Max Baker's New Adventure

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Max Baker, an Americorps volunteer, is Nature Consortium’s new Restoration Technician. Every year, we choose an Americorps volunteer to serve with us on our Restoration Team to get hands-on training in restoration and leadership.

I first fell in love with Seattle when I was 11 years old on vacation with my family at the Space Needle. My friend and I stuck butter balls to the window as we spun around the perimeter of the restaurant. I have since matured (somewhat) and find myself back in Seattle with the great opportunity to volunteer as an Americorps with Nature Consortium. I am incredibly excited to be working with a group that plays so many significant roles in the community of West Seattle. It is my hope that I can aid the Nature Consortium as much as they have the people and natural environment of the area. (I promise not to stick any butter balls on the office windows in the process!)

Though I’m originally from Michigan, I spent a lot of time travelling to Seattle – so much so that eventually moving here seemed the only viable option. After graduating from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources in 2009, I spent the summer in Leavenworth as a Wilderness Management Intern. I think of that summer as the start of my great outdoors addiction, after which I became inspired to live, work and recreate
in awe-inspiring natural environments. 

My passion for environmental preservation first began as a kid in my hometown. I would take walks with my old man in the woods behind our house and listen to him identify animals and plants, at times tricking me in to touching a few stinging nettles. As we walked, he was always on the lookout for garbage that might have been left by a flood or thoughtless individuals. It upset me that this trash would distract him from our walks, but I have since come to realize how it instilled a sense of stewardship into me. Now I can’t help but pick up the smallest of trash pieces if I see them, be it in the urban or natural realm.

After a few more outdoor endeavors – building trails in Lake Tahoe, mountaineering in the Himalayas, volunteering in the Andes – I returned to Michigan to work with the Environmental Spatial Analysis Lab as a Geographic Systems Analyst. It took mere months for me to realize that my preferred workplace is outside rather than in, and I began to look to organizations that shared a similar belief. When I discovered Nature Consortium, I was excited at the prospect of working for such a unique organization so close to the place that had expanded my love for the outdoors.

This desire to be a steward is what attracted me to Nature Consortium, because they are working to inspire and coordinate hundreds, if not thousands of stewards across the Seattle area. Their woods are not a few acres like those behind my house but rather the largest contiguous forest in the area, a vital natural haven that provides numerous benefits to animals and humans alike. I look forward to helping Nature Consortium in its mission to connect people, arts and nature and gaining new experiences in the process.

I hope to meet and work with as many volunteers and partners as I can in the following year, be it in the woods, at one of our events, or just on the streets of Seattle. See you outside!