The first show of 2021 is a great one. My guest is Sophie Mazowita, naturalist, educator, wildlife guide, tracker and much more. We talk about her journey as a naturalist and a tracker, how she gets off the trail and gets into the wilder world around her.

When I talk to folks about creating cultures of connection with the land, putting in the time, effort and passion into the work of learning ourselves and teaching others, Sophie is right on that. She has been working hard, as evidenced all over the internet with her videos, her career as a naturalist and educator, and her ongoing work getting folks on board with paying attention to the wilder world around them.

On top of her own personal endeavours, she shares her work with the Burlington Mammal Tracking Project where she led groups of trackers to map large mammal occurrence throughout the region. She shares more Conservation Northwest's Community Wildlife Monitoring Project where she is doing similar work, “organizing citizen-scientist volunteers to monitor and document wildlife using remote cameras where state and federal agencies don’t have the resources to go.” We also get to talk about a recent project of hers where she has been making space for folks to come together over video conferencing online to share their own tracking stories. What a great idea!

For more information about the work she is up to now, check out trackingconnection.com.