Semi-retired educator in my thirty-sixth year in adult education and literacy (still teaching part-time, online now, in this ongoing pandemic). Taught for ten years in elementary and middle schools before my adult ed career. Loved walking out of the classroom with fifth and sixth graders to observe nearby braided streams and beaver ponds.

Toward the end of those ten years, two full seasons doing trail work as a member of the Green Mountain Club's Long Trail Patrol introduced me to the fragile ecosystems of Vermont's highest ridge lines. Later, the Vermont Botanical and Bird Club (https://vtbb.org/), Hardy Plant Club of Northern Vermont (http://hardyplantclubvt.blogspot.com/), and Native Plant Trust (formerly New England Wildflower Society) nurtured my botanical interest, skills, and knowledge. Participating in Vermont eBird (my profile at https://ebird.org/vt/profile/MTEwMDg2/world) and then jumping headlong into Vermont's Second Breeding Bird Atlas (https://val.vtecostudies.org/projects/vermont-breeding-bird-atlas/) brought my birding skills along.

I'm a generalist. Liberal Arts degree fifty years ago (geology major, anthropology minor) and M.Ed. two years after that also qualified me to teach a wonderful variety of classes as an adjunct for 34 years at my local community college. Among several cherished courses, one of my very favorites? Natural History of Vermont as a week-long intensive with full-day field trips every day from Lake Champlain's shores to Mt. Mansfield's summit.

Over the years, husband and I have assembled a respectable natural history library, and we consult it regularly, along with the internet, to learn more about what we observe in our precious natural world.

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