SELT supporter and volunteer Kate Dumas offered her professional expertise (and world-class number-crunching) for a deep-dive analysis of SELT’s effectiveness at meeting the costs of easement stewardship. Working closely with SELT’s Easement Stewardship Team, Kate went on easement monitoring visits, analyzed and summarized complex data, and presented questions for SELT’s Finance and Land Stewardship Committees to discuss. Kate’s work will help SELT understand the breadth of the funding needs to properly support our rapidly expanding portfolio of conserved lands. We took a few moments to ask Kate why she wanted to take on this unique project.
How did you get connected to SELT’s mission?
I’ve been donating to SELT for a few years, and I would see SELT property signs everywhere. We live in Rye and are familiar with properties like Awcomin Marsh and Charles Rand Forest, which we used during the pandemic. Getting out on the properties was really the first introduction for us. Nature is where I go to recharge and refresh, to ground myself and reconnect.
Tell us about your SELT volunteer experience.
There was an opportunity to do a unique project alongside SELT’s stewardship team. We looked at the true costs of easement monitoring, which was not something I had understood very well previously, and so it was great to get hands-on, go on some of the monitoring visits, and see the work live and in action. Then I translated that field work into numbers and data. It was a really great introduction because it gave me direct access to staff to see the knowledge they had, and the care that they give these properties. I then took my analysis to the SELT Finance Committee, to have a conversation about how this information is helpful and how it will be helpful for future planning. Ultimately, this went to the Stewardship Committee and the full Board.
What do you most enjoy about volunteering with SELT?
One of the things that I’ve loved about being able to volunteer is that I have been able to use my professional background in ways I wouldn’t have imagined or envisioned. I can take my expertise to the ground level, getting out into the land, going on monitoring visits, and seeing how it all works. It was really incredible.
What would you say to potential SELT volunteers?
It’s just a great opportunity to get involved in something that you feel very strongly about, and to know that you’re having an impact. You might be able to do things that maybe professionally you weren’t doing. Having that open canvas to try different things is so rewarding.
Interested in volunteering with SELT? Visit seltvolunteer.org.
Pictured above: Kate Dumas and SELT’s Katie Bates