Meet Lizzie, Our New Restoration Director

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Nature Consortium is proud to welcome Lizzie Zemke as our new Restoration Director. The following is a guest post from Lizzie.

Since moving to Seattle from western New York State 30 years ago, I have had the good fortune of working as a plant ecologist and wetland scientist in Puget Sound, Alaska, Oregon, Montana, and even in the Sandhills of Nebraska. I have a passion for botany and natural history, but I also have a passion for community, and I see Nature Consortium as a place to realize both goals.

I am very excited about this new chapter in my career. I am particularly looking forward to working with the variety of volunteer groups and communicating the NatureC mission of forest restoration, and the power of nature in general.

I often ask myself, how did I first get excited about nature? What was the spark that led me to get a botany degree and then a masters degree in ecological restoration from the UW.  I remember my father asking me, “That’s great, Iz (his pet name for me), but what are you going to do with a Botany degree?” I guess we’ll see.

I am attracted to Nature Consortium’s mission because I have a family and I live in the community. We live in the south end of Seattle surrounded by a diverse community, and we adopted our youngest from Ethiopia almost 8 years ago. I remember many years ago, shortly after we had returned from Ethiopia with our then 6-year-old daughter, she asked us who did the gardening up alongside a trail outside of Sunrise on Mount Rainier. Wow. We all come at nature from different angles, and I am excited to help teach and to learn alongside the volunteers and staff of this great organization. 

– Lizzie Zemke

You can meet Lizzie at our Soundway Day volunteer event on Saturday, June 14.