In this episode, we’re talking to Marcus Rosten, an accomplished, young, and outgoing regenerative leader and weaver bringing a whole lot of love and pride to the Erie Niagara bioregion. Marcus was the recipient of the 30 under 30 award from the American Association of Environmental Education for the long list of hats he’s worn over the years: ecology teacher, interpretive park ranger for national parks and forests, leader of environmental education and stewardship programs with non-profit organizations, and fish and wildlife technician. He’s been featured in Scholastic News, Nike Journal, BirdNote, and PBS Nature for his work in connecting people with nature. He is very passionate about accessibility and diversity in the environmental movement, and is one of the organizers of Black Birders week. He also serves on the board of Birds on the Niagara with Awakening Lands host and fellow Buffalo native, Anna Purpera. He recently became the Director of the Western New York Wildway program through the Western New York Land Conservancy, working on building connecting corridors for animal migration through Western New York as part of the larger Eastern Wildway. Oh, and he has also won a grammy for singing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. Did we mention he’s not even 30??

You can learn more about Marcus by following him on Instagram (@mrosten) and can support his work by checking out and donating to:

• Western New York Land Conservancy (https://wnylc.org)
• Birds on the Niagara (http://birdniagara.org)
• Black Birders week through Black AF in STEM (https://www.blackafinstem.com/)

Check out the map of the Western New York Wildway that Marcus talks about in this episode at https://www.wnylc.org/wnywildway!

You can follow along as we continue to weave this story on our Substack at awakeninglands.substack.com.

If you'd like to support Anna and Benji to continue weaving stories through Awakening Lands, you can do that from our Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/awakening_lands. Please help us out so that we can bring you and our landscapes more stories from the leading edge of the regenerative movement!