"Normal" in Terms of the Environment (Hailey Hill)

    I was thinking back to one of our first conversations in class, which pertained to how changes in the world's climate are affecting various aspects of life. We had briefly touched upon Indigenous people and the whole idea of what we consider to be "normal" in relation to what we are trying to revert to with efforts. We discussed the idea of "how do we know what to revert back to" (not sure how to word it exactly), and how we as humans simply decide a point in time to attempt to revert the environment to. With the case of Indigenous people, for them it is a point to not necessarily "revert" the climate back to the way it was X amount of time ago, but more so to protect the environment to ensure it continues to grow and evolve for future generations. Protecting organisms or the environment as a whole to ensure it can continue to prosper past our lives. 
    As an environmental and organismal biology major with a minor in environmental studies, I obviously had to take this class. While my interests don't particularly pertain to the policy and the more "political" side of the environment, I've, unfortunately, come to understand that it is a necessary evil. As a Pamunkey Native, my broader interests are how Native communities are implementing or handling climate change. While that aspect of the environment is more policy-sided and whatnot, I am more particularly interested in the science and what are physically being done to uphold these values. For example, the rising sea levels are a major concern for my tribe and the reservation as a whole, with the flooding and the inevitable inability of the reservation due to water. I was discussing with the head of our environmental resources guy to see what work he has done to start researching solutions and future plans for the tribe. 
    One topic I was particularly interested in in relation to the river itself was the effect on organisms as the river continues to change. For example, crabs are beginning to make their way far upstream, and our neighboring river, the Mattaponi, recently had a dolphin. I was interested in whether these organisms moving upstream had to do with rising tides, increased temperatures, or maybe even the acidity of the water. While it has happened before, and it's not super rare to see these animals that far upstream, it is becoming more and more frequent than our standards of "normal." 
    In the case of the topic from class, maybe it is not necessarily reverting the river back to the way we remember it, as the rivers and Earth have been changing for a millennium, but protecting the organisms that are essential to the river and ensuring that these changes and adaptations are being made to this ecosystem continue to house a suitable habitat for the organisms that rely on it. 

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