Lake Doctor | A Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams Podcast

It's never too late: Lake stewardship is for all ages

• Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Discover the journey of Diane Quance, a dedicated city council member for Warsaw and passionate advocate for environmental stewardship. Diane's childhood love for lakes has seen her transition from camping trips near Lake Michigan to living by Little Pike Lake, where she actively implements sustainable practices. Her story is one of personal and professional evolution, from aspiring minister or social worker to a fulfilling career as a clinical therapist and guidance counselor, all while championing lake stewardship and innovative shoreline conservation.

Explore the fascinating intersection where systems theory meets environmental stewardship. Diane, as a multifaceted social scientist and public servant, shares her insights on the interconnectedness of ecosystems and human communities. As the fourth woman elected to the Warsaw Common Council, she emphasizes the importance of intentional planning and stewardship in community development. Her experience highlights the critical role of government in aligning community and economic interests, effectively engaging stakeholders, and the power of breaking glass ceilings to make a meaningful difference in public service.

Join us as we highlight the collaborative efforts between the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams and the city of Warsaw, showcasing projects that have transformed local lakeshores and improved environmental health. From tackling stormwater issues and E. coli contamination to rapid responses to chemical spills, the episode underscores the power of partnership in achieving sustainable outcomes. We also delve into the diverse career opportunities in environmental studies, encouraging listeners to consider the lifelong impact they can make in this vital field. Whether you're exploring career paths or lifelong learning in environmental education, this episode offers inspiration and insight for aspiring environmental stewards.

Learn more about the topics in this episode at lakes.grace.edu.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Lake Doctor podcast. I'm your host, Susie Light, and I get to share some stories and talk about our beautiful lakes with my friend, Dr Nate Bosch. Nate, you received your doctorate from the University of Michigan in limnology.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right, Susie. Limnology. It's freshwater aquatic systems, unlike oceanography, which would be saltwater. On this podcast, we're going to dive into some lake science. We're going to meet folks who are passionate about our lakes, just like Susie and I are, and we're going to have some fun together as well.

Speaker 1:

Visit lakesgraceedu, where you can learn more about the topics in the podcast and support the Lilly Center's work.

Speaker 2:

In today's episode we have Diane Quance. She's on city council for the city of Warsaw and she's going to be talking about stewardship being for everybody around our lakes.

Speaker 1:

We are so excited about today's episode. The doctor is in. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Lake Doctor podcast. Today we have Diane Quantz. Diane professional volunteer. There we go.

Speaker 3:

Since you've retired.

Speaker 1:

Yes, tell us about yourself and the vast experience that you've had as a way of a career.

Speaker 3:

Oh, gosh Well, when I was in eighth grade we had to do a paper and I could not decide if I wanted to be a minister or a social worker and I kept going back and forth between the two and I finally landed on social worker and, of course, later realized that was being a minister, and so it was a ministry for most of my life, and so my career's been at Bowen Center as a clinical therapist, clinical social worker, at the Department of Public Welfare as a child welfare caseworker, and then also with the Warsaw Community Schools for 28 years.

Speaker 1:

How did you transition from social worker to guidance counselor?

Speaker 3:

They're not very far apart, actually, because you're working with families and children, and I wanted to get in before the kids that I was seeing in my office as a clinician. I thought if I could only intervene just a little bit earlier, maybe if I could provide something before they get to the point where they need to be in earlier, maybe if I could provide something before they get to the point where they need to be in clinical counseling, that I could make more of a difference if I could reach kids at that point. And so that's why I then pursued and got my school counseling license as well then.

Speaker 1:

So tell us a bit about your family. I've met your mother. Yes, you have.

Speaker 3:

Well, I am the oldest of five children. I do have a sister that's deceased, unfortunately but we all grew up. I grew up in South Bend to begin with, through my elementary career, and then we moved to Plymouth. When I was in middle school, my dad was a great environmentalist and a nature photographer and we my earliest memories are of camping. They had pictures of me at six months old outside the tent at Turkey Run and those were the kind of vacations that we took growing up and the kinds that I still take now. So that's been a really important part of my life.

Speaker 1:

When did your love for lakes start?

Speaker 3:

Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to live on a lake. I mean, I would just get so excited wherever there was water. Wherever we went camping, I was in that water, on that water, looking at that water, interested in where it came from, what it was doing. And then we lived near Lake Michigan in South Bend. It wasn't a very far trip, and so we would go there frequently as a family and I was just so fascinated and my whole dream was to live on a lake someday and I finally, 17 years ago, was able to purchase my home on Little Pike Lake and it's just been such a blessing.

