Delaware Nature Society Program Guide and Newsletter September - December 2017 | Page 30
Volunteer Highlight
Dan Barbato
By Elinor Knodel
An early love of nature led Dan Barbato on a journey in
environmental stewardship that he might not have predicted.
Dan grew up in the Red Clay Valley near the creek, playing
in streams, and fishing. Fast forward to Dan, a licensed
professional (civil) engineer, looking for an opportunity
to volunteer in the community. He knew he wanted to do
something with streams, so when he discovered the Steam
Watch program on Delaware Nature Society’s websit e, it
was a natural fit. Dan monitored two sites faithfully for
five years, eventually accompanied by his two
young sons. Over time, they noticed that the
water quality gradually improved, due to
environmental cleanup efforts and better
land management practices upstream.
Dan heard that Delaware Nature Society
was looking for volunteers to help with
monitoring conservation easements in
New Castle County. These legal agreements
preserve a property’s natural value by limiting
development and complying with conservation
practices, like not cutting trees and protecting
streams from runoff and erosion. Dan participated in
yearly inspections of easement properties that proved beneficial
both for the program and his own personal enjoyment. Says
Dan, “I got to play in streams in the woods as a kid, and now as
a volunteer, I still got to play in the water and to walk through
all kinds of great properties with really old, high-value forest –
properties that are almost untouched and ones that you would
never get access to.”
When Delaware Nature Society started a program to assess
riparian habitats, Dan was trained to evaluate how well a
habitat was protecting the stream. He noted, “that was extra
cool, because that tied together the conditions of the land and
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the water.” Overall, he learned that some habitats are better
than others for stream health. The really good ones tended to
be on conserved properties, where there was a clear effort, for
instance, not to mow up to the edge of the stream, keeping the
habitat natural, diverse, and well-buffered.
Dan’s foray into his latest volunteer opportunity was precipitated
by the work of his two sons, then teenagers and enthusiastic
videographers, who filmed one of the Clean Water rallies at the
Delaware Legislature in Dover for Delaware Nature Society.
Through their work, Dan was exposed to more people in
the organization, who enabled him to see a bigger
picture that included advocacy and regulatory
issues. “It never dawned on me that they were
the ones driving these larger efforts, and
nobody else was really doing as much,”
Dan said. Once he realized that Delaware
Nature Society is a major driving force in
environmental advocacy in Delaware, it
became far more attractive for him to get
more involved. About two years ago, Dan
accepted an invitation to join the Board of
Directors. He finds it very rewarding to work with
the staff to influence State environmental policy,
such as for continued funding for clean water, repairing
water ways, and conserving more green space. “I want people’s
kids to have the same experience as mine. And I’d like to see a
lot of land conserved and [improved] water quality.”
Summing up his years of volunteering, Dan points to the
great job that the staff does in finding and maintaining the
interest of many, diverse volunteers to do what’s most needed.
“They really keep volunteers as part of the whole, big team and
the big picture. They always make me feel appreciated and
acknowledged. I do feel like I’m part of the family now. I feel
connected and vested. It’s great.”
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Contact Carrie at
[email protected] to be
added to the wait list.
NATURE EXPLORER
Flyway in the Byway
Saturday, September 16
Coverdale Farm Preserve, Greenville, DE
Sep – Dec 2017
Learn more at
DelNature.org/FarmToFork