Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she’d never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin. Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters—first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock—that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Join us on Zoom for this great program!
Okay everyone it’s just about 6:35 so let’s get started with our Green Mountain aaban presentation this evening I’d like to introduce uh my name is Tom Jello I’m a member of the board of the Green Mount aabon and I’m serving as your Master of Ceremonies tonight I’d like to introduce our president Jeff
Hong Jeff thanks Tom good evening everyone thanks for joining us I’m Jeff Hong president of the Green Mountain audabon society which is a chapter of the national Aon Society covering Franklin brand Isle and chitt and counties in Vermont if you receive this oton magazine and you live in one of
Those Three Counties you’re probably a member of Green Mountain oton Society so thank you for your support um if you’re interested in joining I pasted a link in the chat to our website uh it enables you to get more information join the chapor or simply make a donation to Green M aabon
Society and again we appreciate any donations um that you make but these um programs are offered freely to the public in the spirit of generosity so you you don’t need to donate but thank you our chapter is located in Northwestern Vermont a region which has been sacred to indigenous people for
Thousands of years the Western abnaki are the traditional caretakers of these lands and Waters we respect their connection to this region and remember the hardships that they continue to endure we give thanks for the opportunity to share this place and let’s commit to helping to protect
It and with that I’ll turn it back to you Tom thanks thanks Jeff and thanks and welcome again everybody we have people popping in so tonight we have a really fun and interesting presentation we are honored to be joined by Trish oain who as it was said in our intro on
Our website is quote an accidental ornithologist I myself had to reread that twice because I thought she was an ornithologist who simply had accidents but perhaps she’ll tell us about that it says in nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist she never paid attention to Nature just
Imagine that but then hurricane Cina destroyed her New Orleans home sending her into an emotional Tail Spin I can just imagine and thus entered a scrappy cast of feathered characters first a cardinal Urban parrots and sparrows then a cat bir owls bitter and a woodcock all
Cheered her up and showed her a new path so we tonight are going to find out about that past and that path so with fur without further Ado I’m going to turn it over to our presenter and introduce to you Trish o Trish take it away oh one more thing folks if you
Would like to ask Trish a question simply type it into the chat once you type it in the chat I am going to wait for an opportune moment to ask that question but rest assured that all questions you have about Trisha’s presentation tonight will be relayed to
Her perhaps when we’re over in the last five minutes I’m going to um change the settings of security and you’ll be able to uh see each other and you’ll be able to ask your questions by raising your hand but for now this is the way it has worked for us Trish away we
Go thank you so much um for that generous introduction and I will look forward to seeing all your wonderful faces later on um in the presentation first of all I want to start by thanking this group um because I’ve been in Burlington eight years and I’m kind of a
Solitary burder except of course when I’m birding with my students and the children in my program but this group has been incredibly supportive especially uh Lucy Layman and Allison Brody and Pat Phillips thank you so much Pat for helping me get the grant for binoculars for the children of Flynn
Elementary School um also Debbie Archer has come and spoke to my students at UVM um and other members and and board members people like Alan strong and um Amy cidel who are comrades and colleagues um who from the very first day I landed in Burlington have been so
Generous and supportive and helpful with the work that I do in the community and also the book um so and and another thanks thank you for hiring so many of my student mentors whom I’ve trained and you’ve given them the opportunity to become professionals and and to use the
Skills that they learned in my class um so this is the book if you can see it um it is coming out on you’ll see you it’s got a lot of birds on the cover I’m sure you all like that it’s coming out on Tuesday it will be officially public published by Harper
Collins the echo division um and it’s already getting some really good reviews which I’m very happy about a little surprised I didn’t expect this right away before it was even published Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review of Scientific American gave it a lovely review kirkus liit Hub
Uh book list which is the American Library Association a lot of libraries are ordering the book which is wonderful lit Hub NPR is starting to show interest in it I’ve had a reporter follow following me around from VPR now for two weeks she was with us yesterday and
She’s coordinating with the producer of all things considered um and that was a little nerve-wracking because I can control what I say and do but I can’t control what 50 young people say and do and I did not know what the kids were going to say to the radio reporter
Yesterday and I still don’t know what they said so but hopefully nothing nothing untoward um and so I’m doing a lot of media interviews already and and the book is is is taking off so to speak um so what is this book about as as in the introduction it was explained um I
Was living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina before that I was a human rights investigative reporter I worked for uh 10 years in Central America I’m originally from Southern California after college I went to Central America during the Sandinista Revolution I was recruited by a Jesuit priest who was working with the
Sandinistas and I was recruited to go work in his research institute in Managua and that’s important it’s in the book because that um experience had a huge influence on my life and it had an influence on how I run my birding program because something I learned in
Managa was that you don’t do what just what you want to do um you do what’s need needed and uh to know to understand what’s needed first you have to just listen and when I got to managa right out of college I just finished a master’s degree in journalism I’d studied Central American
History um you know I thought I knew a lot and I got to managa in the middle of a revolution and a war um and a lot of poverty 60,000 per inflation and I realized all the things that I’d studied that was all very nice but I didn’t know