Speaker 1:

So you have deep water roots. I do.

Speaker 3:

There's something within my spirit that just draws me to water. You know, I know they ask those questions sometimes. Are you drawn to mountains? Are you drawn to oceans?

Speaker 1:

I am actually drawn to fresh water rivers, lakes, and one of the things that you have done on your home, at your home in Pike Lake, is paid attention to your shoreline. So when I was saying deep water roots, I was thinking about your shoreline Native plants. Yes, tell us about that Well.

Speaker 3:

So let's see, I think it's been six years ago now. I knew I was going to need to put in a seawall. I don't know if you know about scouring, but scouring is the action of waves against seawall. I don't know if you know about scouring, but scouring is the action of waves against seawall. It hits the wall and goes underneath and goes around like this and eventually it wears away underneath, and that's why seawalls sink and lots of times you see them tipping forward.

Speaker 3:

And so I really wanted to do a total glacial stone seawall, but where I am that's not possible because it's too narrow there. And so I had this plot 114 feet by about 12 feet, and it had been totally dug up to put the seawall in, because they pour the footers way back. And so I thought I have the opportunity to do whatever I want to with this ground, and I decided I was going to put native plants in along there, that it wasn't just going to be a lawn mowed right down to the seawall and then the seawall, and so I started my adventure. I started off with six little plants and it looks almost like a jungle now. It's just really dense.

Speaker 1:

So I'm guessing that helped keep the geese population down.

Speaker 3:

I have no geese at all. Yeah, and if you look at my seawall, there's no duck droppings on it. They come up and will come in to the yard and eat my bird seed, but then they leave. They don't like just hang out there because it's not safe for them, because there's a wall of grass and they don't know what's behind it of tall plants, and so they just don't hang out on my lawn. So I don't have those problems that a lot of my neighbors have with everything covered up with.

Speaker 1:

So we were a little remiss in the introduction because we didn't introduce your teammate here.

Speaker 3:

Oh yes, well, Oakley's down here sleeping. He's quite comfortable being in the spotlight. He's often with me when I'm preaching, so he just. He's heard the sermon several times by then, so he just lays down and listens. Oakley is your service dog.

Speaker 3:

Oakley is my service dog and I'm hearing impaired. It's been kind of a gift to have him because then people notice like otherwise you would not think that I live with a disability, you just wouldn't like notice that about me. And last year I was on a raft on Grassy Creek and taking students through to understand better the water and and you know where it comes from, where it, what kinds of plants and animals are native, what kinds are invasive. Just enjoying that time with them. And there was a little boy on my raft and he had hearing aids and he was so excited to meet somebody else that also had hearing aids and I showed him my hearing aids and we talked about it and I got the sweetest note from his mom later about what a difference that made to him to see somebody in that role that was also hearing impaired like he was. And I was very careful to, you know, speak directly to him and so he could really participate and it was just a blessing to be able to share that.

Speaker 1:

One of the gifts I think that you have is building relationships. You've done that in your volunteer work. Tell us a bit about the many organizations that you're volunteering and helping.

Speaker 3:

I decided when I graduated from high school other words retired that I was going to really think purposefully and intentionally about those things that I was involved in, because I get asked to be involved in so many things and you do a lot of the asking, ma'am.

Speaker 3:

Purposefully retired active in the community yeah, and one of my great passions is the environment and our stewardship of the environment, and it's also working with youth, and so I thought you know combining those two working with organizations. So I volunteer for the Lilly Center of Lakes and Streams, and two main ways. I would say In the summer I get to take college students out once a week to do water testing. But we do a lot more than just test water. We talk together, we share stories, I share with them my passion for the environment, why I think it's important Try to share my excitement and joy. You know what I'm doing with them and oftentimes we end up in kind of deep conversations about where they're going to go next and where God might be leading them in their lives, and so that's a real blessing just to be able to share with them in that way. And then I also volunteer in the K-12 ed.

Speaker 3:

So I was the very first volunteer I believe you had outside of the organization to work in that area and we were actually working on curriculum then writing some curriculum Early on just getting things up off the ground yeah.

Speaker 3:

And my interest was in bringing students up to be good environmental citizens. I think that's a classification of citizenship and that it's really important for anybody that lives in this community to be a good environmental citizen. And what better place to start, you know, than with young minds? And so we were really trying to work that in along with the science objectives that they have to meet, so that we could help teachers meet their criteria that they have to teach in our lessons and then also just talk to the kids about good environmental stewardship. And so I started off writing curriculum, and now I volunteer actually getting to put that curriculum into place and then at the same time we're mentoring students from the education department. So I had Dr Rachel Hoffert on here, and so we are modeling for them.

