Asher Joseph photo
Sierra Welch, a participant of New Haven's Youth @ Work program, with her handy clippers.
Stalks snapped as tie-dye-clad Sierra Welch hunched over a cluster of Japanese knotweeds, wrenching the invasive plant out of the ground off a beaten path in Edgewood Park on Monday afternoon.
Welch has spent the month of June preparing for the New Haven Youth @ Work program’s annual park beautification initiative, which will start early next week. This is Welch’s first year as a staffer with Youth @ Work. She has lived in New Haven her entire life.
Welch forming a pile of Japanese knotweed that she plucked to make room for native species.
Born in Georgia, Welch relocated to New Haven with her family at two weeks old and has lived here for the past 23 years. A proud product of the New Haven public school system, Welch holds a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from Mitchell College in New London, where she attended from 2018 – 2022.
“You know, we were the Covid class,” she joked, “but we made it!”
Although she narrowed her passion for environmentalism to aquatic habitats in middle school, Welch first fell in love with nature as a child. “I always loved animals and plants, but once I reached middle school, my dad insisted that I choose a specific subject to pursue. So, I chose marine biology in sixth grade without really knowing what it was.”
Aside from her early fascination with the natural world, Welch’s inspiration to focus on marine biology stemmed from her fondness for the Disney animated movie, The Little Mermaid.
When asked about her opinion about the backlash against the casting of Ariel as Black actress and singer Halle Bailey in Disney’s live-action revival of the childhood classic, Welch said, “Representation is important. But when it comes to the quality of the movie, it’s not about race, it’s about the chemistry between characters, and the chemistry between Halle Bailey’s Ariel and her Prince Eric was so real.”
Since middle school, Welch’s passion for marine biology has evolved from an admiration for mermaids and sea creatures to concern about the fate of our planet. “If the Earth could speak, we would all be in trouble.”
Welch is determined to not leave her mark on the world, instead reviving extinct marine animals whose numbers have dwindled to zero due to human interference in natural habitats.
“My dream is to bring back one or two extinct marine species. If I help the Earth and its creatures in some way, I could die happy the next day knowing I did my part.”
With the help of her revived species, Welch also said she hopes to start an ocean conservationist center and aquarium to raise awareness about the beautiful animals that dwell beneath the ocean’s surface. “It would be called ‘Sierra’s Believe-It-or-Not!,’” she chuckled.
In the meantime, Welch will continue working to improve her local environment, knotweed by knotweed.
Sierra Welch, future marine biologist.
See below for other recent Independent articles about how New Haveners use and enjoy the city’s many public parks.
• Sprucing Up Peat Meadow Park With AnneMarie
• Tuesday In The State St. Triangle With David
• Monday In Scantlebury Park With Jermaine
Thank you to Sierra Welch and youth@work for helping keep our parks beautiful and reducing invasive plants and doing good works for our city and planet.