Alum Profiles

Current vocation: Restoration Ecologist, President, Wilkinson Ecological Design, Inc.

“In just this one estuary, we’ve had millions of dollars of damage this winter. Coastlines have retreated to ten feet, stairways are gone, plantings are destroyed. Much of the damage is not even known yet.” Seth Wilkinson ’99 is no stranger to storm surge impact. His firm, Wilkinson Ecological Design, is based in Orleans, Massachusetts, a mid-Cape Cod community whose summer residents have not yet returned. “Coastal property owners will have disappointing news when they return this summer,” he says.

Coastal stabilization is a part of every project Wilkinson Ecological undertakes, as they anticipate a rise in sea levels and more frequent superstorms. A number of factors are linked to climate change, including what Seth calls a “slacking drift current” in the North Atlantic, due to supercooled water coming off the Greenland ice shelf. The drift current is like a ridgeline in the ocean that fans out over many miles as the greater volume of water slows the current. He has seen the impact of this increase in water volume in the protected estuaries of the Cape.

“Even halophytic communities [those adapted to saline conditions] are struggling,” Seth reports. Vast areas of high-tide bush, a succulent shrub in the aster family that grows in the saline soils of salt marshes and shorelines, are dying, he reports, either flooded out or just exposed to too much salt. The salt marshes are leapfrogging—low salt marsh plants jumping upland of high marsh communities—in an effort to stay ahead of rising sea levels.

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Designing for coastal stability while restoring ecological systems and habitat is not easy, says Seth Wilkinson. These are dynamic systems, and the coastline will change. But despite the challenges of winter 2013, Seth says their plant-focused restoration efforts have weathered the storms well, where mechanical fasteners have failed. “It’s encouraging to see,” he says. “There is need for some repairs and maintenance, but that is normal for bioengineering projects.” In every project Wilkinson Ecological undertakes on Cape Cod and the islands, Seth anticipates the migration of salt marshes, inserting supplemental plantings of native grasses. “The marshes need to keep moving, just like sharks,” he says. “They won’t make it if they come up against a seawall, so we need to create alternatives to seawalls, a more natural shoreline that continues to provide a means to hold sediment and provides them someplace to go.”

Although he has an undergraduate education in environmental studies, Seth credits his Conway education with a larger understanding of natural systems. The process of site analysis, understanding the processes and all the different forces at work, underlies his work to this day. In addition, he cites the experience dealing with municipal boards and citizen groups on the larger team projects as essential training. “Massachusetts has rigorous regulatory processes which present challenging hurdles for every project we undertake.”

Seth encourages more Conway alums to pursue work in ecological restoration, and in fact he has hired several. His firm keeps growing and, even so, is having a hard time keeping up with all the projects. It’s a great field, he says, full of opportunity for those who want to help coastal communities prepare for the challenges of a changing climate.

The text above is excerpted from “Anticipating the Rising Tide: Conway Alums Address the Coastal Impacts of Climate Change” by Mollie Babize ’84, from the 2013 issue of con’text magazine.

More information about Seth:

What were you doing before you applied to the Conway School?
Completing my undergraduate education and working in the sail boat industry.

What brought you to Conway?
A passion for ecological restoration and the unique educational format.

Imagine we just met, and recognized we had common interests. How would you describe Conway to me?
The only school which teaches ecological design and science at a graduate level.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in the field?
Consider a goal of becoming a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) through the certification program at the Society for Ecological Restoration.

What are you doing right now, and what do you love about it?
Restoring ecological integrity along the coast of New England within sensitive environments in both upland and wetland settings. I’m ambitiously leaving hundreds of acres of the habitats we work in considerably better than we found them.

List one or more books that you find influential in the field of ecological design and/or planning.
International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and Bioengineering Case Studies; Sustainable Stream Bank and Slope Stabilization by Wendi Goldsmith (Class of ’90), Donald Gray and John McCullah.

What book changed your life?
William Cronon, Changes in the Land.

How do you think ecological design and planning can help make positive change?
They are the base tools, along with sound science, to restore our ecosystems.

Which aspects of your Conway education do you use in your current work? Which aspects do you use to address urgent challenges related to climate change, environmental justice, etc.?
Communication skills, a clear understanding of a design process driven by a deep understanding of site characteristics and expanding my knowledge of practical biological sciences were the three most useful attributes of my Conway education, but that doesn’t really do the program justice as there was much more.

Is there anything else you would like to share?
It’s critical to share what you have learned along the way, present, publish and teach as much as you can to make a difference.