Speaker 3:

how do you work with a group of students? How do you deal with some of the outlying students? You know how do you. Recently I did one with a student that was bilingual, and then we had the bilingual school from Leesburg there, and so I was modeling for her how you work in vocabulary and teach things in two different languages and still keep a group of people involved and things like that. So I get to do a lot of neat things there too. So not only do I get to work with the younger students, but I get to work with those students at Grace that are going to then go on and influence other students.

Speaker 2:

Well, we're so appreciative for your help and those different ways, those education programs have really grown over time yes, and so this past school year, over 12,000 k-12 interactions for the first time and, as you know, the governor's award for the top environmental education program in the whole state a few years back as being an award recipient, and a lot of that is due to you and our other volunteers and great staff members as well, but thank you for your help with that.

Speaker 3:

And then the other organization I spent a lot of my volunteer time with is the Watershed Foundation and I'm on the board there. And then I'm also on the project management committee and so also on the project management committee. And so I am a social scientist by nature. Okay, I mean, that's my training and it fits into environmental science very well, because in social science you work on systems theory, and systems theory says that anything you do in one part of the your universe effects has a ripple effect and spreads out to other parts so that you can't just see behaviors or actions or things in isolation. And it's the same way with environmental science. And so when I first started out, I didn't know what a limnologist was. I didn't even know how to say it, but I just didn't know a lot of stuff. I kept teasing Nate that if they ever offered his class in silver sneakers, I was going to have to go take it, so I would know what was going on. I'll go with you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 3:

And now I can talk about all kinds of things like grassy waterways and wasp cobs and blind inlets and things like that that I now understand that contribute to our environment. And so I've learned as I've gone and I think I'm a lifelong learner, I'll confess.

Speaker 2:

That's so true though. I mean, when we think about that systems theory and we think about an ecosystem, it's all about interconnected parts, and I think that's just so cool how God made the world to be interconnected, everything in relationship with each other. There's so many connections with how we should live our daily lives as humans, interacting with each other, as well as how we then steward God's creation, and even that ecosystem terminology is starting to even move into business circles. I hear people talk about business ecosystems and how one thing will influence other things, and needing to create a good environment so that things can thrive, even in the business world.

Speaker 2:

So, that's really cool how that's all interconnected.

Speaker 1:

Diane, you're one of the most multifaceted people I know. Oh, my Thank you, your volunteerism, your education, your career. But one thing we want to talk about with you you are the only the fourth woman who has ever been elected to serve the Warsaw Common Council, the city council. Where does your passion for service come from?

Speaker 3:

And giving back was emphasized, and giving out of your gifts. And so we did not grow up with a lot of money, and as a retired single person, I still don't have a lot of money. But I have time and I have talents and I have things that I can contribute and I've learned that those are just as important, sometimes more important. Yeah, and someday I'll have enough money to give to the community foundation and set up something. But you know, at this point in my life I have a lot of other gifts and skills to give.

Speaker 3:

And actually I ran for city council because I was concerned that there seemed to be a total lack of planning, that just things were springing up here, there and everywhere. And I looked at our beautiful lakes and I'm like there's a factory on that lake and I was like I don't want that happening. You know, I want to be more intentional about where we have things and make this community a great place for people to live and work and play. And so I thought, well, I should run for city council. And when the opportunity came up, I just did.

Speaker 3:

And at the time, of course, I didn't realize that I was breaking a glass ceiling. You know, I had no idea. I went on to become the first president of Warsaw City Council, now the first member of the Board of Works that's ever been female, you know, and so it's like. But I didn't know that I was doing that. I just saw something that I thought needed to be changed and I thought I have the skills that I could help with that. I'm going to volunteer. I thought I was volunteering my time. I didn't know I was going to get paid my $300 or whatever it was at the time.

Speaker 2:

But you know, here we are.

Speaker 3:

And I just I wanted to make a difference, and so that's what I went in. And then I walk in the room and there's like me, and then there's four other men that are really well known in the community. I'm like, oh, am I in the right place? You?

