Mentor without borders (ambassador to the west coast)
Flying Squirrel Mentor (2013-15)

Sam grew up in the Pacific Northwest in a little town called Portland that rests in the wet and foggy Willamette Valley.  He grew up exploring, getting lost, and building forts in Portland’s urban and suburban natural areas, and the surrounding Oregon wilderness where towering Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars dominate the canopy. After spending a year in college as a jazz guitar major, he ditched the stuffiness of indoor practice rooms and his intuition brought him across the continent to Burlington and the University of Vermont.  At UVM Sam met Teage O’Connor, a family of beavers, and the writings of Bernd Heinrich, along with fertile soil for his inner wildness to come into fruition.He has worked as a farmer, an Environment Oregon activist, and as an educator at Audubon Vermont, but feels most filled with vital energy when he is out at Crow’s Path, creating and learning with all the amazing individuals that make up our community.

When Sam isn’t being chased around by wild packs of children at Crow’s Path he can usually be found swinging in his hammock, picking on his mandolin, or tinkering around the garden with his beloved vegetable plants.