by Olivia Sena, of University of Vermont ‘22
Sky Island Borderlands Program Spring ‘21
More than a month following my crazy, incredible experience in the Sky Island Borderlands of SW Arizona with Round River, I can confidently say it was the best decision I made during the COVID-19 pandemic – and perhaps during my entire college career! Getting to do hands-on field work and learn about conservation issues that hit so close to home was a much-needed change of pace for me after almost two semesters of online classes and social distancing.
I have always been a planner, but this semester was not part of my plan at first. I had always wanted to spend a semester abroad in a foreign country doing ecological field work, and as a sophomore at the University of Vermont in late 2019, I had decided on going to New Zealand for the spring semester of my junior year. Even after COVID-19 struck in March of 2020 and all international travel was halted indefinitely, I was still hopeful that it would all blow over by early 2021 and I would be able to do the semester abroad that I had meticulously planned for since I was a freshman. However, as fall of 2020 approached and programs, schools, and countries alike cancelled their programs and maintained their closed borders, my hopes for a semester abroad faded. I was still hungry to get out into the field and get hands-on experience doing real conservation work, though, so I reassessed my options. Revisiting Round River’s website, I expected to see the usual news that international programs would most likely not run for Spring of 2021, but what I didn’t expect to see was that Round River was in the middle of designing a new domestic program for the sole reason that they had students itching to get out into the field now more than ever before.
After initially applying to the Patagonia program, I decided on gut instinct one day to email Al, Round River’s Outreach Director, and request to switch my first choice to the new Sky Islands program. Having never been to or read much about the Sonoran Desert, I had little idea of what would be in store for me the next semester. I was simply excited to get out of my tiny Burlington apartment, log off of my online classes, and finally apply some of the theoretical knowledge I had learned in my college classes of the past two and a half years.
As fall rolled into winter and I returned home for the holidays, the reality of what I had signed up for started to sink in, along with all of the anxiety and stress associated with preparing for something I was simultaneously really excited about, nervous for, and knew little about. Because this was a pilot program that had never been run before, let alone run during a global pandemic, I knew that my instructors were still trying to figure things out almost as much as I was, but that didn’t stop me from striking up long email chains with them asking all sorts of questions about the program, specifically what field work and classes would be like.
My instructor, Eli, was incredibly responsive and understanding of my desire for details, and did the best she could to answer my questions. Another aspect of the program I was anxious about were the COVID-19 safety protocols. Would our group have to wear masks around each other all the time? Would I have to fly in two weeks early in order to quarantine? Would I even be allowed to fly? How often would we have to get tested, and how would that affect our classes and field work? As February drew closer, the whole group, including our instructors Ben and Eli, as well as Al, met over Zoom once, and then again a couple weeks later, to lay out the plan and discuss these questions and concerns. The plan consisted of everyone quarantining at home for two weeks beforehand, getting a COVID-19 test a few days before traveling, masking and social distancing with each other for the first week, and finally creating an eight-person bubble after receiving another negative test result.
Though it seemed like a tall order at the time to merge eight people coming from eight different places into one isolated field crew bubble, it worked out flawlessly due to our group’s understanding of and respect for the importance of keeping the virus out of our group. Knowing that if any of us got sick, it would potentially affect not only our ability to get field work done for our community partner, Sky Island Alliance, but also the southern Arizona communities where we were working, was an enormous motivator for making sure we were careful about quarantining and not exposing ourselves further.
I felt safer from the pandemic with seven strangers-turned-best-friends in the remote Sonoran Desert than I did most times at home, school, or work over the preceding ten months. Because of the nature of a Round River program, in which outdoor work in remote locations and little community contact is the norm, there is little to be worried about in terms of exposure once the group had safely been formed. Although we weren’t able to participate in the homestay that is a traditional part of some Round River programs – to minimize the possibility of us exposing any remotely-based community members to the coronavirus – our experience was still just as eye-opening, demanding, and rewarding. However, we were still able to interact and build relationships with the local community through Zoom lectures for classes, field visits from multiple Sky Island Alliance staff members, and chance encounters at places like the Arivaca public library and our base camp, Ruby.
From the beginning of the program, we had little hope that the vaccines would become accessible enough that we would be able to get vaccinated while on the program, but by early April, Arizona had opened up eligibility to everyone 18 and older. By some stroke of luck, all six of us students were able to get vaccine appointments for the same time on our only day off between two field expeditions, so we all piled into Ballena, our big blue whale of a van, and went to Tucson to get vaccinated. Three weeks later, the day we were due for our second dose, also happened to be the day that the program ended, so some of us stayed another night in Tucson to receive the shot, while others went home first and received their second dose there. It’s pretty awesome that the six of us are able to say that we got vaccinated against a pandemic-causing virus during a Round River program.
I am incredibly grateful for my time in the Arizona/Mexico borderlands and acknowledge my immense privilege in being able to do a program like this during a time that has been difficult for many people for many different reasons. Thank you to Round River, my instructors, and my fellow students for embarking on this wonderful adventure with me.