Speaker 1:

certainly are. You certainly are. So what do you see as the government's role in stewardship or environmental management?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, obviously, as you've heard Dr Bosch talk about, the lakes are a huge part of the economy, and part of what a social scientist does, a social worker does, is figure out who your target audience is and what's important to them. And so I remember you and I talking the first time you were going to come and present to city council and you said, well, what should I talk about? And I said start with the economic impact, because that's where they're tuned in, that's their job. But I think that we own a lot of the lakeshore as a city, especially on Pike Lake, where I live. The city owns a large part of that lakeshore.

Speaker 1:

Because it's city park. Yeah, it's city parks.

Speaker 3:

We have several, you know, when you think about it, you've got Lucerne, and then you've got Byer Park and then you've got where the trails are. So we own quite a large part of it. You've got Lucerne, and then you've got Byer Park and then you've got where the trails are. So we own quite a large part of it. And to me, part of the responsibility of the city is to make that accessible to everyone. And I've enjoyed serving on the park board. I'm not currently on the park board, but I was for years and years and years and I so enjoyed that because the park board is very like-minded with that. They really resisted development and putting buildings along the lake and things like that. They said, no, this is so. Every kid that wants to ride their bike down to the lake and come and enjoy the lake in the city of Warsaw can do that, and we need to keep that open, we need to keep that available to people. And so I think part of city government's responsibility our particular city, you know is to take good care, to be good stewards of that shoreline that we have. But I also think, like countywide, we have responsibilities.

Speaker 3:

We're a great agricultural county and I have found in working with the agricultural community through the Watershed Foundation that the majority of them want to do a good job of stewardship, but they just didn't know how and they didn't think about the fact that allowing their runoff from their fields to go right into the ditches are going to eventually end up into our lakes and streams. But also they're losing a lot of money. Again back to the economics. If they're good topsoil and they're, you know, fertilizing, everything runs off every spring. They're losing a lot of money. And so now we have a larger percentage of our county in cover crops and you can see the difference. You can see, with the kind of weather we've had recently, who can get in their farms in the spring, and it's those people that have the cover crops on them that have the deep roots again that are there.

Speaker 3:

So I think that's part of government responsibility is to take care of those things. I also think the government needs to be a good model to its citizenship and how they manage things. And so I mean I'm thrilled with the shoreline restoration projects and I know some of people listening may not really understand what those are because a couple of them are in their first few years and they look like weeds along the lake. It looks like we're not taking care of the shoreline anymore because we planted some of those native plants and it takes three to five years for them to really take hold and for it to look nice. But they're so important. They're stopping erosion, they're stopping pollution into the lake. I think the fishermen are beginning to enjoy it because they're seeing that, oh, there's more fish here because the lake is more healthy. The fish want to live in a place where they feel protected.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, let's dig into some of those things a little bit. So let's think about probably the first restoration and we at the Lilly Center have been working with, with Parks. Department all along the way, as these ideas have come up and we've refined them and then you guys have installed those. So Pike Lake, lucerne Park, probably the first one, yes, and I can remember eroding shoreline, constantly moving back. The city was losing property every year.

Speaker 2:

And you had. We would bring fourth graders out there for our lake adventure day every year and you were involved in going fishing. I think we caught maybe three fish in 10 years.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And then the restoration came in and so we've got you're right the first couple of years it looks kind of weedy. It's a little hard to kind of imagine what the eventual thing is going to look like. The native plants are competing with non-native plants for for who's who's going to dominate this area and we have to kind of help along the native plants get established. But those native plants are helping with nutrients, with nitrogen, phosphorus, that are making their way towards the lake. The native plants intercept those, keep that from going in the lake. So we have less weeds and algae out there. And then in that near shore area where we used to have eroding banks and we had a lot of siltation and things there, not a lot of plant cover out there. Now we start to get the banks so that they're stable, they're not eroding.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful plants along there. Some of the plants are kind of hanging over the edge a little bit. There's some shaded areas for fish habitat. There's also. Then lily pads and other sorts of plants start to grow out in front of those areas that used to be eroding further, holding the bank in place but also providing more habitat. Now when we bring our youngsters out there for Lake Adventure Day. There's lots more fish that are caught. Also some more snags on some of those lily pads and things, but the fish are healthier.

Speaker 2:

It's a more beautiful shoreline than it was before and that same thing has been replicated around Center Lake over by the swimming area on Pike Lake, and really a wonderful, wonderful example of good stewardship.

Speaker 1:

And communicating the why it's important is important so that folks understand it isn't weeds folks.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah, I think that is really important. And for anybody along the lake that wants to plant, you know, and start off like I did, you do start off slowly. Your neighbors start to wonder if you're not taking care of your yard.

Speaker 2:

And you get you know these little questions like well, what are?