How to how to change a tire a flat tire I wasn’t a doctor I wasn’t a water engineer really I was just pretty useless um I could speak good Spanish and I could write but that was all I could do and and that was a a really
Important lesson for me to learn and it took about a year for me in Nicaragua just listening and reading a lot and and and and going to a lot of meetings and sort of being a fly on the wall for me to understand how I could fit in and
What I could actually do and I carry that same knowledge or or lack of knowledge today when I am working in my community and listening to the children in the program but I’m getting ahead of myself let me explain chronologically how I got to the point where I am right
Now so I was in Central America for 10 years and then I moved to Montgomery Alabama to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center so I went from doing human rights to civil rights and hate crimes research I was in the Deep South eight years it it was wonderful work and while
I was there I stumbled into teaching so I I’m not only an accidental orthon ornithologist I’m an accidental teacher I never wanted to teach I said I I won’t be a teacher because I grew up in a super traditional Irish Catholic Family and really for a woman the only roles
Were you’re going to be a wife you’re going to be a mother and if you work you could be a teacher or maybe a nurse and so I said well I’m not going to do any of those things I’m going to go join a revolution instead so that’s what I did didn’t make
My mother very happy but anyway um may she rest in peace and I became a teacher anyway so how that happened I was in Montgomery Alabama working at the Southern Poverty Law Center and a friend invited me to go into a women’s prison um where there was a volunteer program
And it was one Saturday a month Aid to inmate mothers and my friend said look we go into to this prison and we take donuts and we take children’s books um and we meet with the prisoners mothers it was a women’s prison it was the the worst at that time the worst women’s
Prison in the United States a minimum security prison but just horrible abuses um so we went in one Saturday morning and we each were paired with an inmate and we sat with a tape recorder and the Prisoner picked a book The Mother picked a book that she wanted to read on tape
To her kids and so my job was to tape her while she read and then take the book and take the tape put it in an envelope and mail it to her kid and while I was doing that the very first day one of the prisoners um I was
Working with her name was pette after I finished she she grabbed me and she said Trish what do you do for a living and I said well I’m a writer I I work at a Civil Rights Institute she said well we need a writing teacher in here will you
Come help teach us to write and I thought I don’t really want to do that I don’t know anyway she asked for my address and started mailing me poetry and her writing and the other prisoners started mailing me stuff my mailbox was filling up and I ended up as a writing
Teacher in Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Alabama and I loved it and so accidental ornithologist accidental teacher the Ornithology part came when I moved from Montgomery to New Orleans to teach journalism at lyola Unity University which is a lovely Place unfortunately my timing was very bad I
Moved to New Orleans in July of 2005 and if you remember Katrina hit on August 29th 2005 so my husband and I had just moved into our new home we had hung the paintings we’ had our first crab cake party um we lived in a neighborhood a low-lying neighborhood about a 5 minute
Walk from Lake pon to train beautiful beautiful place and a half mile unfortunately from the 17th Street Canal so so we moved to New Orleans right before Katrina and we evacuated obviously before the hurricane hit if if we hadn’t evacuated I’m I probably wouldn’t be speaking to you it’s entirely possible
We would have drowned our neighborhood was completely destroyed a dozens of neighbors drowned our house had to be bulldozed so before that happened I I I thought birds were okay I mean honestly I never noticed them people say in Central America what kind of birds did
You see I was doing human rights work I was in Nicaragua for four years then I went to Guatemala for six years where I was working for the United Nations and for major media um and because of our foreign policy 200,000 people had been slaughtered in Guatemala by a military
That we trained and financed so that’s I was investigating massacres and and uh interviewing people who had been tortured and even interviewing torturers Birds zero um but I didn’t dislike them but then I moved to New Orleans and Katrina happened and I realized um that oh this climate change
Thing is real because we were getting warnings for about a month before the hurricane that the water in uh Lake ponent train was was hotter than warmer than it had ever been ever ever since you know since scientists kept records of the water and so the new the
Newspaper the times pikun and of course we had just moved there was warning people look this is going to be a rough hurricane season you need to make your hurricane evacuation plan and plan for your pets and and get all your papers together and I thought well we just
Moved in I’m going to start teaching I’m I’m working on my syllabus I don’t have time for this and it’s not going to happen anyway and so I we just kind of ignored it which was really stupid um but fortunately 20 about 48 hours before the
Hurricane was going to hit um I we realized we got to get the hell out of here um this is going to be really bad and we left but when we came back we weren’t allowed back for 40 days 40 days because all the houses had to be
Searched by the National Guard for bodies and and all these things that are in my book and I probably don’t need to repeat because most of you probably saw it on CNN anyway for me it was an epiphany I I realized I had no clue I
Was living on a wetland or even what a wetland was or what that word meant um and that the way I lived the poisons and toxins in my home um had poisoned the water we’d left my truck behind because it was the oil it was burning oil and I
We were afraid to evacuate in it so we left a car behind that causes its own little oil spill think of what’s in your refrigerator think of your all your computers and just imagine your whole home our home was underwater filled with water filled with water 11.5 feet of
Water for three weeks and it was only 12 feet high so just think of all the toxins that we use and so I was so ashamed and guilty and distraught by all that and realizing I’m a person who lived by The Motto Do no harm and that I
