By: Jaclyn Rhoads

Jaclyn is being honored at PennFuture's Fourth Annual Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards for her work in the Delaware River Watershed through leadership roles with Darby Creek Valley Association, Friends of the Heinz Refuge, and for her work as assistant executive director of Pinelands Preservation Alliance. 

My name is Jaclyn Rhoads. I wear many hats in the environmental community. If I am on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, I am the assistant executive director of Pinelands Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization dedicated to the protection of the Pinelands National Reserve. In Pennsylvania, where I live, I serve as president of the Friends of the Heinz Refuge and the Darby Creek Valley Association, two awesome nonprofits that have functioned for more than 20 years with all volunteers. I became involved in conservation when I started college in my hometown of Philadelphia. My family didn’t travel much, yet I was fascinated with the natural environment. My father was and continues to bug everyone about conserving energy and water, since he was born during the depression. I believe this somehow directed me towards environmental advocacy.

Every day, I work on a variety of environmental issues from climate change to green stormwater infrastructure, but most of my work centers around our water resources. The Delaware River watershed doesn’t share the same glamour or federal resources like the Chesapeake Bay or Great Lakes, but it is a unique and essential resource to the residential and ecological communities it serves. A combination of preservation of lands, restoration of poor stormwater infrastructure, education of the general public, and strong policies can return this great river to a source of fishing and recreation, even in the most stressed reaches, which is a big focus for all of the organizations that I am involved with.

Although the restoration of the Delaware River is very important to me, I am most concerned about society’s lack of environmental ethics. I hope that my work to get people involved in protecting our natural resources will help to establish the connection between our built environment and the natural environment, which is missing. I strive in all that I do to remind people why it is important that we address climate change, that we build rain gardens, that we have strong policies for stopping pollution, and that we just care about what has been created for us. 

I love the work that I do, and I am thankful to those who want to recognize my efforts, but my greatest reward is being supported by dozens of environmental advocates where I work and volunteer. This award is a symbol of all the great work that so many people do daily, and my hope for the future is that the number of individuals who volunteer, donate, and educate the next generation about environmental conservation will significantly grow, and that the next generation of political leaders puts the environment high on its priority list. 

We need people, and I don’t just mean individuals wanting to get paid to do this work, but people who want to give up their free time and invest in the future.  

The 2018 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards will be held Thursday, April 19 at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia. Click here to purchase tickets.