Environmental Engineering student earns sustainability award and brings birds to UB

By Peter Murphy

Molly Dreyer, a master’s student in environmental and water resources engineering, earned UB Sustainability’s Sustainability Leadership, Innovation and Collaborative Engagement (SLICE) award at UB Sustainability’s awards ceremony last week. Her restoration project on the shoreline of Lake LaSalle was a major consideration during the selection process.

“Sustainability has been a huge part of that. I’m thinking about the longevity of the shoreline, the ecological value of that area and ways to connect students to the natural aspects of campus,” Dreyer says, “we’re looking at connecting the community that surrounds the campus as well. This project has been huge in creating a collaboration between the campus, community and environment.”

Dreyer developed the design for Lake LaSalle’s restoration project in 2017 and began to implement it last summer. Lake LaSalle’s restoration has provided several opportunities for collaboration. Dreyer has held volunteer events with students and faculty with different backgrounds. Through the Lake LaSalle project, Dreyer has collaborated with students and faculty from geology, biology, architecture and engineering.

Moving forward, Dreyer hopes develop a long-term management plan for the lake incorporating ideas on sustainability, longevity and its ecological value. Collaborating with different specialists will help her realize this goal.

“Everyone has their different perspectives. Talking to engineers, geologists and biologists is great and it helps me learn a lot about things I might’ve overlooked,” Dreyer says, “I really like the idea of bridging the gap between ecology and engineering and creating a wholistic system management with roots in natural sciences.”

The Lake LaSalle restoration project also receives support and funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Dreyer is working with a biologist at the Department of Environmental Conservation in addition to the support at UB.

Dreyer has become a mentor to other students looking to develop their own large-scale projects like the lake’s restoration.

“ESW (Engineers for a Sustainable World) developing a rain water collection system, and we’re going to implement that near the lake in a couple of weeks,” Dreyer says, “other students have suggestions about doing architecture or art installations down there. I’m meeting with another student to discuss a campus trail system and outdoor education initiative.”

In addition to her work on the Lake’s restoration, Dreyer works with the Niagara River Greenway Commission. One of her responsibilities is to collaborate with communities and implement sustainability practice and environmental projects. Dreyer has helped communities with native plantings, pollinator gardens, maintenance of existing areas and trail focused projects. She has worked with different youth groups, teaching them about freshwater ecology and water resources management, and has spent a great deal of time connecting communities to their environment like Lake LaSalle’s restoration.

“There has definitely been a lot going on with my work on Lake LaSalle, but I want to use it as a pilot for future projects in communities,” Dreyer says, “my work on native plants, learning about design and site assessment has been helpful.”

Dreyer’s recognizes the importance of sustainability and has strived to develop sustainable solutions for Lake LaSalle. Some of the lake’s visitors reaffirm this belief.

“Last year there were something like 70 loons on the lake, and I’ve never seen so many down there,” Dreyer says, “I guess they were migrating and needed to find a place to hunker down because of an ice storm. Usually, they just pass through, but they had to find a place to stay, and they chose Lake LaSalle.”

“A small lake or pond might not seem like much, but fish live there and birds depend on them. We never know when there’s going to be an influx of birds that really need the resource to be all it can be.”

In addition to her work on the lake’s restoration, Dreyer will continue to help students with their similar projects as well. When students approach her to discuss projects, they often ask questions like “How did you do this?” or “Can we talk about this?” She offers encouragement and advice to these students.

“Students are always looking for ways to get more involved,” Dreyer says, “I think developing your own project is such a unique way to get involved, but it’s pretty simple. It just takes an idea.”

Environmental engineering professor James Jensen and environmental engineering senior Austin Izzo were also honored with SLICE awards. You can learn more about Izzo’s accomplishments at this link.