conservation

2021 Intern Reflections: Gab

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Gab is a junior studying Natural Resource Conservation with a focus on Wildlife Conservation at UMass Amherst. They first heard about Eagle Eye from a peer advisor at UMass, Gabby Gracia, who interned with Eagle Eye in 2019. Gab is part of the STEM Ambassadors Program at UMass, a mentorship program for historically underrepresented students in the STEM fields.

I discovered Eagle Eye fairly coincidentally, by looking through the personal statements of the peer advisors, one of whom had been an intern with Eagle Eye in 2019. Through browsing the Eagle Eye website, I learned about the mission to connect all youth with nature and conserve MountainStar Forest, a mission that deeply resonated with me and aligns with my career goals of working in wildlife conservation. When I learned of the summer internship program, I was eager to be a part of Eagle Eye’s mission, and I am immensely grateful to have been given that opportunity. 

Eagle Eye’s site is on an incredibly beautiful natural landscape, whose isolation encourages a depth of self-reflection that is seldom possible elsewhere. Being immersed in the outdoors everyday, sleeping in tents, stewarding the trails, and eating vegetables from the garden fosters a necessary and mutually beneficial connection with the land that I will take with me always. Through working on building projects with [Eagle Eye Site Manager] Scott, I learned how to use new tools and drive a tractor. On our group walks along the trails, the Eagle Eye interns and staff shared plant and mushroom ID knowledge that we were then able to pass on to the youth with whom we worked on the Learn About Forests programs.

I think the opportunity to intern at Eagle Eye would benefit anyone looking to gain confidence in the outdoors, great personal and professional connections, and experience in carpentry, youth work, and communal living. It is an experience I won’t forget.

Tribute to Dave Kittredge

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Dave Kelly
Dave, right, instructs on an Eagle Eye Learn About Forests program in the early 90’s.

By Bill Labich, Eagle Eye Foundation Team

On March 13th, David Brayton Kittredge, Jr., a wonderful friend of Eagle Eye Institute and the youth he championed, passed away. We, and so many others who had the distinct pleasure to be and learn with him—countless students, faculty, and staff at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Harvard Forest, Coverts and Keystone Cooperators, landowners, foresters, and other citizens passionate about forests and conservation—will miss him dearly.   

A recent tribute to Dave from the Director of Harvard Forest, David R. Foster, recounts Dave’s impressive and seemingly endless professional contributions to the field of forestry through academic research, mentorship, authorship of state manuals on best practices, and his longstanding leadership of the forestry program at UMass where he taught classes in silviculture, human dimensions, timber harvesting, natural resource inventory, and land protection. 

Dave was pivotal to the growth and development of Eagle Eye Institute programs and the mission-driven work of several board members, which ripples out with myriad impacts. Dave was there at the very beginning of what would become Eagle Eye’s signature Learn About Forests™ program. Here’s how Eagle Eye co-founder MaJa Kietzke recounts it: 

Anthony and I took the Coverts Land Management course with Dave back in 1991, and one of their requests was to spread the message of land management and conservation, so we said we wanted to bring youth out to the forest. We asked David to be an instructor, and he said yes. A year later, we took him up on his commitment, and it was his idea to bring in a second instructor, so we could divide the group in two and have more one-on-one interaction. The second person he brought in was Anne Marie Loud, who later would become his wife. During David’s second year of working with us, he suggested we add in a stewardship component which was cutting small saplings and brush to release old apple trees for wildlife. The young people loved working together and learning how to use forestry tools – the stewardship component is now an essential part of our LAF (Learn About Forests) program. 

I’ve known Dave for over thirty years. Dave was an upbeat, down-to-earth, thoughtful, generous, and enthusiastic mentor, supporter, and colleague to whom I owe much in my professional life. I first met Dave at a Coverts Cooperator Training in Connecticut in 1989. I was 26, two years back from being an agroforestry extension agent in Haiti for the Peace Corps and working as a forester for CT Audubon and doubting my place in the field. He assured me that forestry was a broad enough field that could contain my particular interests. Later, I met Dave at the Eagle Eye Institute Learn About Forests™ Instructor Training in 1993. I remember being pleasantly surprised that he knew Anthony and MaJa and that he was equally excited about helping underserved urban youth of color discover their relationship to nature. Later, I got to work closely with Dave over the years helping his town planning board complete its master plan, as a fellow member of the Wildlands and Woodlands Initiative, and as a vocal supporter of the Regional Conservation Partnership Network, which I coordinate.

Dave was so supportive of Eagle Eye and collaborative conservation that I know in my heart he would be very pleased with our collaborative community conservation efforts with Kestrel Land Trust, Holyoke High School, and the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club.  

Please join me in extending Dave’s legacy, his passionate championship of young people’s connection to nature and conservation, by being even more involved in the Eagle Eye community, as we need it now more than ever.