It’s great. I can’t really say enough good things about Sycamore Land Trust. Google Map the office. I spend a lot of time in the office. It’s in an old mid-century modern house in the woods on twelve acres. The setting really reflects their culture and what they care about. Everyone cares about what they do. They can depend on each other, and they’re committed to what they do. It feels good knowing that I'm helping in some small part. There are seven full-time staff plus a student worker. It’s a strong team and we're all connected. Working in the house makes it feel more like a family.
I've been working here for three years. I've been in nonprofit communications since graduating in 2010. I was working for Visit Bloomington before this. (They are now a sponsor of Sycamore, and they are really committed to outdoor recreation.) While I was working there, I began learning about Sycamore Land Trust. I saw the job posting for Sycamore on Twitter and knew that the job was for me. I went to Earlham College, which is really steeped in getting in touch with nature.
It’s hard not to love Beanblossom Bottoms. I go there all the time for fun. I like to do the boardwalk trail, and I love that it's accessible to so many people. If people have stability or mobility issues, they are able to hike it. They can go there in a wheel chair, take a stroller, or a walker. It brings an incredibly rich habitat to everyone. We have a lot of rare and endangered species there.
Wetlands are amazing! I grew up in Indy and didn’t realize how much wetlands is out there. I love that at Beanblossom you can see successional forest. Some of the trees were just planted 20 years ago. You can envision what it will look like in 50-100 years.
A lot of my job is keeping the existing audience engaged, and reaching out to new audiences. I recently started to make the publications more educational. My background is in music, and I have absorbed a ton of knowledge working here.
Spreading the word about conservation, the beauty of the land, and that talking about conservation is one of the #1 things that we can do to prevent climate change. An important thing to know is that preserving habitat that already exists is going to have a lot bigger impact than planting trees.
#1 is become a member. With a donation of $40 or more you get the magazine, free hikes, and invited to members only events. It helps us restore a lot more land and habitat. Conservation is a really expensive thing to do. When you protect land with a trust, it is forever, or until the land trust isn’t needed anymore. They want to imbue a conservation ethic.
There are lots of other ways to get involved. Heavy lifting: going out to work days. More long term members are property stewards or rangers. They check on a property at least once a month to check for trash and invasives. Trail rangers start projects on their own. One volunteer is in charge of Dwayne woods. He manages a property and helps organize people to pull out invasives. Occasionally they setup work days for groups at some of the preserves, or you can just come in and stuff envelopes. There’s a million ways to get involved.
*Volunteer opportunities can be found here: https://sycamorelandtrust.org/volunteer/
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