MarineQuest Launches A New Citizen Science Project that Supports Healthy Coastal Wetlands and a Storm-Resilient Coast

Guest Blogger: Jade Woll, UNCW MarineQuest’s Coastal Citizen Science Ambassador and Conservation Trust for North Carolina AmeriCorps Member

Jade Woll, Coastal Citizen Science Ambassador

Storm Surge Protectors is UNCW MarineQuest’s new citizen science project. The project collects long-term data to help determine the ecological conditions of coastal wetlands in New Hanover and Brunswick Counties. Community-based citizen scientists will collect observational data through ongoing monitoring at local coastal wetlands. UNCW MarineQuest will use the data collected by Storm Surge Protectors to make future recommendations for potential restoration sites and build environmental education materials demonstrating the connection between a healthy coastal wetland and a storm-resilient coast.

Our project is currently partnering with Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Carolina Beach State Park and the Town of Wrightsville Beach. Each of these partners has agreed to allow Storm Surge Protectors to collect data on the coastal wetlands within their property. Additionally, Storm Surge Protectors partnered with research biologists from the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and Estuarine Research Reserve to help solidify the projects protocol and data sheets. Storm Surge Protectors is also working with the Department of Environmental Quality’s North Carolina Wetlands project which will share our citizen science project on their website as well as the data we are collecting at certain sites found on their interactive wetlands map.

Storm Surge Protectors Workshop

To participate in this project, interested community members must attend a free workshop where they will learn more information about the project and how to conduct a wetland assessment. After you have attended a workshop, you are now officially a trained Storm Surge Protector and can collect data whenever you are available. If you are interested in participating in this project, please visit our website and signup for an upcoming workshop.


More about our guest blogger, Jade Woll

Queen's Creek Elementary School Partners with
Coastal Land Trust

Jade Woll is serving a third term as an AmeriCorps Member with UNCW MarineQuest as their Coastal Citizen Science Ambassador and has been responsible for creating and implementing their new citizen science project, Storm Surge Protectors. Woll graduated from Lynchburg College in 2016 with a degree in Environmental Science. Following graduation, she moved to Pensacola, Florida where she served as the Forestry Intern for Naval Air Station Pensacola in the Natural Resources Department. Her internship was through the Student Conservation Association which partners with AmeriCorps for some positions. In that position, she assisted with prescribed fires, invasive species control and dune restoration planning. After finishing her term in Florida, she headed north to Wilmington, North Carolina to serve her second AmeriCorps term with the Coastal Land Trust as the Education and Volunteer Coordinator. She assisted in curriculum development, partnership building with local schools, and implemented the Coastal Land Trust’s environmental education program in four surrounding counties. Upon arriving in North Carolina, Jade also enrolled in the North Carolina Environmental Education Certification Program along with several other Conservation Trust for North Carolina and Conserving Carolina AmeriCorps members. It’s an honor to work with Americorps members like Jade!