The winter has slowed things down a bit. There aren't any site visits, so I've been in the office more. It finally snowed in Philadelphia, we didn't get a lot but, enough for it to feel like a winter wonderland for a weekend. I was told that winter here is short, and spring is long, I'm excited to see Philly in bloom! Right before the office emptied out for the holidays, we have a big cookie swap. I made browned Butter Chai Cookies; the swap was a great opportunity to socialize with people from other departments and meet folks who usually don't come in.

Mid-January, one of my friends from the office left because she was a seasonal worker, and her term was finished. The office had a chili party to celebrate her work and accomplishments. She was so sweet to me when I was brand new, so seeing her go was sad, but she has great opportunities ahead of her, so I'm also excited to see what work she ends up doing.

I am in the final stages of my Green Infrastructure project for White Clay Creek. My project lead, Shane, organized a site visit in December. Her, another WCCWA member, Lucy, and I did a walk around in the area and took pictures of the different properties that we are interested in reaching out to. The point of the walk around was to see where the gutters are, to figure out where a most of the roof runoff during rain events end up on their property, which will then inform us where to place rain gardens. We also took pictures of the properties, which I will use as visuals in my report. I've been looking at these properties through calculations and digitally from a mapping application, so it was really refreshing to see them in person. The day we went was the day after the area got a lot of rain, so we saw erosion from flooding and some areas still have really big puddles.

From now until the end of my fellowship I will be working on writing the report for this project where I include diagrams that recommend which bioretention system to implement and where, and with estimated costs. I gave the W&S committee a project update when my supervisor, Sarah, and I went to the in-personal quarterly committee meeting on January 23rd. After the meeting a lot of people came up to me and told me they are really excited to read my report. That type of energy and encouragement always boots my energy.

I finally finished writing my federal resume! I feel like this was a huge accomplishment, after all of those webinars and trainings I have a first draft. The PWSR team has been so helpful with looking and editing it using their experience with applying to federal jobs. Since I am near the end of my fellowship, I have been looking around for other opportunities within the NPS. I am so happy I got to experience the work of Partnership Wild & Scenic Rivers and I've met so many people who are so supportive of my professional journey and it's so encouraging to hear everybody's life path and comforting that everyone is on their own timeline.