George Sexton is the Conservation Director of Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. George has a JD, with a certificate in natural resources and environmental law, from Lewis and Clark Law School. He holds a BA in political science from Reed College. George has worked to protect forests and watersheds in the Pacific Northwest for the last thirty years. His efforts have ended the old-growth logging program on several National Forests, established 9th Circuit case law protecting Late-Successional Reserves from salvage logging, and facilitated small-diameter fuels projects and prescribed burning on hundreds of thousands of acres.

Matt is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican American Indians and a leader in a series of programs showcasing cultural and traditional practices of the original inhabitants of the Hudson Valley.

Matthew was born, raised, and has lived on the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation in WI. Matt is known for teaching boxing to youth, as well as tribal history, genealogy, building canoes, and visiting elders. Matthew is dedicated to working in his community in any way he can that benefits the people.

Looking forward, Matt hopes that genuine education of who his people are can be better understood in mainstream society and that young ones in his community take an interest in learning about their culture and traditions so no more traditional knowledge is lost over time.

From recreational rail trails to remote expanses of wilderness, OSI engages in multi-stakeholder collaboration  and uses science, data, advocacy and land acquisition to permanently protect high priority landscapes for generations to come!

Today's guest Tanasia Swift is an urban environmental leader, SCUBA diver, and proud Brooklyn native working at the intersection of climate justice, education, and marine restoration. As the Assistant Director of Community Engagement at Billion Oyster Project, she leads programs that connect New Yorkers to the waterfront and cultivates partnerships across the city’s diverse communities. With over a decade of experience in environmental education and project management, she’s developed citywide programs, trained field educators, and contributed to oyster reef restoration both above and below the waterline. Tanasia is a certified PADI Rescue Diver, a Women Divers Hall of Fame associate, and a passionate advocate for community science. When she’s not building reef programs or mentoring new environmentalists, she’s exploring NYC’s local waters.

To learn more about (and from!) Renee, check our her offerings and jump on the mailing list here:

https://www.instagram.com/renee_makes_things/

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Renee Baumann is a Catskills-based designer, chef, and nature enthusiast with a passion for wild plants and fungi. Trained as both an architect and a chef, she brings a creative, interdisciplinary flair to everything she does, whether she’s crafting baskets from local plants, illustrating mushrooms in watercolor, or whipping up delicious meals from foraged ingredients. Renee teaches workshops and techniques working with local fibers, with an emphasis on creating three dimensional forms from bioregional components. Her work varies from traditional basketry practices in cattail and willow to sculptural felt and spinning foraged fibers.  Renee teaches workshops on identifying, cooking with, and even weaving with plants and fungi growing in the Catskills.

Steven Schimmrich has been a Professor of Geology and Earth Sciences at SUNY Ulster County Community College since 1999 where he's also served as STEM Department Chair and an Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. Steve's research interests are in the geology and geologic history of the Hudson Valley Region and it's geoheritage - the influence of geology on the region's history, development, and culture. Steven is also the author of the book Geology of the Hudson Valley: A Billion Years of History

Links links links!

Luke's Website

Mid Hudson Mycological Association

Luke's email (to join or just to get in touch!) Lsarrantonio@gmail.com

Chris's Abundance Foraging Walk 5/18

JBNHS Spring Migration Walks

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Luke Sarrantonio grew up in Rosendale, New York, exploring the local landscape and its unique ecology. He fell in love with fungi while studying at SUNY ESF has since developed a dynamic career based around this passion. Luke’s work includes educational programming focused on ecological understanding and mushroom cultivation, organizing an annual mushroom & arts festival in the Catskill Region of NY (For the Love of Fungi), facilitating community projects (Eat More Mushrooms Project), and creating a line of functional mushroom products (under the name Mycophilic). He also consults for outdoor mushroom farms, and manages his own in Accord, NY. Luke’s main goal is to be an accessible resource for people who want to learn more about this fascinating group of life.

