Dispatches from the Executive Director - 12/30/2019

I’m excited to announce that we only have $1888 left to raise on our $75,000 goal.  We’ll be continuing to post to instagram and facebook about this effort through the end of January, so please do your part by liking and forwarding on any messages you see about the end of year campaign to prospective donors.  If we can significantly surpass our goal, we can begin to look at the many unfunded priorities we wanted to tackle in 2020!

On Saturday the weather was perfect for a hike around Beaver Marsh Preserve and on the trail that follows the Army Corps of Engineers berm that artificially separates the creek from the marsh and forested floodplain.  I am always struck by this beautiful floodplain forest.  Even though it’s in an urban area, it’s actually a fairly high quality intact example of a functioning floodplain ecosystem.  It’s got a lot of challenges (I’ll outline those below) but what a chance we have to keep this forest intact and allow it to continue to be great habitat for all of these creatures we normally don’t find in the city (like the cricket pictured here that I stumbled on during my hike).

We’ve got huge ecological problems on the horizon, but as a strong organization with lots of volunteer stewardship energy and a growing professional staff, we can actually manage these areas in a more responsible way than is possible in rural areas without the same resources.  So I’m just really excited about all the possibilities in 2020 and hope that you are as well.  Together we’re going to accomplish some really amazing things this year.
 
Happy New Year,
Rickie

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