The Observer, July, 2008

Volunteer promotes good science and good times
By Amanda Johnson
Project Manager Assistant

Scientific Advisory Committee member Roger Green seems to take his favorite ancient Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times,” very seriously. After sitting down one afternoon and hearing him speak about his life, it’s impossible to imagine that he is ever bored.

Green’s interests range from recent studies on the history of religion to his field of expertise: designing scientific studies for collecting biological samples.

From consulting on issues relating to coral reefs in Florida and rivers downstream from pulp and paper mills in Alberta, Canada, to a roundtable discussion of religion in science at Oxford University, Green’s knowledge and expertise are always in high demand.

Green, originally from Canada, moved his winter residence back to Ontario a few years ago, but maintains a summer cabin in Hope, Alaska. Still, he has managed to stay very active with the citizen’s council. Green said his volunteer work for the council takes a lot of time, but he is intensely dedicated to supporting the council mission. To keep up with all the issues, he employs a mix of teleconferencing and coordinated visits to Anchorage.

Green recently developed and ran several day-long intensive workshops, co-sponsored by the council and the University of Alaska Anchorage, on the principles of designing scientific sampling studies. Sampling studies are an important part of the council’s Long Term Environmental Monitoring Program. Green said it’s important to pay attention to the little things when you are designing studies that involve collecting samples.

“If I have a regular rant over the decades, it’s to stop people from changing sampling protocols in mid-stream,” Green said. Small differences in procedure can create widely varying results in almost any study.

One cautionary tale he cites is that of a study years ago when he was part of a group collecting mud samples in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. The protocols for the study called for collecting samples, separating the organisms, then placing them into preservative for later counting.

The weather was rough and cold, as Volunteer Profile Volunteer promotes good science and good times Canadian winters can be, and the group changed one small part of the process. For safety reasons they decided to place the mud samples straight into the preservative and wait to separate the organisms in the laboratory the next day.

The extended exposure time to the preservative caused the soft-bodied organisms to become brittle. Worms and other species could not wash through the sieve as in previous sample collections. This small change drastically affected the species count.

Green said he sees the council’s Scientific Advisory Committee in a role that is currently shifting gears.

“Given our mandate, what is the best use of our funding?” Green said. He would like to see the committee reduce the frequency of testing for hydrocarbons left from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and instead concentrate on planning how to respond to new spills. Continual monitoring is necessary to keep a background portrait of the water composition for comparison in case of another event like the Exxon Valdez spill. In his opinion, reducing the amount of testing at existing sites would save money that could be put to other uses.

However, he would recommend adding a site or two. Nearly twenty years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, there are still pockets of oil in Prince William Sound. He thinks that monitoring these sites would provide valuable information about the environmental damage done during the 1989 spill.

Dispersants and their effect on the environment is another subject that gets Green’s blood boiling.

“Oil companies do love the idea of just throwing dispersants at oil spills, which is unproven for Alaska and Prince William Sound,” Green said. While dispersants do get the oil out of sight quickly, Green said his concern is that dispersing oil into fine droplets in the water column may make the oil more bio-available or consumable to organisms in the environment.

As a parent of a small child, Green’s time with his daughter Charlotte is precious. However, Green maintains a wealth of up to date information and a variety of experiences, and his good natured temperament adds a jovial sense of humor to every gathering he attends.

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