According to Erik Eckl, the founder of Water Words that Work, his market research shows that there is a common progression among people who consider themselves to be "environmentalists."  It starts with a "first impression" or experience that then makes them take a first environmental step.  This step is usually then followed by a greater environmental awareness and a behavior change, and ultimately results in a "big step," such as choosing an environmental career.

This column features the "First Impression" that set someone on his or her path to environmentalism.  We hope Sound Outlook readers will relate to these "First Impressions" and recall their own experiences that led them to appreciate and care about Long Island Sound.  

This month, we highlight the First Impression of Alicia Mozian, Conservation Director for the Town of Westport, member of the Long Island Sound Blue Plan Advisory Committee, and recipient of a 2017 National Wetlands Award from the Environmental Law Institute:


It is really no surprise that Alicia Mozian works in Westport's Conservation office; the concept of conservation has long been a recurring theme in her life.  Her "First Impression" came about as a result of her early years growing up in Lancaster, PA which exposed her to Amish farm country and the experiences associated with living in a farming community:

I grew up in the city of Lancaster but it was surrounded by Amish farms, so you didn't have to drive very far to smell manure or tobacco drying.  My mom would go to the farmers market downtown every single week to buy meat and produce. So when my family moved to Connecticut when I was in the fourth grade, the idea of her going to the grocery store to buy this stuff was weird--"How come you're not going to the farm?"  So I've always had that sensibility in my head.

Alicia's formative years came at a time of environmental awareness on a grand scale, coinciding with the first Earth Day and the "energy crisis" of the early 1970's.  Her father's reminders to turn off the lights when she left the room--"What, do you own stock in the electric company?!"--instilled energy conservation principles.  T he energy crisis also affected one of Alicia's family's favorite holiday pastimes, driving around neighborhoods to see the holiday lights: 

We would drive up to Hartford to see the lights and there were hardly any lights on.  And I remember being disappointed and blaming it all on the energy crisis.   

One school experience in particular played a big role in Alicia's "First Step" and brought about her first real behavior change:

When I was in the sixth grade, one of the secretaries in the principal's office had a daughter who was a senior in high school, and she came to our classroom and gave us tips on how we could be more conservation-minded.  One of the tips was to turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth, and to this day, ever since she taught me that, I've taken that to heart. 

Alicia also recalls a camping trip she took with a friend's church group when she was in high school as leaving a big impression on her:

There were these really cool 30-something church youth group leaders who brought us camping on Cape Cod.  It was the first time I went camping, and we slept out under the stars, no tents.  I just remember seeing all the stars and it was so cool.

These experiences led Alicia to consider an environmental field of study in college:

My father wanted me to be an accountant and my mom wanted me to enter the health field, but they both just wanted me to be able to earn a living.  But I didn't want to "sit behind a desk" so I decided to learn about what I loved, and I loved being outside.  I went to Nasson College in Sanford, Maine and majored in environmental studies with minor in biology. E nvironmental studies was more people-oriented than environmental science and included planning and policy.

Although the college was very small, several professors proved to be worthy mentors for Alicia. One in particular was the Town of Sanford's municipal planner, and his coursework exposed Alicia to cartography, land use planning, and environmental impact assessment .  Another professor taught classes in terrestrial ecology and remote sensing, while a third taught oceanography and ecology:

One professor had this little 2- seater plane, and we would fly over an area with a camera mounted to the outside of the window and take stereoscopic photos.  Then we developed a management plan for the area we had flown over.  We climbed up Mount Washington for terrestrial ecology.  We did a four-year independent study at Parsons Beach in Kennebunk next to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, taking beach profiles at seven different stands every two weeks, even during the summer.  The Mousam River estuary outlets to the ocean at this beach.  We then mapped the beach profiles over the 4 years to sees if it was a seasonally dominated or storm-dominated system.

After Alicia graduated from Nasson College, she moved to Colorado for four years to be with her brother who was working near Aspen as a landscape architect.  She had hoped this would be her "Big Step" of working in the environmental field, but things didn't quite work out that way.  She did a stint as a maid and a manager at a garden center, eventually becoming the master gardener for the town of Snommass Village.  She volunteered weekly at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) as a nature guide, leading people through the wildlife sanctuary.  She also worked for one spring in Moab, Utah to help a colleague from ACES establish the Canyonlands Field Institute.  Through it all, she tried to keep her hand in some kind of environmental work, but she couldn't land an environmental career:

I couldn't get a "real job"--everyone who had one didn't want to give it up!

Alicia decided to move back to Connecticut, and in 1986 answered an ad in the paper for a planning aid position with the Town of Westport.  Her college professors had opened Alicia's eyes to the co-mingling of municipal land use, coastal processes, conservation, and ecology, so she knew exactly what the job would entail.