Sarelle Caicedo
Program Assistant at The Evergreen State College
While at Evergreen, Sarelle interned with the Nature Conservancy, where she learned about the botany of native prairie plants of the South Sound, as well as restoration techniques being implemented in the South Sound Prairies. She took the lead role in organizing and coordinating the 2009 Synergy Conference, Evergreen’s annual sustainable living conference. Sarelle’s role in the Sustainability in Prisons Project was to educate incarcerated individuals at Stafford Creek about the biology and conservation efforts aimed to help restore the threatened bird populations of the Purple Martin and Western Bluebird, as well as several species of native bats. At Stafford Creek, the incarcerated students were able to participate in a large scale conservation project of their own, by constructing bird and bat boxes for these species. Sarelle led the process from construction of the boxes to then monitoring the success of the birds and bats once the boxes are put into native habitat. Sarelle was thrilled to be a part of the Sustainability in Prisons Project as it provided her with the opportunity to combine her strong interests in environmental science, community work, and social work in a purposeful manner.