I grew up in Northern New Jersey, where I spent most of my days outside, fishing, hiking, herping, birding, and exploring the lakes and woods around my home. I graduated in 2012 from Washington College with a degree in Environmental Studies and until 2015, worked on avian research projects throughout the north and southeast, typically as a field technician or banding assistant, so only 3-5 months in each position. It was fun to move around and always meet new people, have cool experiences, and work in different habitat types and with different species, but I was glad to finally be staying in one place when I moved to PA and started working for Wissahickon Trails in early 2015.
For the first two years of my time with WT, I was the Naturalist and in charge of nature programs and intepretive hikes, etc, and established a small, summer banding station to study breeding birds at one of our preserves where we are focusing on intensely improving the habitats present. After a couple years of that, I moved into the role of Stewardship Coordinator, which meant my work shifted to mostly trail and property maintenance, conservation planning, and bird population monitoring (which I much preferred, given my introvertedness). Now, I'm the Conservation Manager and still responsible for planning and implementing habitat management and restoration projects on our lands, for working with outside contractors on larger restoration projects, securing grants for such work, overseeing trail and preserve maintenance, and managing wildlife and vegetation monitoring activities.
I am super into birds - they are why I am passionate about what I do and so happy to be doing it. I'm a North American Banding Council Certified Bird Bander, volunteer each fall for the Cape May Raptor Banding Program, and serve on Wyncote Audubon's Board of Directors.
When not birding, I am usually hiking/backpacking, foraging, cooking, carving spoons, or drawing/painting.
For the first two years of my time with WT, I was the Naturalist and in charge of nature programs and intepretive hikes, etc, and established a small, summer banding station to study breeding birds at one of our preserves where we are focusing on intensely improving the habitats present. After a couple years of that, I moved into the role of Stewardship Coordinator, which meant my work shifted to mostly trail and property maintenance, conservation planning, and bird population monitoring (which I much preferred, given my introvertedness). Now, I'm the Conservation Manager and still responsible for planning and implementing habitat management and restoration projects on our lands, for working with outside contractors on larger restoration projects, securing grants for such work, overseeing trail and preserve maintenance, and managing wildlife and vegetation monitoring activities.
I am super into birds - they are why I am passionate about what I do and so happy to be doing it. I'm a North American Banding Council Certified Bird Bander, volunteer each fall for the Cape May Raptor Banding Program, and serve on Wyncote Audubon's Board of Directors.
When not birding, I am usually hiking/backpacking, foraging, cooking, carving spoons, or drawing/painting.