It Starts With One - How two Australian risk managers are using community for conservation

The beach where Scott Shepherd learned to surf is closed. Not occasionally — up to 300 days a year, Imperial Beach in San Diego County is posted as unsafe for swimming. Decades of inadequately treated sewage from the Tijuana River have contaminated the Pacific Ocean in the southwest corner of the United States. The waves are still there. The water is not safe.This week on Hopeful by Nature, Scott sits down with two water risk management experts from Sydney, Australia — Dr. Annette Davidson and Sarah Loder of Risk Edge — who have spent their careers protecting communities from exactly this kind of crisis. But what makes this conversation remarkable is what they do when the systems fail and governments don't show up: they go talk to their neighbors.In this episode:— What water risk management actually means — and why uncertainty is both the problem and the opportunity — Purified recycled water, "Day Zero," and how communities are navigating water security in a climate-changed world — One Street: how a dinner party, a welcome letter, and a creek behind Annette's house became a grassroots conservation framework — Waters Most Unwanted: turning water contaminants into Western-style rogues gallery wanted posters to make science accessible — The Foodie Group: eleven years of dinner every six weeks, and why Annette calls it life-saving — First Nations knowledge and the stewardship of water as identity, not commodity — The UK sewage crisis and what it means for public trust in water utilities globally — The Tijuana River — and why cross-border problems require cross-border community — Why "the science is the easy part" and community storytelling is where the real work lives — Gratitude as a business meeting agenda item — and why it worksABOUT DR. ANNETTE DAVIDSON Principal Risk Specialist and co-CEO of Risk Edge. Award-winning water risk manager with 35+ years of experience. 2021 Australian Water Association Water Professional of the Year. 🌊 riskEdge.com.au | watersmostunwanted.com | onestreet.earthABOUT SARAH LODER Principal Engineer and co-CEO of Risk Edge. 18 years of experience in water quality risk management across government and private sector clients. 🌊 riskEdge.com.auABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.netNew episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.