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September 24, 2021  |  By Ben Ivers

Q&A with Jay DeGregorio

Jay DeGregorio

How long have you been working with The Nature Museum in Grafton, Vermont?

At this point, it’s been about 4.5 years. February of 2017 was when I got hired on as a Nature Museum Environmental Educator.  


What attracted you to work with The Nature Museum?

I was attracted to The Nature Museum because I had some colleagues at the time who had spoken highly about it. It’s just a great small environmental education center, with a sound mission, and has access to fantastic natural areas.. Grafton is beautiful. Plus, I knew The Nature Museum had done work with schools and summer camps, and that work with the youth was something that really made me interested in wanting to be a part of it. 


What is your favorite way to experience nature?

My favorite way to experience nature is through movement and active ways. I think Snowboarding, hiking, and biking. I really just enjoy being immersed in the natural world and having time and space to really connect with the outdoors.


Tell us about what people can do at The Nature Museum.

The museum is open year-round. Our hours shift seasonally. At the museum, we have several hands-on exhibits, especially for kids. Bones to look at, puzzles to do, furs to touch. But it’s great for adults too. We have three wonderful dioramas (huge depictions of scenes in nature). We have an awesome observational bee hive that visitors can look right into. We have a mineral cave to look at local minerals, as well as minerals from around the world. It’s a really unique and impressive curation for such a small museum. Importantly, we have great outdoor exhibits and spaces too. We have beautiful garden beds around the museum with a variety of native plants that are ecologically beneficial to wildlife.. We have the gorgeous Chapman Meadow that we manage for pollinators and wildlife where you can find mowed paths winding throughout it. And excitingly, we now have our Magic Forest Nature Playscape. It’s just downright cool! My colleague and Executive Director, Nick, and I worked on that A LOT over this past year. It’s a playground I could have only dreamed of as a kid. There’s a kid sized play cabin, balancing stumps, small suspension bridge, primitive shelter, and nature art loom where kids weave in flowers, sticks, and any other natural item they can find... It’s a long answer, but there’s all kinds of things people can do when they visit.


What is something you wish people know about The Nature Museum?

I wish people knew there’s more than just the museum. I was talking about our gardens, our meadow, and our playscape. These things are all new and improved! We can’t wait for folks to continue to discover them and enjoy them. But, I feel we are situated in a fantastic place where people can enjoy the museum and jump off to explore all kinds of other things to do in the area. Grafton has a lot of great hiking, biking, birding, fishing, etc. within a 15-mile radius of us that we are happy to share those other places and opportunities where folks can engage with nature beyond the museum in our bigger “backyard”. But also, we do a lot of programming/ Although we do a lot of youth programming, we do programming for all ages and some folks don’t know that. Importantly, we always do our best to make programming and visitation both accessible and affordable. We are really looking forward to getting back into that more as we are entering into fall. 


Have you seen any cool wildlife around The Nature Museum lately?

Yes! Nick actually saw a gray fox, about a month ago. I found this tree where owls commonly sit, and I regularly find owl pellets. We’ve seen and heard red fox all throughout the year. All kinds of raptors can often be seen soaring above the valley in the warm months. Since we’ve managed our meadow we’ve seen Eastern bluebirds and bobolinks come back. Not to mention, insects galore! We actually just did a citizen science event with Vermont Center for Eco Studies, who’s trying to figure out the population of a certain group of insects in Vermont called lady beetles. And, we found a species that, to our knowledge, has never been officially recorded in Grafton, VT before! That was a real technical find, but a really cool find on our part. I’ve also seen moose and bears near The Nature Museum before.


What is your favorite season?

My favorite season is winter. I just love winter. I find it really unique to be outdoors. You can see so much. The signs of wildlife are often more obvious, tracks and other things. Yeah, winter for me by far, I think I just feel more at home during winter.


The Nature Museum helps staff a fish ladder. What is a fish ladder? How does it work?

The Bellows Falls Fish Ladder and Visitor Center in Bellows Falls, Vermont is one of many along the Connecticut River. We work with Great River Hydro, the operating energy company, to provide education to the community and visitors. A fish ladder basically offers an option for migrating and native fish to bypass a dam. There are many different kinds of fish ladders. The Bellows Falls dam is a Vertical Slot Fish Ladder. I would tell kids, its kind of like an accessibility ramp for fish. If you look at the fish ladder, there are switchbacks, and each pool is just a little bit higher than the next, which mimics the rapids that these fish have adapted to travel through countless years before the dams.


How can people help support The Nature Museum's efforts?

We are a small, but mighty, 501c3 non-profit. Donations of any kind, big or small, have a huge impact for us. Our mission is to serve as a regional resource for all things nature and science education to people of all backgrounds. We want to make our programs and the museum accessible. That’s why admission is by donation, we don’t have a set admission price. For many of our programs, we’ve moved towards doing a sliding scale so there’s different options for folks. We’re constantly thinking and evolving to make what we do universally accessible, impactful, and meaningful.  


Also, volunteering is huge. For the Fairy House Festival, for many years we’ve needed upwards of 60 volunteers for the whole weekend. That’s important to us. We are always open to any way people can help us at any time of year, even if it's not money. Maybe it's donating Fairy House materials, or maybe volunteering another time. Also, just spreading the word about us is incredibly helpful.


SEPTEMBER GALLERY
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Article by Ben Ivers

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Matt Hamas and Ben Ivers here. We are focused on fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of the environment. We endeavor to bring you a unique perspective of the wild. Our photos are being placed here for you to enjoy. Please feel free to download any of the photos for your personal use. We are currently seeking partners for printing and developing photos.

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