Author: ANSEditor

TNB2018

Sarah Anderson

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date January 19, 2018

Sarah Anderson

Sarah Lillie Anderson is the Founder & CEO of Lillie Leaf Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm which delivers professional services to those working with natural resources in urban areas. Throughout her career, Sarah has specialized in professional development for urban greening professionals. She has channeled her passion for supporting urban parks and forestry practitioners via recent Lillie Leaf projects, including delivering the conference program for the Greater & Greener 2017 International Urban Parks Conference and hosting the first ever Trees for All: Chesapeake Regional Environmental Justice Workshop.

Sarah serves as Vice Chair for the Chesapeake Bay Program Diversity Workgroup, and Chairs the Audubon Naturalist Society Membership Committee. She is active as a community volunteer, speaker, and mentor. Sarah has her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Bowie State University and a dual Undergraduate degree in Urban and Environmental Studies with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh.

TNB2018

Fred Tutman

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date January 19, 2018

Fred Tutman

Fred Tutman is a grassroots community advocate for clean water in Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway. He holds the title of Patuxent Riverkeeper, an organization that he founded in 2004. He is among the longest-serving riverkeepers in the Chesapeake region and the only African-American riverkeeper in the United States.

Fred also lives and works on an active farm located near the Patuxent that has been his family’s ancestral home for nearly a century. Prior to riverkeeping, he spent nearly three decades as a media producer and consultant on telecommunications assignments across the globe, including a long stint working with and advising traditional healers in West Africa and covering the Falklands conflict in Argentina for the BBC.

After a late-life sojourn into law school, Fred now teaches an adjunct course in Environmental Law and Policy at historic St. Mary’s College of MD. When not exploring the Patuxent River by kayak, he performs trail maintenance on the Appalachian TraiI, farms and blacksmiths in his spare time.

Fred also serves on a variety of Boards, Task Forces and Commissions related to the work of protecting the Patuxent and the natural environment. Among them, Fred serves on the Board of the Environmental Integrity Project, as a Governor appointed Commissioner on the State’s Patuxent River Commission and on the Board of Waterkeeper Alliance, the international group that licenses Waterkeepers. He is the recipient of numerous regional and state awards for his various environmental works on behalf of communities.

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TNB Topics

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date January 16, 2018

Green Jobs Now and in the Future
What Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Look Like
Environmental Justice
Legal Victories for the Environment, Landowners, and Communities of Color
Taking Charge of Your Career
Nature in Your Neighborhood
What You Need to Know to Engage Elected Officials, and more.

EDUCATION FORESTRY TREES Uncategorized WATER QUALITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Gina Ghertner

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 28, 2017

Gina Ghertner has been an expert-in-the-making most of her life. Growing up in the lush forested lands of Peru, she bore witness to the destruction over time of some of Peru’s magnificent rainforests by various entities, some of them illegal mining companies; others, hunting groups. Ghertner was so affected by the destruction of her rainforests that she dedicated her life to helping prevent harm to nature.

Her love for the rainforest drove her to earn her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Forest Sciences from La Molina National Agricultural University in Lima, Peru. Ghertner has since worked on indigenous rights and sustainable environment programs with the Rainforest Foundation; was a volunteer for Tree Steward in Arlington and Montgomery Counties, and is a citizen scientist for ANS’s Water Quality Monitoring Program. In spring 2016, she created for ANS Vamos al Bosque –meaning in Spanish, Let’s go to the woods. Lately, Ghertner has devoted more time to her new ANS initiative, Testing the Waters, a program that both educates and empowers high school students to evaluate the health of local streams.

Ghertner believes that “everyone has the power to teach others how easy it is to protect the environment.” The more we do, “...one day we could all become, in some way, experts on the natural world.”

