Betsy Marsh, Conservation Supervisor at Tarrant Regional Water District, has been a nature enthusiast and environmental advocate all her life.
She grew up exploring her neighborhood creek, camping in Texas state parks and growing veggies in her backyard. In high school, she helped launch a school recycling program and catalogued plant specimens at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). After completing her undergraduate degree in geography, she taught elementary and secondary school in Honduras, leading a student reforestation project. After returning to the states, she earned a Master of Science degree in resource policy and behavior and focused her thesis on developing environmental justice community training materials. These early interests and experiences, Betsy says, helped shape her future and the career path she would pursue.
For the next several years, she worked in D.C. and abroad, coordinating programs to support Amazonian indigenous communities and protect their lands. She then consulted for different environmental policy organizations while raising her family in Austin. However, learning about native plants and gardening with her small children helped her realize her real passion.
So when her children started school in Grapevine, she teamed up with local parents and led a volunteer effort to build and maintain a large school garden. The experience was a turning point, and soon Betsy began work as the environmental education coordinator for Grapevine Parks and Recreation, managing school field trips, organizing citizen science programs, leading habitat restoration programs and working with local schools to develop outdoor learning areas.
Betsy met TRWD conservation manager Dustan Compton while working in Grapevine. Their children attended the same elementary school, and Betsy and Dustan worked on a few projects together during that time. So when TRWD was looking to fill the conservation education position, Dustan reached out to see if she was interested in applying.
“Getting to know Betsy as a volunteer at our kids’ elementary school was lifechanging for me. She is so passionate, smart, caring and professional. Having worked with her over the past four years, I have been impressed watching Betsy help lead our conservation program and service in the community to reach tens of thousands of students, teachers and parents with fun, innovative activities. It’s hard to express how fortunate we are to have her on our team,” Dustan says.
Bringing her passions and inspirations to Tarrant Regional Water District
Betsy joined TRWD in late April 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and the world shut down. She couldn’t visit schools, so she focused on assessing TRWD’s existing youth conservation programs and conducting research on other utility providers’ youth programs. She also used the time to build relationships with TRWD’s customer cities, customize a vendor-based theatre program for Tarrant schools, and develop a video resource with local partners in Mansfield.
The COVID downtime gave Betsy an opportunity to complete a lot of background work, and when she was able to reconnect with school children again later in 2021, it was exciting to be back.
Betsy put her energy into developing unique, play-based water education lessons for Pre K- 5th grade students. These “Water Explorer” lessons are designed to help children build healthy minds and bodies and make real-life connections in science and social studies. Based on the age and grade, students participate in clever programs like “Water Wiggles,” “It’s a Waterful World,” “Aquatic Friends,” “Ride a Raindrop,” “Water Ninjas,” “Water Rangers” and “Engineering H20.”
“We like for the students to have so much fun, they don’t realize they’re learning in the process,” Betsy says.
Betsy’s work with youth in TRWD’s service area is broadly focused on the value of water, the water supply journey – how it travels from the lakes to our faucets – water challenges we face, and ways we can conserve and protect water.
“When I ask kids where they think our water comes from, the most common response is ‘from the ocean.’ TRWD’s conservation program not only helps children understand the source of our drinking water, but also how we move this water to their homes, and why we need to conserve and protect our water supply,” she says.
Betsy came to TRWD at the perfect time, when the conservation department was looking to expand its programs.
“It was a great opportunity for me, to become the first TRWD staff member focused on youth education. I love being creative and innovative and having a chance to design meaningful programs – it’s exciting to approach that on such a grand scale across Tarrant County,” she says.
Save Tarrant Water
TRWD Conservation has recently launched a new youth webpage on Save Tarrant Water to empower local youngsters to become water champions. Different TRWD programs help young people appreciate the value of water in supporting all life; recognize the journey water takes to reach our homes; understand the water challenges we face; and lead the way in saving and protecting water. All of these programs are free for Tarrant County schools, and TRWD’s conservation department has recently added two part-time youth educators to help reach out further to the community.
Working with education vendors, Betsy has helped customize and launch the “MeterHero” high school program for Advanced Placement (AP) environmental science students and “Conservation Captains” program for fifth grade students.
TRWD also offers after-school and homeschool programs and supports school and community events through educational activities, games and giveaways that promote conserving and protecting water.
Conservation Treasures Grants
One of Betsy’s favorite parts of her job continues to be developing gardens and outdoor learning areas. Through the TRWD Conservation Treasures Grant, she has collaborated with five local schools and two child-care centers to design and build gardens with water-conservation features, including native plant gardens, rain barrels and educational signs.
Recently, Paschal High School’s Junior ROTC program applied for a Treasures grant to support a natural rainwater-supported pollinator garden and learning area. Betsy will assist the students in the project’s landscape design.
“Each grant project looks a little different, depending on the campus and the interests of the school’s leadership, teachers and students,” Betsy says.
A number of other TRWD-sponsored programs are offered through the Save Tarrant Water website. The water district’s youth education programs can also be accessed by linking from TRWD’s education and outreach web page.
A meaningful job, a fun way of connecting with community
As an environmental educator and conservationist for more than 20 years, Betsy enjoys creating meaningful, engaging learning experiences for diverse groups of all ages.
“I love meeting new people in the community – teachers, volunteers, recreation coordinators, city water utility partners – and developing joint programs,” Betsy says. “And it is always rewarding to see when a lesson touches a child’s mind and heart. I post children’s quotes around my desk to remind me that we are making a real difference, one program at a time.”
“Connecting with the natural world, understanding the earth that supports us and appreciating the resources we depend on is so important, and that experience really starts when we’re young. The youth that we work with are learning to ‘connect the drops’,” she adds.
“We receive such positive feedback from teachers, and it’s great when we get spontaneous hugs from kids after a lesson. I love when they tell us they’ve had the best day ever or ask when we’re coming back,” Betsy says.
Personal time in nature
In her spare time, Betsy loves gardening with native plants and enjoying nature with her family and friends. She was thrilled to finally build a big native plant and vegetable garden with her family in their front yard a few years ago. Throughout all that she does personally and professionally, she strives to create more life-giving environments.
Being part of an important organization
“It’s a privilege to be part of all that TRWD does in the community,” Betsy says. “Water is essential for all life and TRWD supports the foundation of our community.”
