NorthWoods Stewardship Center is honored to welcome US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) as he joins us on Friday, August 5th, for our 2016 Conservation Corps Season Celebration. Senator Leahy has been an advocate for environmental conservation throughout Vermont and across the United States since gaining office in 1974. An ongoing supporter of conservation efforts along the upper Connecticut River watershed, the Senator helped establish the 26,000 acre Nulhegan basin division of the Silvio O Conte National Wildlife Refuge where youth crews from the NorthWoods Conservation Corps work each summer.
Senator Patrick Leahy and wife, Marcelle Pomerleau Leahy.
As a lifelong Vermont resident Senator Leahy recognizes the importance of protecting our native forests and waterways from pollution and invasive species, and has “secured millions of dollars to control the water chestnut, sea lamprey, and spiny flea infestations, to educate boaters and others about invasive species, and to create the first real invasive species rapid response capability of any lake in the United States. He has also pushed for increased funding for the U.S. Forest Service and the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to combat invasive forest pests such as the Asian longhorned beetle, emerald ash borer, and hemlock woolly adelgid that all threaten Vermont’s forests.”