The Woodstock Land Conservancy is a nonprofit organization committed to the protection and preservation of the open lands, forests, water resources, scenic areas and historic sites in Woodstock and the surrounding area.

Ethan Tapper is a forester, author, birder, hunter, and natural historian from Vermont and the author of the recently published book ​​How to Love A Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World.

He has been recognized as a thought-leader and a disruptor in the forestry and conservation community of the northeastern United States and beyond, winning multiple regional and national awards for his work. Ethan runs a consulting forestry business – Bear Island Forestry – is a regular contributor to Northern Woodlands magazine and a variety of other publications and is a digital creator with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook @HowtoLoveAForest. In his personal life, Ethan works, writes, hunts and birds at Bear Island – his 175-acre working forest, homestead, orchard and sugarbush – works toward a graduate degree at the University of Vermont, and plays in his 10-piece punk band, The Bubs.

And we are joined by third-time visiting guest and longtime Nature Nuggets supporter Brianna Cayo-Cotter, who brings tales of the future from the southlands where spring has already sprung!

As an environmental Earth scientist, Zion focuses on integrating the physical, ecological, and social sciences, often through the lens of issues surrounding water and climate. Before Marist, he was based at the University of California, Santa Barbara while pursuing research focused on the overlap of ecohydrology, geology, and land management in mountain systems. This work stemmed from doctoral research at the University of Idaho focused on the interaction of water, ecology, and society in the western US, Costa Rica, and the Eastern Seaboard (via a year on a sailboat). There he specialized in physical hydrology and climate science, but was also part of a unique, team-based Ph.D. focused on using a psychological lens to communicate and evaluate how changes in climate were impacting decision-making in resource-dependent communities.

Zion’s foundational interests in physical sciences stem from his undergraduate major in geology at Colorado College. There he fostered another major personal interest in outdoor leadership. At Marist, he brings these same types of transformative outdoor-based, project-focused research and course experiences to his students to help them better understand the natural world and its integration with society, both locally and globally.

Derek Furr grew up in rural North Carolina, taught public school in Charlottesville, Virginia, and lives now with his family in the Hudson Valley. He is a literature professor and Dean of Teacher Education at Bard College. He is the author of three collections of poetry and prose--Love Story With Birds, Suite For Three Voices, and Semitones--as well as critical works about poetry, sound, and performance.

Derek is an active participant and featured speaker at the excellent local nature group John Burroughs Natural History Society (JBNHS).

Links mentioned~

Further reading: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mosses of the Northern Forest by Jerry Jenkins

3/1 Winter Hydrology Walk

Adams Garden Show

Tune into Kate's work here~

https://loamlove.substack.com/

https://loamlove.com/

https://www.katerweiner.com/

Links for the organizations mentioned~

Northeast Seed Collective: https://www.northeastseedcollective.com/

The Ecotype Project: https://www.ecotypeproject.org/

Northeast Seed Network: https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/northeast-seed-network/

BOATanical Expeditions: https://boatanical.org/

Evan grew up on a small farm in central Pennsylvania where he became interested in ecology and started exploring forests.  His research investigates how disturbance, particularly lightning strikes, and decomposition influence community assembly and forest carbon cycling.  Evan received a B.S in Honors Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, with a second major in Economics and a minor in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville in 2018. He did much of his training at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where he still holds an affiliation.

Christopher Spatz, inspired by Dave Foreman announcing the birth of Earth First! on the Today Show in the early ’80s, procured a copy of Eco Defense and began his peripatetic pursuits as an eco-gadfly. Yanking surveying stakes, canvassing for Greenpeace in Boston, performing for Trenton, NJ’s Klark Kent eco-street theater troupe, directing the Gunks’ Climbers Coalition, and advocating for puma recovery as the president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation were some of his ventures. He lives and writes from the Shawangunks in southern New York State.