Speaker 3:

you doing over there? And well, why are you doing that? And pretty soon I get like, well, what are you doing over there? And well, why are you doing that? And pretty soon I get like, well, could I have a start of this? Could I have some of this for my house, you know? So it eventually works out, but it takes a lot of work. I think I spent three hours this week I know you were coming just weeding out some things too, you know, because it does take work.

Speaker 3:

But the other thing I'm really I don't want to say proud of in terms of like that it was my doing. But I think when you're in public government, you have to have a global picture, not just of what's going on now, but you have to be visionary. What's going to? How is Well a future view? Yes, how are the decisions that you're? What's going to? How is Well a future view? Yes, how are the decisions that you're making right now going to affect future generations? And so a couple of things that I'm most excited about, I think, are those shorelines.

Speaker 3:

And then there was a joint project that came about with DNR, and I was kind of the person that was the catalyst for that, because I was talking to someone from US Fish and Wildlife and I was saying, you know, the boat ramp at Pike Lake, every year we get this hole at the end of it and they're dumping truckloads of gravel in there. And he's like, well, it's not long enough, you should get a DNR pier in there. And I'm like, well, how do I do that, you know? And so we just started talking about it and that first accessible handicap pier at Pike Lake. We had US Fish and Wildlife there. We had the biologists from DNR because they had to do a biological environmental study to put that in there. We had the parks department there. We had the cemetery department because the cemetery owns part of that land down there. We had the parks department there. We had the cemetery department because the cemetery owns part of that land down there. We had our street department there because of the parking lot.

Speaker 3:

You know, there were all these kinds of things and once I was able to just get all those people together talking, then I could step back and watch it happen and it was just so thrilling to see the big semi trucks come with these preformed concrete ramp and it was in two 30 foot sections, so it goes out quite far in the lake, you know, and put that in there. And then to see the handicap pier go in. And then the first time I went by and saw somebody in their wheelchair out there able to fish and to get into a boat, that was like wow. And then when it came time to look at Center Lake Piers, it was like a no-brainer, I didn't even have to get involved. They're like oh yeah, we could do that same thing here, and now we have a handicapped accessible pier there too, and I think that those things are so important, you know and they'll be there long after I'm gone that people will be able to enjoy this.

Speaker 3:

And I had a little small part in it and I don't know if you feel like that about the boardwalk on Pike Lake, but when I came on city council, that board boardwalk was a mess, and so the first thing I asked was well, who's taking care of this? And there was just dead silence. I'm like well, whose responsibility is it? Dead silence again. I said, well, I think it's our responsibility because it's in a park, and I think we better get a line item in our budget that we're going to start taking care of this. And now it's taken care of beautifully, and then you guys came in and put your signs. Have you talked about that before? On this?

Speaker 2:

No. So, we came in alongside with Soil and Water Conservation District because they had originally put the signs in.

Speaker 2:

And so we talked to them about doing an update to those, bringing more scientific information into the signs and more interesting graphics into the signs. Kind of updating the look of those interesting graphics into the signs. Kind of updating the look of those and making it that much a better user experience for people that are on the Byer Brady Trail. And you're right, the signage, along with the upkeep of the actual physical boardwalk itself, now makes it that much better for users who walk along there. And it's, it's a beautiful part of our community.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

And because it's accessible, it can be enjoyed by everybody, which is amazing.

Speaker 3:

Well, and then I knew Joy Lozzi from KCH and when they were getting ready to do their parking lot and I was like you know, we've already got a runoff issue there, can we talk about this? And so we had great conversation. We now have one of the demonstration for around the United States retaining walls there, and then we have an impermeable surface there, right along with the amphitheater, where kids can go and sit and we can give lessons to and things. So soil and water uses it, lily center uses it, twf has used it, you know, in order to to have the kids sitting there and doing educational things. But I think those community partner things are really important and like another one we just are in the process of doing is with Simmer Biomet, and they mowed great amounts of lawn and they said is there anything we could do differently.

Speaker 3:

And they were flooding the roundabout out on Old 30. And so we started talking about it and we're like, well, this could go into prairie and we could build some retaining ponds and we could do these things. And they got really excited about it and so that's been a joint project that's going up there. So that's an exciting community partner thing.

Speaker 1:

So Nate Lilly Center's partnered with the city of Warsaw on a couple of projects. Can you share some of that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we've talked about a few of them already Some of the shoreline restoration areas, Byer Brady Trail and doing some of the signage along those things. We've also done a lot of educational programs. So the city of Warsaw has a stormwater utility.

