Members in Action: Maha Guliani, Ecologist for the City of Portland, CERPIT

Maha Guliani (she/her), CERPIT, is an ecologist with over nine years of experience conducting plant and wildlife studies, wetland and stream delineations, and planning habitat management and restoration projects throughout South Florida and, most recently, the Pacific Northwest. Maha specializes in habitat restoration, invasive plant management, monitoring rare and protected plant species, and leading environmental education and community outreach programs. She has extensive experience with environmental permitting, regulatory compliance with the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and environmental planning and design. She now works at the City of Portland, managing over 30 natural areas and hybrid parks, totaling over 700 acres. Maha enjoys hiking and is pictured above visiting Yellowstone National Park.

How long have you been a member of SER? What’s your best experience with SER so far? 

I have been a member of SER and a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner-in-Training (CERPIT) since 2018. Shortly after joining the organization, I worked with Jen Lyndall, the previous CERP Program Coordinator, by volunteering my time on the SER Marketing and Outreach Committee. My goal in joining the committee was to expose a more diverse and underrepresented palette of environmental enthusiasts to SER and all it offers. Today, I am still on that committee, now having the pleasure of working with the new SER Program Associate, John Salisbury, whom the new Outreach Committee is excited to work with, particularly in this new justice and social climate and the organizational value and ideas he’s brought to kickstart the committee after a long hiatus for the Committee. 

My best experience with SER has been serving on the SER Ad-hoc DEI committee as the Chair of the Code of Ethics committee. SER set up an ad hoc committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in July 2020 to recommend steps towards strengthening DEI within all of SER’s activities. Thanks to the team’s work, we drafted a revised Code of Ethics for SER, created a Code of Conduct for SER events, and defined the terms of reference for a standing committee on DEI. I cherish the time I had to work with this diverse group of people from various parts of the U.S., Canada, and Africa to engage and learn about DEI initiatives to implement for SER programs. This work has been vital in ensuring that SER diversifies the organization’s membership and activities. 

Maha managing Lygodium microphyllum within Everglades tree islands.

Why did you join SER? 

Being a part of SER is like being a kid at the candy store. SER’s online platform is filled with valuable content applicable to anyone at any career or learning stage.  I learned about SER and its staff while working at the Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC) in Miami, Florida. At IRC, I implemented ecological restoration projects in private and imperiled, public pine-Rockland ecosystems as a field biologist and the Pine Rockland Initiative Program coordinator. It helped that IRC’s Executive Director, George Gann, and now SER’s International Policy Lead would also talk highly about the organization. SER had a library of resources that I learned from as a burgeoning restoration practitioner, which helped project implementation, planning, and networking with like-minded professionals. Today, I reference SER daily to fill in those knowledge gaps throughout my work. More importantly, I’m happy that I can intimately partake in aspects of the organization by actively working and providing my input through the different committees I am involved in and have had the opportunity to make some life-long friends.  

What is your current occupation?

I am a natural resource ecologist with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Parks and Recreation. I actively provide management and restoration activities on 30 natural areas, consisting of forests, wetland, and developed (hybrid) parks spanning over 700 acres, located in the urban-wildland interface of the Portland metropolitan area located in the state of Oregon. I regularly partner with other agencies to evaluate and enhance the ecological health and connectivity of the natural regions in the major watersheds in Portland.

Maha leading a rescue and relocation project for various state of Florida endangered Tillandsia species at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Center, located in Palm Beach County, Florida. 

What do you find most rewarding about working for your organization? 

The most rewarding part of working for the City of Portland and actively managing the natural areas is getting immediate feedback from the public about the work that we implement on the ground.  As an ecologist and land manager, my work involves restoring, enhancing, and protecting the forested areas consisting of soft-surface trails. It’s a privilege to reap the benefits of my work while being a citizen of the city. It’s cool to hike with my husband and dog on the weekend, admire what my team and I have done, and showcase our work to the public. I must mention it’s also hard to turn my work brain off on the weekends by not taking photos to go back to the office during the weekday to plan around if going on a hike around the City, but I’m getting better at work-life balance! 

What projects are you working on right now? 

I’m currently working on riparian enhancement projects, including revegetating several natural areas within my portfolio. This requires a lot of designing, planning, coordinating with our botanic technicians, environmental planners, regional permitting staff, invasive removal contractors, academic, other bureaus, experts, and Friends groups, all while purchasing plants, research, etc.; this winter (November 2021- March 2022), I coordinated the planting of 4000 riparian plants across three watersheds in the City. Local community members have been excited to get back to volunteer work after COVID. I’m trying to implement new tactics after planting. I am doing quantitative monitoring on my plots since we do not have a formal way of doing that. 

How does your work support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration? 

My current work supports the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration by planning and actively providing equitable access and learning opportunities to underserved and overlooked communities to forested, natural areas. The Portland metro area contains a diverse and beautiful network of natural regions I have not seen in any other city in the United States. We’re privileged to have access to such nature right outside our doorsteps. On the surface, trails and access to forested natural areas are equal and inclusive. In practice, these facilities, and the benefits they bring, are not always equitably distributed. Through my job as a municipal employee in the City of Portland and working in Miami, Florida, for over ten years, I have seen that low-income neighborhoods, Communities of Color, people with physical or intellectual disabilities, older adults, and people with limited English proficiency are among those that have been traditionally mis-served or left out of decision-making and planning processes including the development of parks, natural areas, and trails. My goal is to empower EVERYONE to enjoy, share, and preserve the beauty of the wilderness region to us and our urban parks. Unfortunately, that mission will not be fulfilled until systemic racism is erased and black, indigenous, and people of color are safe and welcome outside, have equitable access to quality natural spaces, and equitable employment, leadership opportunities, and learning opportunities in the outdoors environmental industry. 

What does ecological restoration mean to you?

As an ecologist, I appreciate visual and written descriptions of desired future conditions for a degraded or suffering landscape. Fires, floods, succession, and anthropogenic factors, such as construction projects and environmental abatement, are some of the processes I have worked around in my projects. Ecological restoration for me is a goal-oriented process, so in the absence of clearly stated, achievable goals, there is no way to know whether a project will ever reach a successful conclusion. 

Maha conducting a plant survey at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

Why would you encourage others, particularly young people, to get involved in this field? 

The field of restoration is multifaceted. If given the opportunity in any position, you have the opportunity to engage in fieldwork, lab work, data collection, analysis, traveling, engaging in mentorship, and most importantly, writing and communication. These are all skills that can be applied in any industry. It takes time to find your niche but never say no to any opportunity while you have the ability and passion for moving forward. I always make it a point to pay it forward as my mentors, all women, have for me. 

What’s one thing - either industry-related or not - you learned in the last month? 

Scientists estimate that there are approximately 73,000 tree species, yet 9,200 are yet to be discovered. Here is the summary from FIU and the publication. 

What’s something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know?

I was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My parents moved our family to south Florida in the early nineties to a thriving South Asian community when I was only two years old. I am so happy that we landed in south Florida because I could work in the most beautiful landscape in the world, the Everglades. I remember tearing up for the first time in my life while on an airboat, enjoying the beautiful vista of the Everglades with sawgrass strewn all over, and seeing a black bear for the first time while operating an airboat. That’s been one of the most satisfying field experiences in my life. 

Blackbear in the Water Conservation Area 3 in the Everglades at sunset.