By Zoe Richards, Director of Burlington Wildways
Meet Braden DeForge, Programs Coordinator for Burlington Wildways!
If you’ve attended one of our events, explored our website, joined a spring nature walk, picked up a free native plant, or taken a stroll along the Burlington Wildways Trail, you’ve seen Braden’s work in action.
Braden has been working with Burlington Wildways for nearly four years, starting as a summer intern, then serving for two years with us as an AmeriCorps member, and for the last year and half as our programs coordinator.
He grew up in Plainfield, Vermont, where his love of nature was shaped by the surrounding landscape. He also credits nature programming through Earthwalk in his elementary school as being especially formative. Carrying that legacy forward, Braden has helped lead the Burlington Wildways’ partnership with the Burlington School District, supporting nature connection, place-based learning, and native plant propagation with elementary students.
One of Braden’s favorite parts of the job is collaborating with a wide array of partners. A typical day might include assembling newsletters, collecting data from wildlife cameras across the city, or working with staff from Rock Point, the Intervale Center, Winooski Valley Park District, and Burlington Parks to align on effective strategies for managing our wild places, offering public programming, and creating communications plans to help us reach our collective goals.
Braden is also a talented artist and botanist, graduating with a double major from UVM in plant biology and studio art. In his spare time, he volunteers with the Native Plant Trust, conducting rare plant surveys. Burlington Wildways has benefited so much from Braden’s attention to detail and his follow-through. As a partnership group, we generate many great ideas and Braden's willingness to follow through to turn those ideas into thoughtful, sustainable action is a gift to Burlington’s conservation efforts!
