by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director
As Seven Mile Island and the rest of our region debate when and how to reopen, The Wetlands Institute is working diligently to be ready to welcome you back when we are able. We, like so many other organizations and businesses, have been significantly impacted by the quarantine, but we are committed to delivering our mission with laser-beam focus and by adapting our programs and space to accommodate necessary changes.
We continue to largely work from home but as spring progresses, the need for staff to be out working has increased. We have spread out staff by temporarily converting some formerly public spaces into offices and workstations and moved some operations out onto the back deck. Our research and conservation teams have modified their practices to work alone or separated in the field. Terrapin road patrols have been modified for staff safety, but we will be out stewarding terrapins as always.
We have been spending time making more information available virtually so that you can still “visit” and stay connected to the marsh. We know this isn’t the same thing and that what we all love about The Wetlands Institute is being at the Institute. Soon, we will slowly reopen, taking all precautions to care for our visitors, as well as our volunteers and staff. We are currently studying all of our operations with this in mind.
We are opening the Tidepool Shop for enhanced online sales and curbside pickup and are putting together some great activity packages for families ready to be back out exploring the shore and all nature has to offer. If you haven’t checked in for a while, please do.
I don’t doubt that we will have a tough year financially with so many event and program cancellations, but this is a great opportunity for us to embrace some changes that can improve our program delivery too. This is a very fluid situation so check out our website and follow us on social media for the latest updates. We look forward to welcoming you back and hope to do so soon.