Jennifer Seda: Stewarding Rivers and Community in the Bronx

Jennifer Seda is the Volunteer Program Assistant at the Bronx River Alliance, an organization working in partnership with local stewards to protect, improve, and restore the Bronx River corridor as a healthy ecological, recreational, educational, and economic resource for the communities through which the river flows. Jennifer began her stewardship journey during the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteering to improve and clean up her community in ways that positioned her for a career path in environmental conservation. Jennifer's work is to engage the community in educational and engagement activities, such as park clean-ups known as “Pitch In Mondays and “Gardening Tuesdays.” Through her work at Bronx River Alliance, Jennifer is working to inspire community members to be powerful stewards of natural spaces, to advocate for the place they live, and to start the work for future generations to build upon.

One of the most important things you can do regarding climate change is talk about it.

• Jennifer is a second-generation American who grew up in the South Bronx but has roots in Puerto Rico. Every summer, Jennifer would spend two months visiting her grandparents in the countryside of Puerto Rico, where she was around farm animals and wild natural spaces. Through her grandparents’ teachings, she also learned the importance of caring for your community. These formative experiences inspired a deep love and connection for her motherland, Puerto Rico, and the stewardship mindset that motivates her work today. What is a natural place in your life that has special meaning for you? Name that place and why it is important to you. What power do you have to improve or advocate for the protection of that place?
• Jennifer shares the history of the land on which sits Starlight Park – a beautiful natural space in the South Bronx. From the 1940s to 2010, the community was separated from the park by the construction of a highway. In 2010, community members advocated for the dedication of Starlight Park and access to it. Named after an eponymous amusement park that was located on the site in the first half of the 20th century, Starlight Park is now a natural space accessible to the public via a pedestrian bridge and a vital link along the Bronx River Greenway. It is also home to the eco-friendly building headquarters of the Bronx River Alliance. Do you know the history of the land you live on? What are some of the historical events that took place? How has urban planning shaped the layout of your community and its access to natural space? What is the Native land your neighborhood is on? Look up the Indigenous tribes or communities whose land you live on at: native-land.ca
• Community gardens help teach people self-sufficiency skills while also addressing climate change. By cultivating green space and vegetation, they absorb pollution and draw down emissions while providing nutritious and healthy foods to community members. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the vegan restaurant Jennifer worked at closed and she was out of a job. Being at home during this time, Jennifer realized that being outside in nature was an accessible and safe space for her. Jennifer also needed to supplement her basic needs and growing food was a viable option, so she became involved in local community garden efforts. Jennifer also shared that during COVID-19, the city’s sanitation department experienced massive cuts. Area residents immediately noticed the trash piling up in the community as a result. One day, Jennifer and her roommates decided to start cleaning up with brooms and trash bags, and people began to join these efforts to bring their community back. Activating spaces in her community to grow food and mobilize clean-ups as a volunteer helped Jennifer get her position at the Bronx River Alliance. The closing of the restaurant spurred Jennifer to see new opportunities that benefited the community and improved her own life. Have you ever gotten a ‘No’ that represented a ‘door closing’ in one area of your life, but illuminated a ‘window opening’ in another?
• Jennifer says that community members are “...able to advocate in a different way, they can see that there is so much to do, and working alongside us they get to see we can’t do it alone, so collectively we do it together, and then they find their passion. We have a volunteer who loves to make Reels and loves to plant trees…doing that volunteer work slowly shapes into our volunteers becoming kind of organizers for us and advocating for us.” Jennifer says, “a lot of people might look at me like I am an expert, and I’m like, I know a good amount, but we’re all learning at the same time.” She references a quote that has been meaningful for her, “we live here too, we are experts, too,” which is something she draws upon in her work, that you don’t need to have a certain degree to make a difference. How might expanding our ideas of who is an ‘expert’ to value lived experience, cultural ways, and traditional ecological knowledge be important for inspiring more people to engage in environmental stewardship? What are some talents or skills (like making Reels) that you have that you could ‘reframe’ to become tools to facilitate climate solutions?

Learn about the solutions in this story.

• Solution Sectors: Land Sinks; Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
• Solutions: Protect Ecosystems, Reduced Food Waste, Plant-Rich Diets
• For more on all of Project Drawdown’s climate solutions, visit drawdown.org/solutions
• Learn more about Jennifer’s work at Bronx River Alliance

Explore Climate Solutions 101, the world's first major educational effort focused solely on climate solutions. This video series combines Project Drawdown’s trusted resources with the expertise of inspiring, scientifically knowledgeable voices from around the world: drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101.

Check out the Drawdown Roadmap, a science-based strategy for accelerating climate solutions that ensures efforts to stop climate change by governments, businesses, investors, philanthropists, community organizations, and others are as impactful as possible.

Visit the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, a resource that shares research, communications strategy, and opinion polling on climate communications.

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• Drawdown Ecochallenge, presented by Ecochallenge.org, is a fun and social way to take measurable action on the top climate solutions. Take the challenge, and see how a few weeks of action add up to a lifetime of change for you and the planet. If you want to take action on climate solutions like Jennifer, start a challenge today.
• The Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides are practical resources that highlight specific, high-impact climate actions employees in common corporate professions can take at work.
• ChangeX connects people with proven ideas for strengthening communities with the resources needed to implement those changes. Explore countless ways to improve your community and help the world reach drawdown.
• Climate Generation's Green Careers for a Changing Climate Instructional Supplement (for Grades 6-8) contains resources to help young people learn about Green STEM Careers—paths that use STEM skills to help reduce the impacts of climate change. Throughout this instructional supplement, students use Project Drawdown resources to make important connections between climate solutions and different careers.
• Solutions Journalism Network highlights the importance of reporting stories of climate solutions in the media to create a more equitable and sustainable world. Visit their Teaching Climate Solutions resource to find curated collections and the latest examples of climate solutions journalism.
• SubjectToClimate (StC) is a nonprofit online connector for K-12 leaders of all subjects to find materials on climate change at no cost. Explore StC’s educator-generated database to connect to Project Drawdown-based climate education resources.