Had done so much harm I mean I I’m not going to go into all the details but some of that’s in the book most of the book is not at all about Katrina but Katrina is that moment when oh wow this is real this is real this climate change
Thing is real and how are we going to live and how am I this is my question I had in Louisiana before I left how am I going to live on this planet without destroying it how do I learn to do that so we left I I decided to go to graduate
School went back to school at 45 years old to get a PhD in environmental science and uh we ended up in Madison Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin Madison which is a fantastic place it’s like a giant science candy store and we moved right across from a
Large Urban Park called Warner Park it’s 213 acres and you all know what happened I took an Ornithology class and that was the beginning of a whole new life I I started noticing birds in New Orleans because when I was so depressed after what happened in the
Storm I began to watch Birds kind of just to calm down but I didn’t know what they were what species they were why they were there I just was so happy in New Orleans after Katrina when I was teaching to see anything alive because a lot of the animals drowned but of course
The birds some of them could fly away or or perch or hide and um and so that’s when I started noticing birds in New Orleans but then in madine I take the Ornithology class and totally went off the deep end became completely obsessed um our our professor he’s in the book
Mark bars he’s one of the the heroes of the book he he was just an amazing lecturer so enthusiastic and he said um once a week you have to go birding for an hour same home work I give my students now at UVM you have to go somewhere for an hour
Every week and watch birds and so I was living across from this gorgeous Park and I thought well I’ll go in there there must be some birds in there and that place Warner Park um I found 141 species this is an in an urban park um over half were neotropical
Migrants so I mean I ended up practically living in this par because it was right across the Street after two years of birding in the park like every day and on weekends and owling at night um I discovered by accident that there was a city plan to develop parts of it
And and half this park is already very developed it has a 32,000 square foot Community Center it has a baseball stadium they rock concerts it’s the it was the launching pad for the largest firework show in the midwest I mean we’re talking about a park with super pro probably the most heavily used
Public park in all of Wisconsin but there was this Wildside that had not been developed um where I was watching the birds and I lived right across from that wild side so I found out about the city plan and it would have um cut down
A lot of the trees on the Wild Side cleared out a Thicket which is where I was Finding tons of cat Birds which is a bird I ended up doing a geolocation study on for my disertation um and when I read the city plan I was horrified and and so we I
Began organizing with neighbors to stop it this is where the kids program comes from people um I met with a city counselor I started going to public meetings and my city counselor for that region said look um she wasn’t happy with me trying to stop the development
Plan and she wasn’t a mder and I think she just thought I was another clueless privileged nimi White enviral and and that’s what I seemed like because I wasn’t connected to the community I’d come out of nowhere defending the birds and that that really was not a good way
To organize anything but um we were trying to stop this plan and we we did we were successful but I realized that we were not going to be able to stop it in the long term if I didn’t have roots in the community and if I didn’t meet
Some Community need but I didn’t know what those needs were it was just like being in managa again kind of so I met with the city counselor and even though she was pretty pissed off at me she’s now the mayor of of uh Madison she said well look if you want to do
Something you’re a graduate student you live next to that Park she said there’s hundreds of children living in apartments lower income apartments around the park um and there’s no programs for them in the park there’s no Environmental Education and a lot of them are latchy kids why don’t you do
Something about that and I thought okay I don’t have any kids I don’t know anything about kids I’ve never done Environmental Education I’m just barely learning about birds and biology myself but she’s right there’s a need there’s a beautiful Park and there’s all these kids I’m going to try to do something
About this so and also I thought well if the kids fall in love with the park and they become the stewards of the park their voices will be much more important um than mine to defend it maybe people will hear their voices differently and and
That will be the best way to protect the park and that’s exactly what happened I was very lucky um in my PhD program my PhD advisor supported this whole organizing effort to protect the park as long as I documented it and did environmental history research um so my
Dissertation and I write about this in the book it became an action research project involving neighbors children elders the birds the other animals that lived in the park um and a and a big citizen science research project um so fast forward um I finished my PhD and eight
Years ago I was lucky enough to be hired here at UVM um and the people who hired me were very interested in what I had done in Madison with the Children’s Program and let me explain how the kids program works it’s called birding to change the world here in Vermont in
Madison it was called um last child in the park how kids and birds can save the planet um and that last child of the park comes from Richard Lou’s book um marvelous book which influenced me a lot when I was a graduate student of course last child in the park not not last
Child in the park last child in the woods saving our children from nature deficit disorder and and Richard Lou is an ally and he blurred my book um I’m sorry I’m getting okay my program I wanted to explain to you how it works here’s how it worked in Madison here’s
How it works here is there somebody on the chat oh there’s a couple of people I see right now we’re just listening to you and there no questions yet oh no questions yeah okay so I’ll explain how the program works um and it it exactly
Like it worked in Madison so I teach a class at UVM called birding to change the world I recruit 25 um really wonderful potential mentors students have to apply to be in the class it’s not an open enrollment we’re working with people’s children in my neighborhood um on Mondays Monday
Morning I take those students birding some of them have taken Ornithology with Alan strong or Michael McDonald some of the wonderful teachers we have at UVM some of them know nothing about birds but they want to work with kids but they fall in love with the birds really
