Community Voices

Melody Starya Mobley was the first Black female forester hired by the U.S. Forest Service, where she worked for 28 years. She was also the first Black woman to graduate with a B.S. in forest…

Alicia Daniel is a naturalist and educator in Burlington, Vermont. She is the founder and director of Vermont Master Naturalist, has taught at the University of Vermont in the Field Naturalist…

Heath Bunnell has worked in the woods since he was a kid, stacking wood and tagging along with his father and grandfather, although as a young man, he briefly lived in Alaska, working longline…

Nigel Manley is an avid outdoorsman, single malt whiskey connoisseur, and soccer referee for local schools. In his long career with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests…

As kids, Jay and James Clarke traveled to state fairs and jobsites with their father and his portable sawmill. The twin brothers bought their first mill together as teenagers and settled into…

Joy Grannis grew up playing in the woods around her family’s Downeast Maine homestead. Although she has always loved art and creating, it wasn’t until middle school that Joy…

Rodney Elmer has been chasing game through the forests of Vermont – and beyond – since he was a kid. He’s turned his passion for the woods and hunting into his life’s…

Pam Hunt grew up in an outdoorsy family in upstate New York. Her first camping outing came at the tender age of six months old, and she continues to enjoy camping and kayaking, always on the…

Matthew Nola’s first exposure to the outdoors was on the beaches of Long Island, New York, where he spent his earliest years. When his family moved to Starksboro, Vermont, however, he…