SAUGUS — For Zackery Moran, it’s pretty easy being green. He’s been green his whole life, and earlier this week he was recognized for his attention and dedication to environmental affairs.
Moran, who graduated this spring from Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School in Danvers, received the $1,000 Pam Harris Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded by the Saugus River Watershed Council, Sunday at the Saugus Iron Works.
Harris was a nurse, a volunteer member of the Board of Health and a SRWC board member. According to SRWC Executive Director Mary Lester, Harris was committed to improving public health for families in the Saugus River watershed by addressing the most troubling sources of pollution.
Moran has been interested in environmental issues for as long as he can remember.
“As a kid, I was part of the Piers Park East Boston sailing program for six years,” he said. “I learned so many different things, especially about the ecosystem. I guess that’s when I got the bug.”
Later, Moran was part of the Coastal Ocean Science Academy of Nahant, “where I learned all about coastal habitats,” he said.
When it came time to go to high school, Moran consciously chose Essex Tech even though most Saugus students pick Northeast Regional if they’re going the vocational route.
“Northeast is a great school,” he said. “Nothing against them. But Essex Tech offered agricultural and environmental courses.”
At Essex Tech, Moran studied in the Environmental Technology Career Technical Education program; he will continue his studies at Salem State University this fall, majoring in biology with a concentration in environmental biology.
“Over the past four years, he has taken various environmentally-based classes, including but not limited to Signs of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Forest Ecology, Coastal Ecology, Environment Impacts, Wetlands and Wastewater, LEED and Hazmat and Environmental Science Theory,” Lester said. “The Environmental Technology Program at Essex Tech proved to provide him with a solid foundation within this interdisciplinary field and has awarded him the opportunity to complete various projects pertaining to the environment.”
Some of those projects included creation of a herbarium, creating a wetland habitat guide, conducting a salt marsh study with the trustees of the SWRC and completing a hurricane-tracking analysis.
Outside of school, Moran was an active member of Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment (SAVE), where he volunteered for the past three years. Throughout his time with SAVE, Moran helped plant and maintain trees within the community, and partook in a town recycling fundraiser. He is also a current member of the volunteer program at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, for which he was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award Gold Medal, Lester said.
His senior project at Essex Tech consisted of a study on the effects of WIN Waste Innovations (formerly Wheelabrabor) on Rumney Marsh as they relate to wildlife.
With all the work he’s done around Saugus, Moran feels that “we know what we need to do” to head off serious climatological issues due to the changing environment.
“We’re just not doing it,” he said. “Slowly, it’s changing. But it’s not changing fast enough.”
Moran sees the biggest threat posed by climate change is how it will affect sea levels.
“The sea levels will rise, and there will be a loss of habitat,” he said. “It’ll mean less land for us to live. Less places to grow food. Everything is connected.”
Said Lester, “it’s inspiring to all of us to see the accomplishments that Zackery has made to his community while keeping exceptional academic records.”
The SRWC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1991 to protect and restore the natural resources of the town’s watershed.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