Speaker 1:

I think one of your former students might be there.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes. So Ryan was in that position for a number of years, right from graduating from Grace College. He had done some intern work there at the city and that was just great, great connecting point. So with stormwater, they have certain educational responsibilities with the state of Indiana. And so the city of Warsaw decided, hey, rather than get our own part-time educator to do some of these responsibilities, let's instead contract with a group that's already doing education in our local schools Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams. And so we were back to Diane's point of working on some curriculum development. We developed more curriculum in that stormwater space and were able to then start doing some of that education work on behalf of the city, doing E coli research and so Pike and Center Lakes both had E coli issues year after year.

Speaker 2:

We looked at data from the county health department 15 years. Both of those beaches closed over a third of the time due to high E coli levels and we were able to come in, do some research there with some funding from K21 Health Foundation and figure out what's causing the E coli, how can we fix it, and then we're able to come alongside the city then to implement some of those recommendations and fix the problem.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and then our Parks Department had traveled around and looked at different rakes and now we actually remove the animal waste from the sand rather than just turning it under, and we had to close Center Lake, I think once, once this summer. But that's like the first time in several years. And Pike Lake hasn't been closed at all. Yeah, that's like the first time in several years, and Pike Lake hasn't been closed at all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's amazing, From being closed over a third of the time I believe Center was around 33%, Pike was 44% over 15 years of time to then now having just one closing over the last several years. It's pretty amazing. Because those are sampled every single week.

Speaker 1:

those beaches are I also think it's fascinating that you did the research to find out that E coli was not caused by poor sewer systems around the town. It was caused by animal waste, specifically Ring-billed galls.

Speaker 3:

Yes, run-billed galls Okay. So it got pretty specific. It wasn't just galls yes, ring-billed galls, okay so it got pretty specific.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't just generic E coli, it was okay, what genetic strain of E coli are we seeing? And so we actually did some genetic testing of the E coli. We had tested human waste, pet waste like dogs, human waste, pet waste like dogs. We had connected. We had looked at geese, mallard ducks, as well as the gulls, and found the positive match for the gulls. Yeah, really interesting, and that's what we like to do at the Lilly Center applied research, where the research has a definite application locally, where we can help solve a problem.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, back to those systems yeah and let's talk about the chemical spill. Yes, because we had a chemical spill in the city and so Little Sin was great. They were like on a 24-7 call. We're like, hey, we don't know what went into the lake, for sure, we don't know how much, we don't know how it's going to affect it, and they were just right out there testing it and following up for several weeks afterward.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was an unfortunate circumstance that ended up with, I think, a good and becoming better by the day result because we're doing some really cool planning. Just to remind our listeners of that, or if they haven't heard of that 2018, we had a fire in a chemical facility and water put on the fire ended up washing inadvertently a lot of chemicals then down into Winona Lake, which was just downstream of that facility, and so we were able to. We got a call immediately from the mayor.

Speaker 2:

We were able to respond and be in the sort of emergency situation command center or whatever and and I can still remember sort of pulling up to the police barricades and I needed to get in there at the mayor's request and I didn't really have a special badge so I just flashed my business card, dr Nate Bosch, lily's OK, sir, right, this way. So that was pretty exciting. But we very quickly had a whole chemical inventory from the company. We're able to look at which ones we needed to be concerned about in the lakes, which ones we didn't, very quickly pulled together amounts that went in from each of those chemicals.

Speaker 2:

All the while we're sampling, sampling, sampling, we're able to work with Indiana Department of Environmental Management, homeland Security, dnr. They were using our data as they were considering what the impacts could be and we continued then sampling week after week, even after those state agencies moved back to their respective places. And then we started the hard work of how do town of Winona Lake folks, lake Association folks and the industry representatives themselves, and we started to look through different voluntary things that they could do reducing volumes of some of those chemicals, storage, do more just-in-time manufacturing where they just pull things in just as they need them, and even creating more of a levee system around to help hold in that sort of an event if it would happen again in the future. And just ended up with a great result. And now cities in conversations with them about potentially moving locations away from the lake and it's just really has come together. We haven't had that situation again since then.

Speaker 3:

And another good example of the city working with the Lilly Center for a good result, yeah, and when you think about it, all those system partners coming together in cooperation to make it safer for our citizens. Back to what is government's role. Very much that, but that wouldn't have happened like that if there wasn't a relationship before then, if I hadn't ever been working at the Lilly Center and Ryan hadn't been educated there. And then we came together and said, hey, somebody's already invented the wheel, let's not redo it. If those partnerships hadn't been formed. And I think every one of us here to situate at sitting right here know how important relationships are and how important the way you treat other people is. You know through any relationship that you have, because you never know when you're going to be in connection with them again and when you can work together for the good of of everyone. And so I just love to network. I know you do too.

