We're excited to feature Jay DeGregorio this month as a featured photographer. Jay has a Masters of Science in Environmental Studies with a focus on Environmental Education, from Antioch University New England. He currently works at The Nature Museum in Grafton, Vermont. The Nature Museum provides experiences that engage and enlighten audiences of all ages, while inspiring stewardship of our natural world. The Nature Museum remains closed for now but you can still check out their outdoor space and their virtual offerings, including upcoming webinars.
My favorite way to experience nature is by doing various activities outdoors. For me that’s hiking, biking, snowboarding, and snowshoeing. I like these because it’s not always an aggressive or intense activity. Slowing down is good sometimes!
Not to be cliché, but everywhere. Vermont has a diverse set of forest communities. I’ll head to southern Vermont and recognize trees from Pennsylvania, where I grew up. Up in northern Vermont, there are trees you can only find in the far north and arctic.
I would be a sugar maple tree. They are really important trees to the forest community. They provide a lot of resources. They also have that sweet sap, and provide a home for a lot of wildlife.
Red squirrel, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, porcupine, chipmunk, fisher, black bear, countless birds, gray tree frog.
Any plant that maintains most of its green leaves all the time. Needles are actually leaves so this includes conifers which are the pine trees most of us think of.
Trees that drop most of their leaves for at least some of the year.
Yes, definitely. They get diseases and viruses.
Trees are a lot more complex than we think. They have behaviors. They respond to their environment just like we do, but it takes them longer. They don’t have feet, so the only way they can move is to spread their seeds. So, they are not as different from us as we think.
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[…] photograph was taken in Brattleboro, Vermont. I was exploring the area with Jay DeGregorio, a featured photographer from back in 2020. Jay was turning over some leaves when he came across this red-backed salamander. Note the […]