Quickly too so Monday morning I take them out out all over Burlington teach them about birds and we also have discussions about what we’re going to do on Wednesdays Wednesdays we go and work with the kids I take them to Flynn Elementary School which is uh just a few
Blocks from my house so I work in my own neighborhood with my neighbor’s children um which is really wonderful we get there at 2 o’clock we walk into the gym and the kids uh into the gym and the kids start screaming the college students are here the mentors are here
They just look love love love their mentors so each kid gets the same Mentor for the whole semester they form really tight bonds uh I mean it’s amazing within a week or two you see kids walking back from our adventure you know grabbing the hand of their college
Student so what do we do and where do we go Wednesday typical Wednesday this was not a typical Wednesday so yesterday we we go to Flynn and we get there at two and the first thing they do for the first 10 minutes it’s very fun they meet
And they have to socialize but the children have to assign homework to the college students every week the kid gets to give their Mentor two research questions they’re supposed to be science-based you know we’re working on that the kids like to ask all kinds of crazy stuff but I tell my students just
First few weeks do whatever they ask you to do because you’re building a relationship so there’s 10 minutes when the when my students are handing this copy to the child and the child has to read it and then grade it and some of the grades aren’t very good because the
Kid doesn’t like the answer or is a fifth grader pointed out to one of my students last semester she said where’s your sources says the fifth grader to the undergraduate you don’t have any sources you could have made this information up how do I know it’s
True she gave her a B minus and she taught her a lesson about hey you don’t just rip stuff off the internet or Wikipedia you have to have a source on that that’s the fifth grader teaching the 20 or 21 year old um after those 10 minutes we have a little circle
Reiterate the rules basically the one number one rule of the club is don’t die you stay alive they could pretty much do anything as long as they’re kind to each other and stay alive and then we leave the school running kind of as a herd a
Lot of these kids like to run and they go straight down through the Flyn woods and then along the bike path to the peninsula area called derway so we spend 3 hours outside do some birding or not they climb trees they do whatever they want but yesterday I have to tell you
This because this was crazy yesterday I had the radio reporter with me from BP VPR and I was just praying that the kids really they behave themselves um we left the we left the Schoo yard School building just opened the school door and I open the school door and I look out
And all the kids are out in the schoolyard instead of running to derway they’re out in the schoolyard screaming and pointing and with the binoculars and an eagle a bald eagle with its Talons was flying over the school flew into my neighborhood right across the street from the school and
And we stood there for 10 minutes and watched it and then another one joined it I don’t know what one of my neighbors has in their yard if they’ve got a fish pond or a rotting corpse or something but we had two Eagles across the street from Flynn elementary school yesterday
If someone knows what’s happening with the Eagles in Burlington I’d really like to know because I’ve never seen this before so then after that we ran to derway and the children um you know um are trying to work towards their binoculars thank you very much to this
Group for that Grant so each one of these kids I told them yesterday look we just got this grant I have binoculars that you’ve been using they’re not very good and honestly the the kids have never been interested in the binoculars but when I told them yesterday you’re
Going to get your own pair to keep and to take home they’ll be yours but you have to find 30 species and you have to do it with your Mentor because somebody has to check it out and make sure that it’s correct right that you got it right and use the
Field guide and all this stuff and they’ve never been interested in any of this and yesterday all that changed the children were running around trying to build their lists trying to use understand how to use a field guide it was amazing some kids saw 10 species of birds um and they’ll learn their
Binoculars in a couple of weeks so so um this group is really helped me with my program because I’m not a birding evangelist I think it’s so important for Children’s Health that they just get outside because we’re imprisoning our kids in little desks all day long and
Making them sick um that’s something I I would love to talk to the group about how to lobby and change the school day I am not just interested in setting up birding clubs I love what I do I think it’s important but we have resegregated our education system
Between public schools some of them in Burlington where the kids have no recess time that’s insane schools surrounded by beautiful Woods segregated between public schools with little or no recess time certainly not enough according to health standards and Forest schools um you know homeschooling all these wonderful Alternatives that we are
Building at the but that’s at the cost of the children whose parents can’t afford those alternative ative so I’m I’m witnessing a re segregation of our education system it’s deeply disturbing and I think it affects children of color more some or lower income kids because those kids are going to go home and
Maybe their parents are working two jobs or there isn’t someone at home right when they get there and they’re on a screen instead of outside and so they are spending more time on a screen which we know from all the studies is terrible for their mental health and their
Academic performance so much so that some school districts now and states and I’m sure you’ve read this in the news are Banning phones um which personally I think is a great idea but I know you know there’s some disagreement about that in Vermont and Dr Mark Lavine um just came out
Saying well can we really do that we can’t do it in elementary school we don’t let our kids eat Twinkies all day long or drink Kool-Aid in the schools why can’t we say you can’t use that that phone in your school because that’s one of the problems we have with the program
One of the first problems is those kids do not fourth and fifth graders do not want to let go of their phones and so we have to kind of wean them off them um fish I’m gonna cut in for a minute please we have um just a little I’m