Alex Wolf, Conservation Scientist at Scenic Hudson, conducts research and analyses pertaining to Hudson Valley natural resources, with a focus on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience, as well as the ecology and conservation of local flora and fauna. Prior to joining Scenic Hudson in 2017, he was a researcher at several institutions including the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies and the Missouri Department of Conservation. Alex has co-authored more than a dozen scientific publications.   After growing up in the Hudson Valley, Alex spent 10 years out-of-state pursuing professional opportunities before returning to the region.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology.

Pia Ruisi-Besares is a forest ecologist and natural resource management professional by training and has worked in a variety of ecosystems across the United States including Alaska, California and Vermont. Prior to her role at Scenic Hudson, she spent 6 years on the Island of O’ahu working as a research coordinator and land manager. During that time, she completed her masters thesis which studied various methods of in situ planting techniques to bolster populations of an endemic, endangered plant species. She also ran a community led tree planting and inventory program in coordination with the City and County of Honolulu. Currently Pia is the Director of Science, Climate, and Stewardship at Scenic Hudson where she is responsible for the stewardship and management of 40 preserves and parks in the Mid Hudson Valley.

She offers online courses at www.InTheWild.Kitchen. She produces Falcon Formulations natural body care products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is the author of Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook and Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody.

Please check out her website: www.botanicalartspress.com

And there is her full stocked YouTube channel for your educational viewing pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGaikA4Vq0S00kNOhm3uPyg?sub_confirmation=1

IG: https://www.instagram.com/foragingandfeasting/

Online course available now: https://www.inthewild.kitchen/wild-food-health-boosters-and-herbal-remedies-today

Free course:

https://www.inthewild.kitchen/get-white-pine-love-now

Emily served for eight years as the Watershed Outreach Specialist for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program, in collaboration with the NYS Water Resources Institute at Cornell University. Her work has supported community-based watershed groups, municipalities, and other partners throughout the region to improve water quality in the Hudson Valley. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Vassar College and an MS in Natural Resources from Cornell University. Emily also directs the Uptown Lowdown vintage jazz dance troupe ;-).

A life-long resident of the Hudson Valley, Justin has devoted his life to sharing his love for the natural world and for the region's original inhabitants. Obsessed with nature from his earliest years, he has spent most of his life either in the outdoors or in his research on local history and ethnoecology. He has studied regional Algonquian languages, history and folklore for over two decades, sharing discoveries with scholars and with tribal language departments. He has a BA in History and Anthropology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT; a Professional Certificate in Environmental Policy from Bard College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Bard College.

Check out CFA and learn more at: https://catskillforest.org/

Professor Eli Dueker joined Bard in 2014 as the Assistant Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies. With a B.A. from Rhodes College, an MA, MPhil,and PhD, from Columbia University, as well as postdoctoral research at many other institutions. Additionally, he studied at Columbia University’s Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology postbaccalaureate program. His work has been published in Environmental Science and Technology, Biogeosciences, and Science of the Total Environment.

Before entering academia, he worked for 14 years in the nonprofit world,  including 10 years addressing issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in institutional structures, serving as the former director of Project Underground, an international environmental and human rights organization, and as a board member of Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a transgender law collective in NYC. He is the founder and a Team member of the Saw Kill Watershed Community, which protects the Saw Kill watershed and its ecological, recreational, and historic resources through hands-on science, education, and advocacy. His teaching interests include water quality, air quality, oceanography, urban ecology, environmental microbiology, and the role of science in addressing environmental justice issues.

Julia says "My work is influenced by scientific illustration, printmaking, folk art, and the natural environment of my childhood - a rural, coastal area of Northern California. I moved to NYC in 2010, and spent 14 years there, but I still feel most at home amongst the dirt and the sea, and my work is a reflection of my roots. I specialize in illustrative blackwork, primarily natural themes - plants, animals, humans, science and magic."

