Blog and News

As the child of a military family, Janel Lawton moved often as a kid, including stints in Key West, Florida, rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and urban New Jersey. She opted to attend college in…

About 11 years ago, Rebecca McCabe began volunteering at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pennsylvania, as a college biology student. After completing her studies, then earning a…

Sam Cox has always been drawn to the woods near his family’s large grain farm. When the 17-year-old is not completing school work, competing with his robotics team, or helping on the…

Kirk Gentalen grew up in New Jersey, within sight of New York City. Since leaving home to attend college in California, he’s lived in several states, working as an environmental educator…

Growing up in the Bay Area in California, Dallas Huggins had “minimal exposure” to the natural world. She started hiking as a teenager, but really dove into exploring the outdoors…

Nancy Patch knew from a young age that she wanted to be a forester. Her work in the field has spanned four decades – including two years in Argentina with the PeaceCorps. But she’s…

Erica Holm grew up in what she describes as a typical suburban neighborhood in southern New Hampshire. Although she wasn’t a particularly outdoorsy kid, she pursued a degree in natural…

Mike Parisio has always been fascinated by the natural world. After earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, he pursued a master’s degree – and, eventually, a…

Bill Reid’s interests range from history and natural resources to paddling and hiking, so he seems perfectly matched to his role as the Chief Ranger for The Last Green Valley National…

Hilda White has always loved flowers – and the sciences. In 1951, she graduated from Cornell University with a degree in chemistry. For the next 45 years, she worked in a variety of lab…

At Marcus Whitman High School in Rushville, New York, students who are enrolled in a college-level environmental science class participate in hands-on projects – from making maple syrup…

When Jim Kennedy moved about five years ago to a new property in Hanover, New Hampshire, just down the road from where he’d lived for more than four decades, he set to work –…

A member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Jessica Raspitha started working with the tribe’s Environment Division as an intern during her college years, and has been a full-time employee…

From Massachusetts to Florida, the Olympic Peninsula to the Smoky Mountains to New Hampshire, Dawn Dextraze has lived in many places. Wherever she goes, she maintains a strong connection to…

Like many Vermonters, Hayden Lake spent a lot of time in the woods while he was growing up. Those experiences eventually led to a career as a consulting forester. Last year he took a break…

Joe and Lisa McSwain are of an age when they might think of retiring, but a life of leisure doesn’t appeal to them. A few years ago, they sold the steeplejack company they’d run…

Steve Denette has rock climbed in Yosemite, sea kayaked along the coast of Maine and canoed the state’s inland lakes and rivers, and completed countless traverses in the White Mountains…

In the midst of the pandemic, Deana Tempest Thomas left her work in healthcare, purchased her childhood home in North Scituate, Rhode Island, and hatched a plan to create a small farm there.…

Walt Cottrell has worked as a wildlife biologist, a domestic animal veterinarian, and since 2005 as a wildlife veterinarian in various locations around the Northeast. Although much of his…

Born in Newport, Vermont, raised in Irasburg, and having lived much of her adult life in Albany, Colleen Goodridge considers herself “a product of the Kingdom.” For the…