Our visitors today are Katie Darr from The Lake Champlain Basin Program and Roz’s sister Janet, visiting from Toronto.
Elise from South Burlington Rotary stopped by to give us a sample of the Eritrean food that they are serving this Saturday as a fundraiser. This fundraiser will support their programs.
Jim introduced Katie, who serves as a liaison between the New York, Vermont, and Quebec Citizen Advisory Committees, LCBP, state agencies, and stakeholder groups. Katie is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a focus on collaborative natural resource management and community empowerment. Before joining the Basin Program, Katie completed a Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship with NOAA’s Marine Protected Areas Center in the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. She earned a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Wesleyan University and an M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University. She also holds a professional certificate in Sustainable Tourism Destination Management from The George Washington University. In her free time, Katie enjoys birdwatching, block printing, and embarking on culinary adventures.
The CABN biosphere was designated in 1989 and has 10,000,000 acres across Vermont and New York. Facts - Lake Champlain Basin Program (lcbp.org)
Their Mission Statement: The Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) coordinates and funds efforts to benefit the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation, and cultural resources, in partnership with government agencies from New York, Vermont, and Québec, private organizations, local communities, and individuals.
The work of the organization focuses on the following managing the Lake Champlain Basin:
Bioregionalism - a vision for the future, involve communities to participate in and share in our resources.
UNESCO – a balanced relationship between humans and the environment. 748 sites across the world with twenty eight in the United States.
Why are biospheres important? Education, connect across disciplines and cultures.
Atlas of Climate and Environmental Change - provides a tool for collaboration across the globe. This program will be live online soon.
“Biosphere in your Backyard” is a new program designed to explore, enrich and enjoy the biosphere literally, right in our own backyard.
Jim Donovan presented Katie the book “The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth – Understanding Our World And It’s Ecosystems” by Rachel Ignotofsky to be donated to Shelburne’s Pierson Library.