North Branch Nature Center

Education programs: nbnc serves more than 5,000 people annually through 10+ education program areas including forest preschool, summer Nature camps and afterschool programs, a Nature playgroup, eco (a standards-based program in collaboration with 12 area public schools and a homeschool program), eco educator institutes (graduate-level courses), biodiversity university classes, Vermont master naturalist program, and numerous other in-person and online offerings. We emphasize hands-on experiential education, offering opportunities to practice outdoor living skills and learn natural history while developing a lasting relationship with the natural world and fostering a sense of a place and stewardship in our local Vermont communities.

Community science: hands-on community science opportunities include amphibian monitoring, monarch butterfly tagging, owl banding, and songbird counts. Our public saw-whet owl events draw several hundred people each fall, and we have trained a network of volunteers to assist with bird-banding and data collection. Our amphibian monitoring program has expanded to collaborate with vt agencies and conservation organizations around transportation planning and statistical modeling of amphibian movement. Our volunteers contribute important data while rescuing thousands of amphibians at road crossings

Public natural history programs: each year we offer a festival, drawing hundreds of people of all ages, a naturalist journeys series, drawing crowds of 70+ in person and/or 300+ online on midwinter evenings to hear speakers on topics from new englands roadside ecology to birdability: because birding is for everybody and every body. We also lead birding and natural history trips around Vermont and beyond, including internationally, and more than 15,000 people use our trails each year.