Julie Stromberg remembers the college summer break when she found her calling as a plant biologist with a nun in the lush Wisconsin forest. Sister Frances, who was volunteering with Julie for the Audubon Society, identified each of the plants they encountered along their afternoon trek, knowing not only the plants' names, but many of the specifics of their lives and their interactions with one another.
"She just seemed so at home in the forest," recalls Stromberg, now an assistant professor of plant biology at ASU. "I realized then that I wanted to be able to know an area so well that I could then speak for it, interpret it for other people."
Applying the earnest zeal that she admits colors all of her efforts, Stromberg dedicated herself to the study of botany and ecology. By the time she graduated, Stromberg could identify every plant found in Wisconsin.
In her new home of Arizona, Stromberg is now called upon to interpret far different environments across the state. However, the expertise in riparian ecosystems, the flora and fauna along rivers and streams, has made her perspective invaluable in Arizona where extensive damming and irrigation have devastated the vegetation and wildlife along most rivers. Today, restoration ecologists like Stromberg are working along with property owners and state officials to repair some of the damage done and bring these river environments back.
To this end, Stromberg supervises efforts to rejuvenate the environment in areas that have been severely harmed by humans. The projects that she takes on differ widely in goals. Sometimes a restoration project will be started to create habitat for an endangered species. Others, such as the current Salt River Restoration Project, seek to recreate "natural environments" in order to beautify urban areas.
In many areas the human-caused damage to the Sonoran desert is clear, with desert landscapes and wildlife being replaced by urban, suburban and agricultural development. In most areas, however, these changes have been subtler. Even where the desert remains completely free from buildings and roads, the presence of humans is often deeply felt.
Stromberg investigates these sometimes hidden effects of human actions. Most of her work takes place along the banks of the rivers of the Sonoran desert. For a desert ecologist, this requires an understanding of dams, which control the water flow of almost all major waterways in Arizona, Stromberg said. While the dams have had disastrous effects for previously existing vegetation, over time some of the areas that were decimated by dams have seen new plant communities established. Stromberg hopes that the research she has done on these new communities can help humans understand the persistence of these areas.
Success at restoration projects requires a deep understanding of how natural and human processes influence on an area, Stromberg says. In general, a goal is to create ecosystems that will be sustainable and therefore persist over time. However, understanding sustainability continues to prove extremely difficult. What makes a natural system stable over time and resilient to disturbance continues to be controversial in the scientific community. As these concepts develop, much of restoration ecology must be pursued on the basis of trial and error experimentation. Different approaches used are dependent on the goals, resources and details of a project.
A self proclaimed product of "Earth Day," Stromberg still likes to contest dogma from time to time. On issues like invasive species, she challenges her students and colleagues to guard against knee-jerk reactions, attempting to use science to make peace between humans and nature whenever possible.
For her this means balancing the roles of scientist, observer and participant in the natural world. In Stromberg's view, for restoration work to be done right, it can't be done from the inside of a lab.
"I try to merge a natural history awareness of the area I'm studying with the quantitative aspects of science. I spend a lot of time out in the field observing."
Outside of class and the field, she cares for the three acres of gardens and the small orchard that surround her home. Whether pruning bushes or writing a grant proposal for the restoration of a damaged river, Stromberg attempts to distinguish her efforts with an exceptional ability to concentrate on the task at hand.
Her lean, tan physique suggestive of her many years spent running competitive marathons, Stromberg presides over her classroom with a quiet deliberativeness. She carefully considers the questions posed by her students and searches for the right phrases to challenge the assumptions she sees them making as she guides them toward a fuller understanding of the complex ways that humans interact with the natural world. The science of ecology in general, and restoration ecology in particular, are still very young fields, and many issues they involve remain controversial.
Some of her efforts to restore the environment have met with some resistance among some Arizona residents, who fear that conservationists will interfere with their independence. Stromberg's work along the San Pedro River was delayed for some time when she was initially denied access to stretches of the river.
"The ranchers didn't want any more scientists coming around. They thought that our research would end up taking their water away," Stromberg recalls.
Though Stromberg admits that with any conservation project, there are setbacks and hang-ups along the way, the visible results of her efforts make the hard work worthwhile.
