Written by Penelope Holland, Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP) member at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC), June 2024
One program I really enjoy working on is public education around microplastics. My host site, the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC), has a fantastic interactive exhibit that discusses plastic pollution in Lake Tahoe, misconceptions about recycling, and how plastic breaks down into microplastic particles. As part of my professional development with SNAP, I took a course to become a Certified Interpretive Guide and developed an interpretive presentation about plastic pollution. In my presentation, I delved deeper into how the plastic industry used marketing strategies to promote recycling as a silver-bullet solution to plastic pollution, despite knowing that recycling was technically and economically infeasible from the beginning. I have since incorporated elements of this presentation into my tours of the Tahoe Science Center, in hopes of combatting persisting misconceptions around recycling and encouraging visitors to avoid single-use plastic wherever possible.
In February, I also got to help assemble a second plastic pollution exhibit in Tahoe City. TERC recently partnered with the North Tahoe Community Alliance to bring four environmental stewardship exhibits to their Tahoe City visitor center. Preparing the plastics exhibit involved a wide variety of tasks, from collecting beach sand and plastic litter, baking sand to sterilize it, and creating jars of plastic pieces in a saline solution. Putting baking trays full of sand into the oven was definitely one of the most unexpected things I’ve done during my term, but it was also fun to see the work that goes into creating an exhibit. The Tahoe City visitor center held the soft opening of the new exhibits on February 15 and the grand opening on March 7, both of which provided an opportunity for me to engage with the public about the plastic pollution exhibit. Now that the exhibit is at both our Incline Village location and the Tahoe City Visitor Center, more visitors to Tahoe can learn about the importance of keeping plastic out of the lake.
One of my principal responsibilities at TERC is managing social media and marketing, a role I’ve employed to expand the reach of our microplastic education further. Microplastics and their effects on human health are a very active area of research right now, and I’ve been able to amplify new findings about them through our social media platforms. However, I also recognize the importance of balancing the (frequently bad) news about plastic pollution with messages of hope and a greater focus on solutions. One of our microplastics field trip activities involves having students develop solutions to the plastic problem and create poster presentations. Whenever we have these field trips, I like to share photos of the students’ posters on our social media to show how galvanized they are to fight plastic pollution with inspiring and creative solutions.
Interfacing with the public about plastic pollution through science center tours, tabling events, and field trips has been one of my favorite parts of serving as a SNAP member. I hope that I can use the rest of my term to encourage more people to dispense with single-use plastic and expand the reach of TERC’s plastic education programs further.
Funding for SNAP is supported by Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation’s Nature Fund and Martis Fund – a collaborative project of Martis Camp landowners, DMB/Highlands Group (the developers of Martis Camp), Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (MAP), and Sierra Watch. Sierra Nevada Alliance is a proud grantee of AmeriCorps and California Volunteers, Office of the Governor.