Speaker 1:

I know you do too, yeah, but I also see god's hand in this yes, you know stewardship is. Is by faith what we're called to do? It is.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and you know, in Psalm 19, it actually says that God's word is spoken through his creation. So we don't just have the written word of God, we also have the spoken word of God around us. Here we get to live in a place where that's really obvious. But you mentioned earlier so many things that you can learn from nature, and just the interdependence of all those systems upon one another in order for everything to be healthy, I think, is really important. And so you know, if I had to say anything, I would say you don't have to be a scientist to make a difference.

Speaker 3:

You know, you don't have to know how these things work, but you do have to realize that your actions play a part in it. You know, I mean, if I didn't pick Oakley's dog poop up, I would be contributing to the E coli in the lake. And it doesn't matter that I just live on the lake. It doesn't matter whether you live up the hill from the E coli in the lake, and it doesn't matter that I just live on the lake. It doesn't matter whether you live up the hill from the lake. And I'm telling you that if you live in Warsaw, you live up the hill from some lake.

Speaker 2:

That's right. That's true, the city of lakes, right.

Speaker 3:

And so, wherever you are, just what you do is really important, and I think that's part of the responsibility that we all need to take for God's creation, because if we don't, it's not going to be here.

Speaker 1:

And I want it to be here for my grandchild, for my potential great grandchildren. Yes, yeah, it's legacy.

Speaker 3:

Right, it is legacy, and sometimes we need those quiet, still spaces to hear God speak to our souls and we fill our lives with so much noise now that it's hard to get away. But every citizen in Warsaw, really in Kazakhstan, can find a quiet place along a body of water to be in communion with creation, where we were meant to be, and when that happens, you feel a difference, and then, when you're removed from it, you feel a lack, and so you just you want to do things, to make things better, to keep things good.

Speaker 1:

How do you enjoy the lake when it's ice covered? I love the lake when it's ice covered.

Speaker 3:

Does it sing to you, yes, the cracks rippling across.

Speaker 2:

They ripple across.

Speaker 3:

You hear them and there's so many different colors within that and it's just fascinating to watch how it changes.

Speaker 2:

It's just fascinating to watch how it changes. I love bringing my 18 to 21 or 22-year-old college students out into nature and have that same sort of experience, almost a childlike fascination and curiosity and excitement about creation around us. That somehow gets lost, maybe in those middle high school years, it seems. Maybe a biology teacher told them science was all about memorizing terms or something like that, and uh and some of that wonder was lost from the outdoors and so bringing students back into that. I love doing that as a college professor.

Speaker 1:

That's really fun. So, nate, we talked about one of your students doing something environmentally. Tell us about what other kinds of activities the students that you've interacted with when they graduate from Grace? Where do they go? What are they doing?

Speaker 2:

Lots of different places. Most of them stay in Northern Indiana and so we're sort of seeding our region with great environmental professionals. But I usually think of them in three different categories. I think of government, as we've just been talking about Sometimes we call it the public sector, and we've had students go into all levels of that, all the way up to the federal level. We've had students go to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Speaker 2:

We've had students go to the state level level working for the Department of Natural Resources and Fisheries or the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, into permitting and regulation of environmental rules. We've had students go into county level as environmental professionals public health folks, parks and recreation. We've had students go into city level, which we've been talking about stormwater, for example, with the city of Warsaw. And then, when we look at the next major category that would be for-profit or corporate sorts of jobs Might be environmental consulting. We've had students go into that where they're doing environmental restoration projects or environmental restoration studies. We've had students go into wildlife control, become agricultural producers, agricultural research and development, arborists, so they're focused on trees. We've had students go into—.

Speaker 1:

Not-for-profit addressing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So not-for-profit would be that third category, Um, and and that would be uh, working for zoos, Uh, we had, we had a student go, uh, she's working at Girl Scouts of America. Um, other, uh, out on the coast. Some students have moved into nonprofit organizations and so all of those different sectors we've sent students out. I should mention also in the for-profit, environmental law as well, another direction that students have gone into and so proud of them and in environmental engineering.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, environmental engineering is one of those things of, for example, if we're looking at a boat ramp or we're looking at a lakeshore or the side of a creek, a creek bank, how do we engineer that in such a way that it's going to stand up to the test of time and that it's going to be a benefit to the environment rather than something that's continuing to be degraded? And we need those folks who who have that expertise and can plan that well, and then we get that implemented.

