Redding Girl Scout shows how dragonflies signal pollution
WILTON — When looking for a topic to focus on for her Girl Scout Gold Award, Gisella Castagna, 18, of Redding, set her eyes on the dragonflies at her local national park.
Doing a project with the rangers at Weir Farm National Park was the natural choice — so too was the decision to aim for the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. She's been volunteering at the Wilton-Ridgefield park for years and had received numerous badges and awards over her 12 years in Scouts.
To receive her Gold Award award, a Girl Scout must choose a problem in her community and work toward developing a permanent solution.
“After talking with rangers… I learned that there was a lack of awareness in my local national park… and surrounding towns about how mercury pollution in Connecticut waterways, lakes, rivers and ponds harm the environment, as well as accumulate in living tissue like insects, fish other animals at the park I wanted to address this knowledge gap,” Castagna said.
To do so, Castagna helped the rangers collect dragonfly larvae, which can be tested for mercury levels to determine pollution in Weir Pond. The park has been collecting this information for years and contributing its findings to a national Dragonfly Mercury Project.
She also organized events and created materials that Weir Farm uses to educate the public about pollution and how the rangers study it.
Castagna did most of her work the summer before her senior year of high school. She created a video about mercury pollution and designed a junior ranger activity and an informative handout about the issue. In the fall she participated in the dragonfly larvae collection process, and she used this information to understand how the park uses the larvae to measure mercury levels.
“Her materials are something we will be using in the future,” said Kristin Lessard, park ranger and Castagna's project advisor. “It allowed us to present the information in a fun way.”
More than two years after initiating the project, Castagna returned to the park on Aug. 6 to hold Junior Ranger Family Fun Day with Friends of Weir Farm. The event allowed visitors to create dragonfly-themed crafts and better understand how the park monitors mercury pollution. Other activities included a junior ranger activity and a hike to the Weir Pond where the larvae are collected. She started the event in the summer of 2022, a year after beginning her research.
“I am very proud of the work Gisella has done,” Lessard said. “It's always great to have young people involved.”
After working on the project extensively Castagna received her Gold Award this year. She credits Girl Scouts for helping her develop her leadership skills and raise her confidence.
“Girl Scouts gave us the skills and confidence to feel like we are capable of leadership,” Castagna said
After graduating from Hopkins School, a private school in New Haven, in June 2022, Castagna took a gap year where she studied abroad in South Korea with the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. Castagna will attend Barnard College in New York City in the fall and plans on studying East Asian studies.