SWEP highlights student service-learning, defensible-space projects and restoration partnerships

Missy Moller, executive director of Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP), summarized the organization’s service-learning approach and partnerships that bring students into restoration, water-quality and defensible-space projects.

SWEP focuses programming on Tahoe Truckee students and emphasizes service, career exposure and fostering hope through tangible projects. Moller described restoration days where students plant willows and help connect restored meadow corridors and service projects in partnership with the Truckee River Watershed Council and Clean Up the Lake.

She outlined recent defensible-space stewardship days run with the Truckee Fire District. Moller said students participated in a summit project where approximately 157 students helped defensible-space work, and she described a two‑hour project to clear yard debris for an elderly couple in need; she reported that students filled multiple dumpsters and removed tens of cubic yards in short, supervised shifts.

SWEP also runs watershed summits, water-quality education (macroinvertebrate sampling and turbidity measurements) and career-pathway exposure so students can see what a hydrologist, restoration crew or forest-health worker does. Moller said the organization prioritizes partnerships to expand reach and reinforce real-world learning.

Why it matters: student service-learning provides workforce exposure, supports local restoration and defensible-space work that contributes to community resilience against wildfire and erosion.