Wondering we have people leaving so is um the last five minutes talking about education uh was this part of how does this play into the book and working with I loved can we go back to the kids outside and what are your aspirations for them once they get the binoculars
Um well I I want them to use the binoculars um as a tool on on their own in their yard or at home maybe they can teach a sibling um I just if we all remember what it was was like the first time you look through binoculars and
Even it doesn’t have to be at a bird at a plant or a frog and you just realized how how incredible nature is how beautiful um so I’d like them to use them for Birds but also for other creatures and I think binoculars they help you slow
Down um and no more so and I also think it will give them a confidence and and a feeling of oh science is really cool I get to use this cool tool and I have it and I earned it right I will tell you that uh when I wintered in Sarasota I
Taught a class on how to use the eird app and we can talk a little bit later but I think we the Green Mountain aabon would like to support Maybe you know I know that many students in the Flynn School may not have access to that but
The program that you know I naturalist yeah and also eird I I think I see a role there so we’ll talk about that another time so what are some of the kids’ reactions when they finally do find the bird in the field guy well I I just see a sense of deep
Satisfaction right um and I can Rel to that I remember what that was like because again I’m I just started birding in 200 six right after Katrina but not birding really just watching Birds right so that’s not that long ago I mean I’m a baby birer compared to people in this
Group and and incredible experts I’m not an expert um so I can relate to the kids’ feelings when they and then yesterday they were looking at GS and and they noticed that one of the gulls flying over the lake shore um had very black wings and was larger right was a
Greater blackback and so I helped them kind of find that and and see the range Maps because at first they were like oh it looks like that one but oh yeah that one’s in Alaska and then they were had to field guys are great you’re learning geography right they’re having to
Read so um and now you and now you have two questions great first one is how many kids are involved in your program is it 25 is it 25 for a onetoone relation with their mentors yes yes there are 25 kids at Flynn and I have 25 students in my class
So it is one to one which is which is very important um because some of the kids they have several siblings in their family and this is the only only oneon-one kind of adult time they get so they really enjoy that that three hours a week according to school staff that
Really means a lot to the child um I think it means a lot to the college students too right and you have to realize it’s not just the kids that are addicted to the phones a lot of my students they they even during class um will be look have at the phone and
They’ll look at it several times during class even though know they’re not supposed to do that so and they’re lonely and there’s a serious mental health crisis on our campuses I mean it is scary so for them to let me get feel the other question for you from Pat Phillips
Another member of our board he types are students developing a greater appreciation of Nature and the environment Beyond birds in short is this work helping students to develop and quote eological unquote sense yes Pat um just yesterday um a little girl named Savannah was teaching my students all
About the fungi on this long you know fallen tree in derway and there were several different kinds of fungi and they were wild colors and this little girl knew all about it because she had had a science class in fourth or fifth grade about decomposers and and she was just
Pontificating there in the woods like a little Professor you know so I mean other kids were looking at Birds but it’s whatever’s there right it’s and in duway where we work there’s a time in the spring where the Garter snakes come out there’s a there’s an area there where they
Hibernate and tons of tree of frogs um so there’s all kinds of it two mink I saw two mink last Sunday there are beaver there’s whole Beaver Workshop so I mean the otter so there’s many different kinds of animals and the kids my the mentors the college students have
To draw tracks for the kids and they have to draw a bird one bird or one or two birds a week and so they’re learning tracks and of course now we have some nice Stow thank goodness um so they were yesterday trying to see if that was mink
Track or a beaver track and and um so yeah all of it it’s all in and we have a follow-up question and that is how do you select the 25 kids if more than that apply for your program I think I’m assuming you mean by kids you
Mean the children in the yes the 25 students at Flynn I don’t choose them that’s an after school program um and the the staff and the school decide there’s a waiting list to get in there’s a demand I’ve had demand from other schools I can’t meet that demand there
Is a huge demand for these kind of clubs um but the school chooses the kids uh the superintendent twins are in my my club they are wonderful um the the school chooses some children to be in the club they may have some behavioral issues and they especially need the wild
Time outside because our kids are not getting enough time just running playing some of the kids they don’t know how to climb a tree we teach them how to do that I mean I don’t know you know maybe I’m getting old but what is what happened to kids going outside and climbing
Trees so now you’re getting questions thick and fast have teachers and students families been supportive of this work incredibly incredibly supported I get emails from parents um last semester at the end of the semester we had an art show in the school um there was an Arts
Educator who came with us and took pictures with permission of the parents of the children and the stuff they did and then in December she did a whole Art Gallery in the school and parents and kids came and the kids were showing look Mom I did this and that and a mother
Came up to me of a boy in our program and he’s a great kid they’re all great kids but he never seemed interested in birds or even the program I mean he came along but his mentor didn’t really think he was that interested and this mother
Came up to me and she said thank you so much for what you’re doing she said I’ve been so afraid because of budget cuts with my son we can’t afford to send him now to any of his other extracurricular activities she said this is the only
Thing he has every night he comes every Wednesday night he comes home talking about it how much he loves it tells us all about it at dinner and I thought really that’s amazing he’s not the kid I would have thought would have been talking about it the dinner table so you
