Meet the Volunteers! Episode 12: An Insider Exposé on Safari Davis

We know you’ve all been wondering who the mysterious, illusive new intern is here at SSI. Hello, my name is Safari Davis. I am 16, and a current junior at Ghidotti High School in Grass Valley. I have lived in many places, but I’ve been in Grass Valley the longest, and while I long to adventure, I have come to love its unique natural environment. From the high alpine lakes to Deer Creek flowing through Nevada City, I have not found a single spot that doesn’t impart a sense of peace and tranquility, doesn’t inspire you to take a breath of the cool, clean air (except during fire season) and marvel in the fact that you are lucky enough to be surrounded by all this nature.

I am interning at the Sierra Streams Institute for the fall semester, working in the BMI (benthic macroinvertebrate) lab sorting insects and other river-bottom dwellers, like worms and tiny freshwater shrimp, that are collected during creek surveys. The point of analyzing the species that live at the bottoms of rivers and creeks is that BMI populations tell us a lot about water health, and we can determine how best to go about restoring the watershed from what we find. I have also helped in the chemistry lab, filtering and weighing algae samples. Beyond that, I went on a survey to Oregon Creek, and was able to see and help out with the process of measuring the water flow and collecting samples. All of this has given me a good idea of what I want my future to look like, and valuable experience for when I get there. I hope to go on to major in ecology at UC Berkeley, and spend my life helping organizations – and maybe creating my own – like the Sierra Streams Institute.

I have always been very aware of the pressing problems we face – world hunger, poverty and inequality, peace – and the biggest one of all, climate change. Our world is not, in fact, a perfect one, and despite our superiority complexes, we are far from a perfect species. It seems to me that we’ve messed this planet up pretty bad, but then I remember that’s not all there is to see. There are places like the Sierra Streams Institute, communities of people working to monitor, maintain, and restore the beauty that is slowly leaking out of the world around us.

Ever since I was a few years old, I have known what I wanted to be – a zoologist. I still have a love for animals and an urge to help protect biodiversity and prevent mass extinction, but my world has opened up so much more beyond the study of animals – I want to learn about all of it, from archaea to insects to water health and climate patterns. A person that influenced this and solidified my love of science was my freshman bio teacher, Mr. Kirwan. He is a brilliant dude, the most engaging teacher I’ve ever had, and you could tell every day he taught us that this is exactly where he wanted to be, doing exactly what he wanted to do. He has so much passion for his work, which can be a rare thing in this world, but I have seen it time and time again in careers where people are helping others – particularly in science fields.
I feel that same passion from the SSI employees I work with every week. We work with dead insects and other invertebrates that live at the bottoms of creeks – and I’m the type of person who has a hard time killing mosquitos, so that part of it is certainly sad to me – but I’ve heard them talk about the best painless ways to euthanize the bugs. This was something that had genuinely never crossed my mind before, and I bet something that few people ever consider. The compassion for wildlife and dedication for their work that I’ve found at the Sierra Streams Institute gives me a lot of hope for our future.