's shaped their lives and got them into this. Fortunately, I worked very closely with Niagara college and I've engaged with many of the graduating classes of students from their ecosystem restoration program there and seeing their passion ignite while they're in the program. And once they've graduated for the work that we do really inspires me to keep pushing and keep trying to build this community of people who care.
Meredith Meeker:I think that's a great answer. And, sometimes I think we focus too much on baby. The people who don't care because sometimes they can be very loud. But I think realizing that there are so many people out there who do, whether they work in the environmental industry or just, has had an experience where they've been camping or done a road trip around the great lakes that really inspired them. I think there's so many people out there who care. That's a great place to get inspiration from. All right. Well, I've really enjoyed this conversation, Greg. It's been amazing. You're seemed to be such a thoughtful guy with really great insight. So if somebody wanted to get involved with either Niagara, coastal, or swim, drink fish, what should they check out? Where should they go? Yeah.
Gregory:Yeah, absolutely. So if you want to get involved with surrendering fish, you can visit swim, drink, fish.ca. We have numerous opportunities for community involvement. And if you're a local tonight GRA, or if you have a desire to walk on the beach and monitor your troll line you can get involved with the Niagara coastal community collaborative at Niagara, coastal dot C. And I'm always available for a call or email, and you can find me at Gregory app, surrendering, fish.ca orGregory@agricultural.ca and that's Gregory with an a, and so thank you so much Meredith for having me on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Meredith Meeker:Thanks. Thanks again. I've yeah, I've really enjoyed it.
A big, thank you to Greg for taking time out of his very busy schedule to chat with us this week. And if you want to hear more stories like Greg's and learn more about opportunities in the environmental field, don't forget to like, and subscribe to our podcast. So you don't miss an episode. And of course follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, to find out more about job opportunities and cool events. Okay. That's all for me. Talk to you again next week. Until then happy trails.