Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Westchester County, just north of New York City.
What is your educational background?
I majored in environmental studies and minored in religious studies at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY. Environmental studies taught me about how plants and animals interact with the world and religious studies taught me about how people interact with the world. This combination of human and non-human interactions is what solidified my interests in sustainability.
Briefly describe your home life.
I still live in Westchester, so I get to be near family, friends, and where I grew up. Being here puts me close to New York City, forests, and beaches, which are some of my favorite places to go to when I want to explore or relax.
How long have your worked for WAC? And what office do you work from?
I began at WAC as Watershed Forestry Education Intern in the summer of 2018, and I started my full time Watershed Forest Stewardship Educator role about a year later, in the summer of 2019. I work from the Yorktown Heights office, where I can get both farm and forest views right outside the front door.
What is your job at WAC? Briefly describe your typical day.
My job is to help landowners in the NYC watershed connect with their woodlots so they can better understand the roles forests play in keeping water clean. Since forests are dynamic and always changing, a lot of my work comes seasonally and varies day to day. Some days I’m in the office helping to organize education programming, or I’m walking through the woods with a landowner to discuss land management techniques, or I could be helping students from NYC plant trees in the watershed. Each day is different, which I love, and each day I get to learn something new, which I love even more.
What are your favorite MWL Interests?
My favorite interests on MWL are the ones designed for anyone to do, even non-landowners, because I don’t own any forest property. I like to be able to hike local trails and learn more about what’s around me, so learning tree ID and wildlife tracking is always fun. I also love making stuff, so I enjoy crafts that can be done from materials found in forests.
What are your favorite MWL Activities?
- Make homemade maple syrup
- Build a responsible backyard fire
- How to attract songbirds.
Describe your favorite experience in the woods
When I started at WAC in the summer of 2019 I had the opportunity to visit some timber harvest sites in the Catskills. I got to see logging best management practices in action, and I also got to see how loggers fell trees and remove them from the woods. I quickly realized that hearing about a timber harvest and seeing it in action are very different experiences, and it’s hard to understand the scale of this kind of operation until you see it in person. It was amazing to see the loggers and their equipment working together- they moved entire trees around the forest and managed to make it look easy! That was definitely one of my most exciting days out in the field.