Know there’s this thing with the kids in the culture of cool and they don’t want to seem like they like something too much he’s one of those kids but the mother she had tears in her eyes and she said is your program going to be cut I
Said no she said you’re not going anywhere no no way we’re going to be here don’t worry and she she I mean she had me practically in tears because she said because of Co it’s been so hard and so many things have been cut and and her
Boy needs to be running around and he loves having the mentor and blah blah blah yeah fantastic the school’s fantastic I’ve been working with them eight years and now we have a question from our president and it’s a little more macro and he writes is there a way
To scale this program to have a wider impact that is more students even if it had less deep of an impact or is that not a good tradeoff what are your thoughts well that’s that’s I so appreciate that question because I’m going back and forth on that
Um I personally have chosen not to expand uh the university continually tries has tried to push me to and I’ve pushed back because of safety and because um I just don’t well it’s mostly because of safety I mean if you take all those kids out there and they’re running
Around I mean working along a river right and so that’s my number one fear is one of those kids is going to go to the river and so so I couldn’t do it but if there were a lot more people we could do it but here’s what I I’m really thinking is more
Important we have to change the structure of the school day there is a grave Injustice being done in our education system right now with not letting kids go outside it’s terrible for their health it’s causing a massive Mental Health crisis and the solution we’re lucky in Vermont we have beautiful
Schools with beautiful schoolyards um we need re to get recess time back recess is becoming an endanger it is an endangered species it’s become extinct in sub schools um and and so and there’s there’s a mountain of health studies documenting what I what I’m what I’m
Telling you so I would like to Lobby to change the structure of the school day and I think we could do it in Vermont so I I’m heading more that direction I have a student intern a research are working for me right now Gathering data and she’s already discovered there is no
Data set in our state on recess time because I just wanted to know how has recess time changed in the last 30 years I mean I know it’s decreased I know that just from working in the schools but there is no data set I have a question
For you um you know I too come out of an education background and uh I’ve had the experience of students who uh went on and studied and became teachers and then had their lives as teachers how many years have you been doing this program so I I did the program in
Madison from 2010 until 2015 and it’s still running in Madison a graduate student took it over I trained someone and it’s still running every Wednesday in Madison I’ve been doing it here for eight years since I came in 2016 um Brown University copied the model so there’s a program in Providence
A teach a history professor at Brown I went down there three years in a row and trained her um in her program she’s working in the public schools and it’s in Spanish and English because a lot of the kids are Latino which is really cool they did a birding Field Guide just for
Providence in English and Spanish I thought that was really cool I would love to see a a Field Guide to the birds of Burlington in you know English Spanish Nepali bhy and some of the African languages that the kids in my program speak that would be so 8 time 25
Eight years times 25 kids is 200 kids can you share with us some of the students who have gone on and how have they furthered this experience in their lives either personally or professionally when you say students are you talking about the children I’m talking about the children in the club
In the the Flyn students because you started eight years ago and they were fifth graders um the oldest alumni of your group could very well be College freshman yes yes that’s starting to happen um I wish I had a better answer and I could give you numbers because I
Haven’t tracked the children I haven’t had time to do that I would love to have tracked them individually but I do know this one because this is a crazy story so in the very first class there was a boy who was just screamed all the time he was earsplitting laugh a really sweet
Kid very hyperactive and very smart um a couple years ago maybe two years ago I was on I was in Delta Park I was going to bird in the morning in Delta Park at about 700 a.m. and I was on my bike crossing the Colchester
Bridge and a kid came by on a young man came by on a bike and passed me and then he stopped he said TR I didn’t recognize it of course because he was a young man and he says I’m so and so remember I was in your burning
Program this is at 7 am on a Saturday morning and I was like oh yeah I remember you and he said did you see the whatever fow rope out there in Delta Park and I was like what you’re out you were out early this morning this kid
This young man is is he’s one of the top birders in New England fabulous started in my program and um his brother his younger brother was in my program this is another thing about the program it’s a family tradition I many of the kids in my program May many several right now are
Younger siblings of of um older part participants who have gone on so yeah their families waiting to get into the program um so that’s I’m sorry that’s the only one I can tell you about um but I do see them and I know that they’ve gone on to hunt middle school and
They’ve gone on to to BCS to BHS but I don’t know exactly what they’re working in or what they’re doing I’m I’m sorry I wish I did if I problem so we have about 10 minutes left of the hour but here’s a question for you your title is burning
To change the world can you describe a couple of ways in which this work is changing or has the potential to change the world well I guess I’ll start personally again the story that’s in the book it changed my world because I was very depressed after Katrina and then when I
Began I couldn’t I’d been a journalist sitting in front of a screen to work inside most of my life and I couldn’t do that after the hurricane so I just started sitting outside because it felt good and I didn’t really even know why and then I started watching The Birds
And as I did that my um my heart rate slowed down and my stress hormones went down and and all of the physical changes that happened that we know now that have been studied um that happened and so it changed me physically and emotionally and mentally and calmed
Me down um I also I noticed the same thing with my students many of my students every semester tell me they love doing their birding homework because they feel better while they’re doing it and afterwards so it’s having the same and and this has been studied as well the mental health effect that’s
