“Advancing conservation, building community, and connecting Vermonters to the wild heart of place.”
Vermont Master Naturalist creates close-knit teams of naturalists with specific training in local natural history across the earth, life and social sciences, who understand and can read the landscapes of Vermont.
VMN connects local citizens to the nature of their region through professional training and volunteer projects.
These towns benefit long term from a community of naturalists acting as a brain trust for solving ecological issues facing our wild lands and serving as expert resources for conservation education in our schools and communities.
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- Connects people to nature, their neighbors, and their town through a series of place-based field trips from geology to plants and animals to land-use history and beyond.
- Partners with local organizations, schools, and town officials to match participants with volunteer projects designed to steward the unique natural heritage of the town.
- Encourages a lasting commitment to town conservation and planning through on-going public nature walks, tree planting, wildlife tracking, invasive plant removal and more.
- Awards beautifully illustrated Vermont Master Naturalist certificates upon completion of the program
“I am not a naturalist because of what I know. I am a naturalist because it’s what I do.”
Wondering what a day in the life of a VMN program looks like?
Read this excellent coverage by Rachel Mullis where you’ll get a beautifully illustrative account of how this program came to be, and what you can expect.
More VMN features
Grounded in experience and science, Our Better Nature: Hopeful Excursions in Saving Biodiversity presents readers with stories, essays, and resources to guide and inspire action in favor of nature everywhere. Of all the challenges facing the planet, the loss of biodiversity and the current extinction crisis are among the gravest. One chapter in the book features Vermont Master Naturalist.
Vermont Master Naturalist is a founding organization of Grow Wild.
Grow Wild is a network that promotes biodiversity and climate resilience by creating more native plant and pollinator habitat across public and private land in Burlington, Vermont and the Champlain Valley.
If you want to plant native plants in your yard and garden please visit the Grow Wild website.