ANS EXPERTS CREEK CRITTERS EDUCATION WATER QUALITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Frank Sanford

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 28, 2017

Frank Sanford is an expert teacher. More than 400,000 hours of living as a teacher over the past 46 years has allowed him to impart knowledge to every age group from preschoolers to adults in their golden years. And Sanford has a grand old time doing it. Which is why some around here call him the Pied Piper of the Natural World. Before joining ANS four years ago, Sanford taught science in Montgomery County Public Schools and at the DC-based Sheridan School. His passion for teaching about science and the environment flows from a lifetime of outdoor learning and experimenting. From fishing to hiking, Sanford’s childhood in St. Louis, MO was flooded with wild adventures in the great outdoors. Working at ANS combines nature and education, two of Sanford’s favorite things. Every first Saturday, he leads our monthly, themed, family hikes, such as Change of Seasons and How Animals Use Color, and has co-taught summer camps on Pond Study, Exploration Hikes, and Ethnobotany (plants and their uses for making dyes and paints, for instance).

Sanford completed the ANS Master Naturalist Program four years ago, and continues taking new courses to build his environmental expertise. “I think my ability to transfer my enthusiasm about the natural world to kids (and adults, too, I hope) is my strength,” Sanford said.

NEWS RELEASE

Preschoolers Become Scientists During Statewide STEMfest

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 27, 2017

Chevy Chase, MD – Preschoolers, ages 3 to 5, will explore the magical underground world of decomposers at the Audubon Naturalist Society’s (ANS) Woodend Sanctuary, as part of the Maryland statewide STEMfest, which celebrates innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and runs from October 31 to November 12.

Decomposers are organisms that help break down plant material and return the nutrients to the soil plants need to grow. The kids will see how these organisms work their magic, by looking at soil collected from the sanctuary garden under microscopes, investigating composting worms, feeding the garden soil with worm compost, going on a mushroom hunt and starting a mushroom farm.

“(This event) will let them explore and be scientists, and that will inspire them to be confident and curious,” said ANS School Garden Manager Jenny Brown. “Maybe they also start to see the environment as a loop, that there is no waste and that nature recycles.”

ANS is focusing on worms and mushrooms because they are the most readily available decomposers this time of year, and Brown thinks the youngsters will get a kick out of them.

“Worms are an instant hit with kids,” she said. “(When it gets cold) they dig down deep to stay in the unfrozen parts of the ground, and then poop out (which helps the soil)… Poop always gets lots of giggles.”

What: ANS Celebrates STEMFEST with Preschoolers
Date: November 8, 2017
Time: 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Woodend Nature Sanctuary, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

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About ANS: ANS is the oldest, independent environmental organization in the DMV. Throughout its history, ANS has played a pivotal role in conserving our region’s iconic natural places from development including the C&O Canal, Dyke Marsh and, most recently, Ten Mile Creek. Past ANS member and board president, Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, is credited with launching the now global environmental movement. ANS’s nature experts provide hundreds of opportunities each year for children and adults to enjoy, learn about, and protect the environment.

Follow ANS at www.Facebook.com/AudubonNaturalistSociety and www.Twitter.com/ANStweets

NEWS RELEASE

TEMPLATE-news-release

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 26, 2017

Follow ANS at: www.Facebook.com/AudubonNaturalistSociety, www.Twitter.com/ANStweet
and @ANSNature on Instagram.

About ANS: Throughout its history, ANS has championed nature for all by playing a pivotal role in conserving our region's iconic natural places from development including the C&O Canal, Dyke Marsh and, most recently, Ten Mile Creek. Past ANS member and board president, Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, is credited with launching the now global environmental movement. ANS's nature experts provide hundreds of opportunities each year for children and adults to enjoy, learn about, and protect the environment.

NEWS RELEASE Uncategorized

VA Students Show Off How Much They Dig Science and Healthy Eating

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 22, 2017

Sterling, VA – How do you get young people to dig science and eat healthy? Let them literally dig into the topic using shovels, seeds, compost, worms, water hoses, and training on how to grow something edible.

