By Tiare Sierra Rivera, Ecological Restoration Fellow
If I had to choose one word to describe the thread that runs through my career journey in environmental science, it would be “fascination.” To me, fascination is that feeling of being so wowed by something that you’re moved to take action on it.
It is a force that has guided my childhood wonder into a professional purpose. My parents are both sailors, and growing up, learning about sailing was a fascinating experience. We would sail along the coast of Puerto Rico and beyond, all the way up to the US and British Virgin Islands. I wondered how the wind powered our boat, and what the birds, fish, and wildlife I saw were doing. Looking at the coast from the perspective of the ocean made me curious about how much impact the oceans had on the land. Every day was different, but I noticed patterns and made connections based on where and when we were sailing. I didn’t know it yet, but all of these were seeds—fascination moments—that led me to where I am today.
My love of fascination became more apparent in college. As a freshman at Boston University, I was introduced to the mapping and data technology of geographic information systems, GIS, and remote sensing, the science of obtaining information from an area or object at a distance, from aircrafts or satellites. Soon, whenever I wondered “what? when? how? why?” I could pull out my computer and explore it using GIS. These skills allowed me to answer questions that fascinated me, such as “how did mangrove forests in Puerto Rico spatially change after hurricanes?” and “how has urban space increased in tourism hotspots in Puerto Rico over the last 20 years?”
Then came the summer before my junior year, when I was a coastal resiliency intern at Woods Hole Group, an environmental engineering company that provides services for coastal, ocean, wetland and terrestrial environments. On the very first day, I heard for the first time the term “marsh migration”: the natural process by which saltmarshes expand inland in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as rising sea levels. It was another fascination moment, one that shifted my focus and led me toward developing a professional project looking at salt marsh migration corridors across Cape Cod, using GIS.
My fascinating experiences with GIS, remote sensing and coastal wetlands led me to find the Ecological Restoration Fellowship opportunity as I was applying for jobs after college. When I applied to the Mass Audubon Environmental Fellowship Program, I felt that same spark of excitement. I knew this opportunity would bring more moments of discovery and more chances to be amazed—and it has. Working with the Ecological Restoration team here at Mass Audubon, I’ve spent a lot of time learning about cranberry bog restoration, the process of returning retired cranberry farms, often built atop wetlands, to their natural state by removing agricultural modifications like ditches, dams, and sand, and allowing native ecosystems to recover.
It fascinated me how, after a cranberry bog is turned barren using heavy machinery, no seeding or planting is needed in historic wetlands for native vegetation to regrow. It’s a reminder that the earth is magical, and that sometimes, the best thing we can do is step back and watch nature heal itself.
Now, I wake up every morning driven by the same fascination that first took hold of me as a kid staring out at the coastline from a sailboat. That sense of wonder—of watching nature work in patterns, of asking “why?” and “how?”—fuels my work in ecological restoration today. It’s those moments of awe that keep me going and curious about what’s next.
Tiare Sierra Rivera (she/her) grew up in Puerto Rico. She recently graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Earth and Environmental Science, concentrating in GIS and remote sensing, and minoring in marine science. While at BU, she was a student-athlete on the sailing team, earning MVP honors two years in a row.
Tiare’s environmental journey includes two summer internships in climate resiliency and environmental permitting, as well as a transformative summer experience conducting scientific diving research in Mozambique. During the academic year, she taught an accredited sailing course to fellow college students and served as a teaching assistant for an introductory environmental science class.