Coping with COVID-19 – A Message from the Director

Dear Sarett Members and Supporters,

The pandemic has shaken all our lives and many of us have turned to nature for a safe place for rest, recovery, and friendship. I am asking you to reflect on the value of your local natural areas and consider making a contribution to the organizations that look after them. Please renew your memberships and perhaps add a little extra to help those organizations through lean times.

In the early months of quarantine efforts, Sarett saw record numbers of visitors on the trails. For the benefit of our community the Sarett board and staff recognized we should waive entrance fees to ensure nature was available for physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Sarett naturalists exercised their creativity coming up with ways to safely share their enthusiasm for nature. Every week they are busy making Nature Discovery Boxes to inspire children and their parents to explore, make crafts, and learn about nature. We are also honing our skills in making on-line videos to inspire and teach the wonders that await us outdoors.

However, without entrance fees, summer classes, or gift shop sales, we are relying on memberships and donations to carry us through the summer. Sarett is facing a fall and winter where we will have to rethink our way of fulfilling our mission to provide quality environmental education.

We have taken comfort in nature – both in its reliability and its dynamics. This month we witnessed monarch butterflies laying eggs on milkweed while cicadas sang from the treetops. We also unexpectedly had a straight-line wind event tear through Sarett knocking down over 15 acres of forest, snapping and uprooting thousands of trees. Our oldest tulip tree was the only one left standing where the center of the storm ripped through the forest as younger 50-80-year-old trees fell.

As that grand old tulip tree weathered the storm, so will Sarett Nature Center and the community that supports it. Please come visit, enjoy the trails, reserve a time in the butterfly house, and savor all the wonder and beauty nature has to offer.

Sincerely,

Nate Fuller