That’s the art and science behind Salad Science, an Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) program that’s sprouting love for nature and healthy eating by blending indoor and outdoor education with harvest parties. In celebration of hands-on science projects and American Education Week, around lunchtime at their school on Thursday, November 16, more than 150 Sully Elementary students in Sterling, VA (Loudoun County Public Schools District) harvested mature lettuce and made and ate salads from it.

5th graders and kindergartners at Sully planted lettuce seeds in September and watered and watched them sprout and grow inside large wooden beds in the school’s courtyard. Week by week, as the seeds grew, the students learned about plant life cycles, habitats, worms, decomposition, composting, nutrition, and much more. They made predictions, recorded their observations in journals and now have a better understanding of where food comes from and what it takes to get it to the table.

ANS Environmental Educator Ellen McDougall said Salad Science is a big deal for the students because they have fun while learning about the complex aspects of plant biology and nutrition.

“Salad Science has had many cross-curricular touch points – everything from science, math, art, and general health and nutrition. Eating a rainbow of toppings and discussing edible parts of a plant are key themes of the program. And students love eating salads made with the lettuces that they have grown with their friends,” McDougall said.

The Salad Science program has been a hit in Montgomery County for at least a decade and has now spread to schools in D.C. and Virginia. McDougall said Salad Science is also a great way to get kids to work together. After learning how to plant and take care of the lettuce, the 5th graders underwent “teacher training” and taught the kindergarteners how to make a garden grow. Both grades tended the garden and will party together with their harvest.

“I’m excited to see how this unique project will affect students at both grade levels,” she said. “The teaching teams believe Salad Science will become part of the school’s culture of working together to make progress.”

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Follow ANS at www.Facebook.com/AudubonNaturalistSociety and www.Twitter.com/ANStweets

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OUR EXPERTS

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 14, 2017

Sarah Anderson is an expert builder, not, however, with cement or steel. Sarah builds relationships.

She founded Lillie Leaf Solutions, LLC to help national urban greening stakeholders to develop new ways of addressing equity, access, inclusion, and justice in their work. Sarah’s experience includes developing and administering national programs, managing constituent engagement for associations, and facilitating local and national professional development events. Most recently, she managed the conference program for the Greater & Greener 2017 International Urban Parks Conference. Sarah and her team at Lillie Leaf currently serve as the project lead of the Growing Tree Canopy Through Environmental Justice project which helps to build community capacity for planting and caring for trees in systemically disenfranchised Chesapeake Bay Region communities. Sarah has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Urban & Environmental Studies and a certificate in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh and her Master’s degree in Public Administration from Bowie State University.

Sarah works to build and strengthen ties between urban communities and environmental organizations, and develop plans for environmental and cultural sustainability in D.C. She has become a partner with ANS to build bridges to urban areas and communities of color, and served on ANS’s Woodend 2065 Master Plan committee, been a keynote speaker at the Conservation Department’s Conservation Café series, served on ANS’s programs committee, and provided sponsorship for the inaugural Naturally Latinos conference.

EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Experts FORESTRY PARKS POLITICAL ACTION URBAN GREENING

Sarah Anderson

Post author By ANSEditor
Post date December 14, 2017

Sarah Anderson is an expert builder, not, however, with cement or steel. Sarah builds relationships.

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Sarah Anderson

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Fred Tutman

NEWS RELEASE

Preschoolers Become Scientists During Statewide STEMfest

Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) invites kids to see how nature recycles itself on November 8!

October 19, 2017

For more information, contact ANS Communications Director Caroline Brewer at caroline.brewer@anshome.org or call, 301-652-9188 x 23.

NEWS ALERT

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NEWS RELEASE

VA Students Show Off How Much They Dig Science and Healthy Eating

More than 150 Virginia students enjoyed the fruits of their garden labor on November 16, as part of American Education Week.

November 16, 2017

For more information, contact ANS Teacher Ellen McDougall at ellen.mcdougall@anshome.org or cell, 703-585-9179, or ANS Communications Director Caroline Brewer at caroline.brewer@anshome.org or cell, 202-830-5115