Art | Artist Zoe Keller uses graphite and digital media to create large-scale, meticulously rendered visual narratives. Placing a special focus on at-risk species and wildlands, Keller weaves drawings that explore the interconnectedness of fragile, vanishing ecosystems. By highlighting the biodiversity at risk in an era of human-driven mass extinction her work aims to inspire reverence for the natural world and action to defend what we have left. Keller's studio work draws upon months of research, collaborations with the scientific community, and on-the-ground experiences in wild places through artist residencies and self-directed expeditions.

Bio | A Woodstock, New York native, Zoe Keller's creative upbringing in the rural Catskills shaped her future as an artist and amateur naturalist. After graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Keller made homes and studios in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, on the rocky Maine coast, in West Michigan's farm country and Eastern Oregon's Wallowa Mountains before finally returning to her hometown. Artist residencies have taken Keller up and down the West Coast from Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve to California's Channel Islands archipelago.

Laurel shares experiences chasing migratory songbirds and encountering many familiar Hudson Valley species in the cloud forests of the Western Andes. He also describes the stakes and opportunities of the Biodiversity Summit, the world's most important treaty aimed at stopping the extinction crisis. Laurel and his team are lobbying country delegates, hosting press conferences, calling BS on corporate-driven false solutions to the crisis and supporting Indigenous allies in protests against corporate rights violators.

From the film's logline:

The Tituses have developed a remarkable ability to reach out to and communicate Catskill geological history to the general public, including through their many articles in Kaatskill Life magazine as well as via hundreds of newspaper columns and walking tours as well. If you love Catskill landscapes, their books will present insights that you will find nowhere else.

Today's show features Catherine Martini with the American Chestnut Foundation, who takes us on a journey through history as well as shares her organizations 40 year strong vision to resurrect this American icon.

We discuss efforts to shift global financial flows away from fossil fuels and deforestation and towards a clean energy future, as well as ongoing civil disobedience and direct actions targeting Citibank for its role in driving fossil fuel infrastructure expansion.

We also feature the launch of an incredible new book by Indigenous Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo called We Will Be Jaguars (Available for sale here!) which is an inspiring memoir of her people and her journey from her remote village deep into the Ecuadorean Amazon onto the global stage as an advocate for her people who has been named a TIME Magazine 100 Most Influential People as well as winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

Molly founded the Feminist Bird Club in 2016 as a way to leverage both their passion for birds and their passion for social justice into a cohesive whole. Since then, the Feminist Bird Club has expanded to chapters across so-called North America and Europe.

Duane is an urban planner, community organizer and naturalist and is the Director of the River Cities Program at Scenic Hudson, where he focuses on community based planing that connects people with nature in the cities of Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. He works with scientist, designers, engineers and artists to provide technical assistance and added capacity to community organizations and local governments.

Scenic Hudson collaborates with community members, municipalities, and partner organizations to deepen relationships between residents and nature in cities. Our practice is rooted in healthy urban ecosystems, equity, fun, and vibrant public spaces that support community well-being in Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie.

These three communities have flourished in the past as centers of industry, commerce, and culture all set within the natural beauty and bounty of the Hudson River Valley. We want to build on the past, redress historic wrongs, and help these three cities to thrive again, for the benefit of all of their residents.

The River Cities Program strives to:

• Combine our skills and capabilities with community knowledge and expertise to increase access to open space
• Build inclusive partnerships that engage local residents, advance community-led initiatives and neighborhood stabilization efforts, and enhance community health and well-being
• Empower and educate young people through prioritizing listening to and learning from the community
• Support healthy urban ecological systems through increasing access to open space
• Ensure access to healthy food and clean air and water
• Organize around the connections between historic and current land-use decisions, the climate crisis, and environmental justice
• Identify shared challenges faced by riverfront cities throughout the valley and explore joint opportunities to overcome them

Frank Beres is a Hudson Valley naturalist and ecologist for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. In addition to photographing and documenting rare species of Odonates, he leads many local interpretive walks each year to introduce others to the wide world of biodiversity. Contact him on Instagram (@phrankberes) or via email at othernaturephoto@gmail.com.