One way it changes our world and I think that’s a really important way given the Mental Health crisis we’re facing um another way it changes the world is It’s a Wonderful lens to use to teach birding for privilege socioeconomic and racial privilege and for example and this is an example from the
Book when when I started teaching in Madison and it’s the same as Vermont you’re teaching in a cold climate and so a lot of the kids their families can’t afford $25 wool smart wool socks right and and every every winter I have students who say to me college students
Who will say what’s wrong with some of these parents how come they don’t dress their kids well it’s like okay let’s do a little clothing privilege exercise I want you to write down and make a list for your homework of everything you’re wearing and what it costs I’ll tell you
What my clothes cost because I’ve done this list for students I’ve put it on the board you know the $100 undershirt the $25 socks the $200 boots whatever it was like $600 in a day and my students then calculate a family budget and they’re stunned to realize oh a lot of
People in Burlington couldn’t afford to buy winter clothes much less once for themselves much less for three or four children and so it’s not that the parents don’t care um especially with inflation so that is definitely a way that birding changes the world is if
You’re in a c cold climate is is the barriers right and and for students to start realizing this um I think another kind of just a deeper level and and as bers you can all relate to this it slows you down and it makes you be quiet um which is something in our
Society that’s that’s not very common right um just sitting and listening or watching um and when you do that you notice other things too and especially birding in your neighborhood like I’m birding in my neighborhood I’m not just noticing the birds I go to a Woods near
My house where there’s an Eastern Stree that has been coming into my yard at 4:30 in the morning and calling which is really wonderful but I’m in that woods and I also notice it’s on the edge of public housing and that there’s trash um and there’s teenagers sometimes
In there smoking pot and doing whatever and I talk to them um and so I probably if I wasn’t out there brooding I wouldn’t notice them and I wouldn’t get to have conversations with them and be thinking about my neighbors and how they use that the woods and what how what
They think of it um so you see the birds and hopefully now Drew Dr Drew Lam’s work he talks about he’s written in ottoman’s magazine about this it’s you’re not just seeing the birds hopefully you’re you know broadening your scope of what you notice so what I’m hearing you say is
It’s an entry into another part of the world that has not been part of the world of perhaps either the Flynn students or the more privileged college men Partners uh I think it’s an amazing program I guess I will field one of the last questions um there’s none in the
Chat left but what are your hopes and aspirations for this particular program and how is it that you think organizations such as the Green Mountain aabon Society could uh support your work well you’re already supporting my work and I’m very grateful um I I’m tell us tell us what have we
Done Trish well you gave me the oh the binocular Grant oh I mentioned that already didn’t I did I forget yes and if you’re smart you’ll ask for another one I’ll ask for another one these kids W binoculars also Lucy Layman has come and Allison Brody took
The class I mean so members of this group have been very actively involved D in the program and and supporting it so I’m just and and giving jobs to my students a place to go um and use those skills um I’m I’m thinking about the
Future uh I really I want to use this book um to make a greater impact um and I think these clubs are really needed so there’s a role for birding groups across the country there’s also a a need for more intergenerational groups and activities I mean my students need Elders you know
They they are so afraid of the future and for them to talk to someone who’s been through a war or you know been through a couple of different rough us administrations um it it helps them it gives them perspective so I think the segregation of Ages in our society is
Really a problem and a lot of the group burden groups tend to be older folks so so I’d like to see but I’m not sure how it would work and I don’t want to run a big huge thing I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and I’m writing
Other books for Harper Collins um but really what I want to do is use this book is a platform to to bring back recess and benefit millions of kids in our country not just 25 a week as much as I adore them and I’m going to continue working with them recess we all
I’m sure we’re all old enough in this group to remember what recess was and it is disappearing well I thank you uh we do have one very specific question from a uh attendee uh who writes do you have an email that you can share I would love to get some
Information on the catbird geolocation project you did in Wisconson and I would uh suggest that perhaps if you feel like doing it you would uh use the chat and direct message um this person I can relay it what I’m going to say to our attendees is uh I am going actually turn
On your video and turn on your sound and what we’d like you to do is if you have a question from here on in just put your hand up and uh Trish will be able to see it so let me work a little magic Trish what’s ahead for you in this book what
Kind of book tour fill in for me while I do some work okay well um so next Tuesday I’ll be at Phoenix books and they are doing a launch and then you all are doing a launch kind of party in shelburn which I’m very excited about
And honored on March 20th and I will show a a a beautiful PowerPoint with lots of fun pictures of the kids using your binoculars um I am going on a tour over spring break I’ve been invited to Madison Wisconsin back to Warner Park the Wisconsin Book Festival and the
University and there and Milwaukee the Urban Ecology Center I’ve also been invited to Montgomery Alabama new South books um and probably New Orleans and then I’ll do a West Coast tour after school gets out because I can’t travel very much I have to be here Mondays and Wednesdays I wouldn’t miss a Wednesday
For the world I have to be out there with those children to make sure they’re okay um so yeah well that’s great and again I encourage everybody to um click that little uh symbol on the stop video so that we can see you and then we’re
Going to open it up for um a general question and answer period so I see some of you have done it I see some fellow members of the board if you have any questions and you would like to unmute yourself hi there Danielle say hi to Jacob for all of
