With schools closed for the rest of the year and summer events cancelled or in question, AnnaLisa made the difficult decision to end her AmeriCorps service at the end of April. We support her choice and appreciate the remote work that she did for Stowe Land Trust in April; you can check some of it out on the updated <link summer-naturalist/>Summer Naturalist page</link>. We will do our best to continue updating the Summer Naturalist page with fun activities and ideas to get you and your family outside.
The Stowe Land Trust is pleased to welcome AnnaLisa Mayer to our team. AnnaLisa is serving with SLT as the 2020 Summer Naturalist through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board AmeriCorps Program. The Summer Naturalist Program provides learning opportunities, especially for children, which inspire local citizens to engage with their natural world and foster a life-long love and appreciation for the land. In these times of change and uncertainty, we remain committed to providing educational opportunities and are forging ahead with the Summer Naturalist Program this season. We are currently exploring new ways to interactively engage with local families, partner organizations, and the land, safely and remotely.
AnnaLisa first began to develop a deep love and enthusiasm for the practice of Natural History from a childhood spent immersed in the fields, forests, and rocky streams of Vermont. With undergraduate studies completed in Ecology and Environmental Humanities at Sterling College, AnnaLisa has served with nonprofit organizations both near and far, from Vermont’s own Green Mountains to California’s Mono Lake. She most recently worked as a college field instructor and has spent significant time on expeditions in diverse ecosystems, where the base weight of her backpack is determined by an abundance of field guides.
AnnaLisa enjoys getting to know the things that are sometimes overlooked and interacting with the confluence of art, culture and ecology — often while listening to podcasts about plants. She is excited to put down summertime roots in Stowe, where she is looking forward to sharing her passion for land stewardship and place-based education with the community.
Many thanks to Vail Resorts and the EpicPromise Foundation for supporting the funding of this position in 2020. To learn more about the Summer Naturalist Program, click here or call 802-253-7221. AnnaLisa may be reached directly at naturalist@stowelandtrust.org