Hopeful By Nature

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.

Alex Terry's father has been blind most of his life. He couldn't drive, couldn't see the trailhead signs or the snow conditions. But he could get excited. And when a young Alex came home talking about some upcoming adventure, his father would light up — not politely, genuinely. That's what started it.Not perfect outdoor education. Not expert instruction. A blind man getting excited about something he couldn't see, and making his son feel like the world outside was worth running toward.Alex Terry is a dad, educator, conservationist, and wilderness therapy veteran. He grew up scampering through the woods of New Hampshire, spent his adult life leading groups through the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rockies, riding motorcycles through Baja California, and skiing glaciers in Iceland. A year ago, he moved back to the East Coast with his wife Jesse and their infant son Samson — and discovered that everything he knew about adventure needed to be rebuilt from scratch.In this episode, Scott and Alex talk about:— Growing up with a blind father who adventure-parented anyway — Five years in wilderness therapy — what it teaches you about risk, trust, and human resilience — The cross-country move that went spectacularly wrong (food poisoning, a sick baby, bed bugs at 3am) — The chrysalis — the idea that new parents are "goo" between who they were and who they're becoming — Why Alex is "at high risk of shoving the outdoors in his son's face so hard that he hates it" — Trail stewardship on the outlying islands of Northeast Maine — Why outdoor access sometimes just means having enough toilet paper in the bathroomsThis episode is for every parent who has ever found themselves in the goo — convinced they've ruined everything — and slowly figured out that the backyard was enough all along.ABOUT ALEX TERRY Regional Stewardship Manager, Maine Island Trail Association. Dad, educator, conservationist, wilderness therapy veteran. Based in Maine. 🌊 mita.org | @meislandtrailABOUT YOUR HOST Scott Shepherd is the founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education. 🌿 wildwardinstitute.netNew episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen.

She learned to swim two years ago. Now she's teaching kids in Cameroon to dive.Forbah Sandra Ngwemetoh grew up in Limbe — a coastal city on the edge of the Atlantic, inside one of the most biodiverse marine environments in Africa. Environmental science wasn't in the curriculum. Ocean literacy didn't exist in her school. When she became an educator and asked her students what careers they dreamed of, 98% said doctor. Zero said anything connected to the ocean.So she built a bridge.Through her nonprofit BRIDGES, Forbah is doing something that has never been done in her community. She's teaching photography as a career path. She's teaching swimming as the first step toward becoming a marine biologist or an underwater cinematographer. She introduced swimming into her program two years ago. That's when she first learned to swim herself.Since then, she has dived to 18 meters off South Africa as part of the National Geographic Explorer network. She came back to Limbe and told her students: I've seen what's down there. It's extraordinary. And you can have a career studying it. In 2024, she was nominated as a National Geographic Young Explorer.In this episode, Scott and Forbah talk about:— Building an environmental education program where the concept has never existed— How Forbah went from wanting to be a doctor to becoming one of Africa's most compelling young ocean advocates— The Ocean Splash Academy — what it is, what it needs, and what it will take to make it permanent— Why ocean literacy is an economic issue, not just an environmental one— What it takes to start something from nothing in a place where nobody has done it beforeCameroon has 28 million people. Forbah is, as far as she knows, the only person doing this work.If you work in ocean conservation or environmental education — this is for you. If you're a parent trying to raise a kid who cares about the planet — this is for you. If you've ever built something from nothing and wondered whether it was enough — this is for you.ABOUT FORBAH2024 National Geographic Young Explorer, environmental educator, and founder of Bridges and the Ocean Splash Academy in Limbe, Cameroon. Find her work at bridgesforocean.org.ABOUT YOUR HOSTScott Shepherd is a dad, burrito aficionado, surfer, educator, and founder of Wildward Institute, based in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. 15 years in outdoor and environmental education, including California State Parks, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and High Tech Elementary. Find him at wildwardinstitute.net.SUPPORT BRIDGESThe Ocean Splash Academy needs books, VR headsets, volunteers, and a building fund. Reach out at bridgesforocean.org.New episodes every week. Subscribe and share this with one person who needs to hear it.