Nicole Morin, a senior at Paul Smith’s College who is organizing a local March for Science on April 22, stands on the Saranac Lake Riverwalk Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Ben Gocker)

PAUL SMITHS – A Paul Smith’s College senior is organizing a local sister march to coincide with the national March for Science scheduled for the same day at the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Nicole Morin, an integrative studies major, hopes the march near Paul Smith’s campus will draw people from the region’s scientific community to come out and let their voices be heard.

The march is planned to begin directly across from the Paul Smith’s College entrance at 10 a.m. April 22 and will proceed to the Visitor Interpretive Center,

The college’s SAM Fest — a day-long science, art, and music festival – is happening the same day. The march will serve as a kick off to the day’s events, Morin said.

Like the aim of the national march, Morin’s sister event aims to raise awareness of an embattled scientific community and to combat the prevailing threats many in the community feel from politicians, policy-makers and the current Trump administration.

“Science, scientists and evidence-based policy-making are under attack,” the website for the national March for Science reads. “Budget cuts, censorship of researchers, disappearing datasets, and threats to dismantle government agencies harm us all, putting our health food, air, water, climate, and jobs at risk. It is time for people who support science to take a public stand and be counted.”

“It’s all about awareness,” Morin said. “I think the way that these marches are going to combat things is by bringing people together. A lot of people in my field, in the sciences, are struggling with a lot of grief right now and fear of the future and what’s going to happen. Our evidence-based science isn’t being taken as truth.

“I think a lot of people with this current administration are worried. But let me tell you this, I have never seen more people passionate and just incredibly awakened. We’re not sleeping anymore. The time is now, and the Trump administration has awoken people to that.”

An ecopsychology class taught by professor Tom Huber at Paul Smith’s College provided the genesis for the sister march.

“Curt Stager (a colleague at Paul Smith’s College) asked if I would help organize the March for Science from across the entrance to the college to the VIC on Earth Day,” Huber said. “I shared this with the Ecopsychology class and Nicole volunteered to organize the march as her Eco-activism project. I knew she would do an excellent job.”

Organizing the march struck Morin as a natural choice, given her deep interest in the public aspects of scientific work.

“Back in middle school, I used to go every month with my mom to the conservation commission board meeting where we lived in Connecticut,” Morin said. “I’ve always been really involved with the public affairs side of things.”

Morin’s love of nature began with an early fascination with wolves, but has expanded into a deeper concern for the interconnectedness of the natural and manmade worlds.

“When I was a little girl, I would be howling out the car window when I was going to school, that sort of thing. And I was like, I have to save the wolves. I have to save the wolves,” Morin said. “But as I grew I learned I couldn’t just save the wolves, I had to preserve their habitat, the ecosystems and manage the land in a way that can create a balance between humans and nature.”

“Nicole is an exceptional student,” professor Huber said. “She is passionate in her pursuit of understanding complex subjects and making positive change for the good of all beings – human and the more-than-human lifeforms.”

Professor Huber also sees in Morin a student with a gift for articulating the complexities of ecological issues. Morin’s interest in communicating difficult scientific ideas to a general audience was honed early on, through her involvement in scholarship pageants.

“When I was about 13, I started getting involved in Miss America’s Outstanding Teen,” Morin said. “They’re very much engaged in the community. Every girl has a platform or issue of concern, and mine I deemed ‘Conservation of our Nation.’ I wanted to be Connecticut’s next ‘Green Queen.’ That was my phrase.”

As part of her duties as Miss Naugatuck Valley 2013, Morin tried to engage with children in her community.

“What I would do is I’d go out and attract kids with the sparkly crown and say, ‘Hey guys, check this out. What do you think of my snake?’ I had a pet snake I’d bring around, her name was Nix,” Morin said. “There were multiple projects that I did. I did a little symposium and nature crafts. It’s really just about getting people out there.”

Morin hopes to continue getting people out there with her local mach on Earth Day.

“It’s not just about holding up signs and yelling,” she said. “It’s about bringing people together and getting people to talk and be engaged. It’s not just for scientists, it’s for everyone.”

For people interested in attending the march, there is no registration required. Morin expects participants to begin congregating across from the college entrance at 9:30 the morning of the march.

In addition to the local March for Science, professor Huber will be organizing a bus trip to Washington, D.C. for the annual Climate March the following weekend, April 28-30. People interested in reserving a spot on the bus can email Huber at thuber@paulsmiths.edu.