Participants will explore the power of place-based writing to galvanize citizens to protect special places in our NH communities and regions. We will experience how place-based writing clarifies our thinking, connects us to the places we live, and how powerful writing can help shape environmental policy and spur citizens to proactive stewardship of natural resources. Our cultural, ecological, historical (think about land acknowledgements) and social identities contribute to our sense of place. Participants will write, responding to place-based prompts and then read/share our work with others in attendance.

Register for this free webinar through Zoom.

This webinar is part of the year-long Exploring Connections to and Stewardship of the Natural World talks. This series is supported by a grant through the NH Humanities Council and aims to provide a public and personal space for the examination of environmental ethics, fostering a deeper understanding of, appreciation for, and care of, our natural world. Programs are free to the public, and streamed via Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook Live.

For more information and to see the entire slate of talks, visit our series webpage.

Speaker Bio:

Mary Ann McGarry is the former Natural Resource Educator for the Maine Department of Conservation, Director of Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute, and Director of Education for the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, NH. She has been a professor of environmental science and policy at Plymouth State University (PSU) since 2004, having helped create the master’s and undergraduate programs. She is currently the Endowed Abbott Professor of Environmental Studies. MaryAnn is also one of the founding members of the Sustainability Council which offers a minor.  McGarry has led a two major interdisciplinary projects on campus:  1) Forest to Forest:  Bicknell’s Thrush– Raising awareness about the Bicknell’s Thrush as a catalyst for focusing on international sustainable development on the island of Hispaniola and in the northeastern U.S. where the birds come to breed on the peaks over 2800 feet; and 2) Valuing Our Campus Trees and Community Forests which led PSU in becoming NH’s first and only higher education institution with Tree Campus USA and Bee Campus USA status.  This latter project has involved having her students calculate the ecosystem service of trees on campus using the USFS i-tree software and conducting tree tours of the 106 species on the campus for the community and prospective students.  McGarry has conducted environmental place-based writing workshops and courses for local, national and International audiences.  She has completed 23 graduate credit hours towards a masters in creative writing, focused on environmental writing. McGarry enjoys uses rhyming poetry to educate citizens about environmental topics.