Speaker 3:

You know I haven't mentioned being on plan commission but on plan commission but um. On plan commission we look at um plans for developments in this city and so I have gotten a reputation and the builders know that they better not come without knowing whether they're going to have water retention or detention and that they better have green space built into their plan for the residents, both of which are required by law. But sometimes people don't give you know as much emphasis to that. But I think those are the kinds of things where where their student just takes one environmental education class at grace and doesn't even go into it as a career, it's going to affect you for the rest of your life in wherever you find yourself, because you're going to live in this world and you're going to work at places that affect this world, and having that knowledge, that, that background, that appreciation, is really huge yeah, yeah, and we have three different majors and so in the environmental academic area and so students take many classes in those to get prepared to be those environmental professionals.

Speaker 2:

And then what's great is they're not only having an impact when they're here as students, maybe working for the Lilly Center as an intern, but then they're having a multiplicative effect when they graduate and move out into our communities and continue to have a big impact.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I was growing up in school, the careers that were open to me were probably limited by my imagination, but it was limited by what I saw Teachers, nurses, doctors you know the list. I'm hoping your listeners are listening to this and saying, oh, I have a high school student that might be interested in these potential careers that you're talking about. Or a grandparent who says, oh, I've got a grandkid going off to college. Grace College could be an option and these kind of careers could be a great option.

Speaker 3:

And may I say that it's never too late.

Speaker 1:

Diane, are you going back to school? Well, yeah, I am going back to school.

Speaker 3:

But I am going back to school, but I was just thinking about Indiana, master Naturalist yes so that was one of the things that I did the year before I was going to retire, because I knew that this is where I wanted to devote some of my time. And I felt ignorant and so I took Indiana Master Naturalist here in Kosciuszko County and and here in Kosciuszko County it's a great program because they spread it out over the years. So like you're studying wildflowers at the time wildflowers are blooming, or you're studying the lakes and and you know the environment in the lakes at the time where we can get out and and do some things with them, and so it doesn't matter how old you are. But when you become an Indiana Master Naturalist you have continuing education hours involved that you have to do to keep up your certification, which the Lee Center puts on all kinds of hikes and programs. I didn't know that you were so great at identifying trees in the middle of the winter until I went on one of your hikes and I was so impressed.

Speaker 3:

That was a skill I learned in graduate school, was it, yeah, trees in the middle of the winter, until I went on one of your hikes and I was so impressed.

Speaker 1:

I want to hike that was a skill I learned in graduate school, was it? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Two 300 trees identified by fruit or bark or twig or leaf.

Speaker 3:

Yes, okay, I'm going to sign up for that one Silhouette, yeah, but you also put in volunteer hours every year, and so that's how you keep that.

Speaker 3:

Like, just recently I went to Wabash State Park and taught a day on watersheds. Oh, cool For the junior master naturals that were there, and we actually had three students driving all the way over from Warsaw in order to take that class. So I made a connection with one of them who's interested in environmental science and told her all about grace, you know, in their program and so, but it was just fun, but you're never too old to learn and to learn about your environment and to become more involved. And so, like nate and I were laughing today because he was saying well, now, what is this phonic? Okay, I think I know, but let me double check. You know, but but like he can identify a tree in a snap and I'm better at the flowers and wildflowers, you know, because we each have, like, different interests. And then I have a friend over on the other side of the lake that has identified 400 species of birds on the Pike Lake boardwalk, because we have a lot of migrating birds that come through there as well.

Speaker 3:

That's amazing so just thinking about the riches that we have there. Yes, it's Aggie, and so you know, no matter how many people you know how much, how old you are, you can still learn, and so never think it's too late, because it's not.

Speaker 1:

Diane, I am so very appreciative of the giftedness that you bring to our community. And now see Nate. I told you Diane is the most multifaceted person I know and I love it. Thank you for sharing your time today and being part of our podcast.

Speaker 3:

You're welcome. It was a privilege, and I get to spend time with two of my favorite people, so that's always a benefit.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lake Doctor podcast. Join us next time. It's bound to be fun.

Speaker 2:

Listening to this podcast is the first step to making your lake cleaner and healthier. Visit lakesgraceedu for more information about our applied research and discover some tangible ways you can make a difference on your lake.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you next time. The Doctor is In.