Talk on the Wild Side
with Jeremy Sterk
Jeremy Sterk has been an Environmental Consultant in Southwest Florida since 1994. His varied experience spans marine, upland, and estuarine habitats and includes extensive work with a wide variety of listed species. He is a Florida Wildlife Conservation (FWC) authorized gopher tortoise agent, FWC authorized burrowing owl Agent, FWC approved shorebird monitor, a US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) approved bald eagle monitor, and a Certified Environmental Professional. In this episode, Sterk shares insights into how consulting firms work with builders and local governments to protect the environment. Learn more online at eteflorida.com. You can also see Jeremy Sterk’s photography @jsterkphoto.
Transcription
Vikki Locke
I am Vikki Locke with C2 Communications, and this is Talk on the Wild Side, where we talk all about conservation and career opportunities and it’s brought to you by the Florida Wildlife Federation. Joining us today is Jeremy Stewart. Hey.
Jeremy Sterk
Hi.
Vikki Locke
You are a consultant with Earth Tech Environmental, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your job and exactly what you do?
Jeremy Sterk
All right. Our firm is a consulting firm; we essentially act as a go-between property owners and agencies and help property owners get permits for the development or construction of homes. We also participate in management projects and monitoring projects for government agencies like Collier County, Lee County, different government agencies; and then, we also do exotic plant removal and wetland restoration, those types of activities. So we’re a pretty broad and diverse firm. Generally, I never know what I’ll be doing from day to day.
Vikki Locke
That’s probably why you like it!
Jeremy Sterk
Exactly why I like it. Yeah.
Vikki Locke
Don’t you have a kind of a big restoration project going on right now in Collier County?
Jeremy Sterk
Yes, I do. We’re working with Collier County and several other stakeholders. The county is attempting to rehydrate the Picayune Strand State Forest. They’re doing that by diverting water from one of the main Golden Gate Canals southward into the Picayune Strand State Forest. We started doing what we call the baseline monitoring for that, we installed 16 monitoring stations throughout the Picayune Strand State Forest and we’re collecting data on water quality, water levels, and then also vegetation, and we’ll be tracking those changes over time for five years.
Vikki Locke
Now, you’ve talked about these monitoring stations, and in my head, I’m thinking, is this something big? is it small? is it a little chip? is it a camera? Exactly, what is it?
Jeremy Sterk
It’s relatively small; they are two-inch shallow groundwater wells. They’re two-inch PVC, and that’s a pipe that we put into the ground, and it’s about four feet deep. We call them “hawks,” but they are like little cylinders suspended down in that well, and it registers the water level so it can measure if the water is below ground or above ground, and it can take measurements anywhere from once a minute to once a day, whatever you said it too, and that’s the water levels and then we establish vegetation transects. Those are 75 m long, and along that 75 m, we do plots. They’re a certain size, and we replicate the same size every year, and within those plots, we catalog the vegetation. From the tri-level, the canopy, midstory, and ground cover. The idea there for the rehydration project, if they can figure out the vegetation is rapidly changing and maybe not to the way they had anticipated, then they can adaptably manage that using our data and potentially adjust how much they’re pumping. It’s a pretty neat way to calibrate the project. Right now, they’re doing models, they don’t really know exactly what’s going to happen, but the data will allow them to adapt and manage appropriately.
Vikki Locke
You also mentioned exotic restoration. Explain that.
Jeremy Sterk
Most people know that in Florida, we have a lot of exotic species, from animals to plants. The exotic plant species can be in lakes, and wetlands, or preserves. The one half of our company deals entirely with that. Most of the time, when a project gets permits, they’re required to remove exotic vegetation throughout their entire site. Our guys get in, and the trees get chopped down, dragged out, and ground up, used for much or something like that, and then, we treat the stumps that are left behind. The idea is to get those preserves back to a native natural habitat.
Vikki Locke
How long does that take?
Jeremy Sterk
It depends on the size of the job. It’s generally pure physical labor. Those guys work hard. A 10-acre preserve can take a couple of days. It depends on how the exotics are. We classify them in four categories from 0 to 25, 25 to 50%; if you start getting a preserve that is 75% exotics, that’s a lot, and it can be a lot of big heavy wood that needs to be chopped up and just physically removed.
Vikki Locke
So, do you work out every day?
Jeremy Sterk
No, I’m getting to the stage in my career where I’m administrative, you know, billing and proposals, and herding cats; that is really what I do now. I’ve done my share of fieldwork, and I’m happy to leave some of it behind, especially in August.
Vikki Locke
Oh, yeah. And I understand you spend a lot of time on the golf course, but you don’t know how to golf.
Jeremy Sterk
Yes, I have a lot of friends who golf, and they ask me to come along. They laugh at me because I typically spend more time in the preserves looking for golf balls than I do golfing, but no, I’m a boater and a diver and an underwater photographer, so those are my hobbies.
Vikki Locke
And the picture behind you, you actually took that scuba diving, right?
Jeremy Sterk
Yes, that’s a macro shot of like a channel brain coral. Super close up.
Vikki Locke
It’s beautiful. So it’s safe to say students listening; if they don’t like the outdoors they need not apply.
Jeremy Sterk
Yes, in most cases. Even on my permitting and consulting side, they often spend 30-40 hours a week in the field. But it can be a nice mix. Typically what I tell my people is that f you want to be outside, we can probably find an excuse with your work to do, and if you need a day, we probably have lots of paperwork to do as well. That’s one of the great things I like about the job.
Vikki Locke
And what did you study in school?
Jeremy Sterk
I studied biology. Actually, my emphasis was aquatic biology. It was freshwater aquatic biology. Most of my employees are all some type of environmental science or biology or forestry degree.
Vikki Locke
Well, thanks so much for all that great information and for spending some time with us today. I really appreciate it.
Jeremy Sterk
Well, thanks so much for all that great information and for spending some time with us today. I really appreciate it.
Vikki Locke
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Jeremy Sterk
And thanks to the Florida Wildlife Federation for sponsoring Talk on the Wild Side and keeping the wild in Florida since 1936. You can get more information at their website floridawildlifefederation.org.