Us okay does anybody have a question that they would like to ask directly Pat Trish I just wanted to say you’re preaching to the choir to a number of other Ed former Educators here I mean since uh uh No Child Left Behind this driving thing for testing in schools has driven
Kids indoors um and it’s and it hasn’t really yielded results and uh thank you for your work that you’re doing I think it’s just so important um but we got to get the testing stuff ended um and really focus on what’s important which is relationships and uh the world not
Sitting and doing pen and paper or computer thank you Pat um I don’t I don’t know how to do it so if you have all of fabulous Educators if you have any idea how to change the system or what can we do because yeah a lot of us don’t we
Have uh something you’d like to talk about don’t we have a uh something that Lucy has been instrumental in with our board don’t we have a a book signing and an event coming up that while you were working March 20th March 20th and um yeah Lucy’s leading leading that
Endeavor and I’m really excited about it and I love the flying is it the Flying Pig I think that’s the bookstore in shelburn so it’ll be really nice to be there well as well because there’s great birds in shelburn too um so yes and as far as the catb bird question was
Concerned there’s a whole chapter in here about that study and about my um field research and so buy the book not only the study but you’ll you’ll get the story and it’s a funny story um it was quite was something being out there three summers in a row in Warner Park
Catching cat Birds um yeah I love cat Birds they’re really cool does anyone else have a question that they would like to ask to represent o Trish this is a really simple question what time on March 20th at the Flying Pig does it start Trish do you know off
The top of your head I don’t know off the top of my head I don’t we’ll have it on our and we’ll send an announcement out to to the people on the mailing list so I just I was just gonna paste that into the chat right now just so that people have
That can I ask you all a question sure surely yeah I I just am struck by the latest survey well it’s 2022 of the National Park Service that there are 96 million people in the United States who love birds or love to watch birds I mean
That’s a lot of people and i’ I’ve been thinking about that and have you thought about I mean that must be numbers of people who cross political lines are country so divided so people who love birds we have that in common and it’s such an important Bond and I Wonder has there
Been any strategizing on how we could leverage that I’ll answer first while our um well Pat and Jeff and and Ally and our other board members think about it and the young Danielle G us an answer um I think that you know by us offering our outings
And our events our our outings typically uh bring you know 12 to 25 people together and not only are you following you know a leader who is going to be talking to you about the birds but there’s all sorts other conversations that happen always and you know as
People get to know each other they get to know their stories and what’s important to them so I also see that large number of you know whether it’s people who just want a feeder outside their window or they’re curious about what’s in the park next door to
Them I do think that that birding is a is a venue that allows people to participate at many levels one one of the things we struggle with Trish is you know we do a a bird outing a field trip at 7 o’clock in the morning and a a single mom with three
Kids isn’t going to be there at 7 o’clock in the morning so we’re trying figure out how to be inclusive you know having a multigenerational walk would be a change for us and you know a lot a lot of people on the trail look like me with
You know white hair like this so um we’re trying to figure out how to be more inclusive on on a couple different dimensions one idea for you Trish and this involves Pat and uh our organization would be if the students in the biring club at Flynn are are very
Used to going down to derway perhap perhaps you know we could um organize uh a walk it would not be that hard for us to find actually 25 participants who would like to join the college student and the uh young Flynn student and perhaps the three of them could we could
All go on a walk together I think that’s something that we can perhaps explore if that’s something that’s of interest to you yeah the problem with that is I mean I love the idea because again the intergenerational is everybody has to go through a background check and fingerprinting and you know we go
Through an elaborate process pile it’s it’s it’s arduous so I I don’t I don’t see that that would work but I would definitely be interested in conversations about other ways that the group could be involved in the schools I mean I know that there’s people are experimenting in the school
District and in other school districts um Ripton for example example I took a bunch of students down there at the request of a teacher who’s a friend was a Friday morning she just takes her kids out on a walk and she invited us to come with
Them and and so what if every school in Burlington had a couple of your fabulous volunteers who went and did weekly walks or by week or daily walks that’s getting more exercise into the school day that’s what I’m thinking and and there definitely would be a role for
People in this group I mean I think you’d be fantastic Volunteers in the schools and it would be really fun so it wouldn’t be the same as doing a big huge Club but you would definitely be doing something and helping the teachers out too Adam has posted that um he found the
Time on March 20th of your event The Flying Pig has the event listed as March 20th at 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. that’s probably not right or it’s going to be a really long event and a really long or you write a really long signature but uh thanks Adam for
Checking that out me thinks it’s probably 6:30 P.M to 7:30 p.m. but we’ll get that unless we’re goinging yes I’d like to thank you on behalf of our Organization for coming with your wisdom with your experience with your stories and sharing with us and also letting us
Know about your work we wish you all the best in your continued mad house of a press tour and thank you and tell the students that we were thrilled to be able to help them get their binoculars and I’m telling you as an Italian boy
Wink wink you might want to talk to us again I think we can help you out again all right thank you so much thank you for what you do and uh thank you thank you to everybody thank you to our attendants our next presentations are uh going to be young women scientists we
Have two or three more and we’re going to wrap up the series with the popular Zach Cota who’s going to be talking about rare birds in Vermont so we uh would like you to check out the Greenmount aon.com nice to see you all hi