Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Allen

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Steve volunteering with the Habitat Herald, a Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy newsletter that is published quarterly. As Lead Editor, Steve works with authors, fact-checks, writes book reviews and occasional articles, and proofreads every issue. In 2017 Steve received the Loudoun Wildlife Volunteer of the Year award.

We are not the only recipient of Steve’s time and dedication — he also volunteers at a large wildlife sanctuary near his family summer home on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. For 20+ years, Steve has helped them by greeting visitors, answering nature questions, leading bird walks and being a member of the safety team. When there, Steve can be found at the sanctuary almost every morning doing a bird walk, either by himself, with other individuals, or with his bird group (the Felix Neck Early Birders).

As for Steve’s favorite thing in nature, he says:

This may sound a little strange, but one of my favorite things to do there [at Martha’s Vineyard] is that I’m on the safety team which checks out the Sanctuary after every hurricane or other big storm, walking all of the trails looking for downed trees and branches, dangerous widow-makers (large branches detached from their tree and hanging over the trail), or flooded trails. It’s a great opportunity to see that even though we think we’re in control of the environment, Mother Nature is still in charge.

Many thanks to Steve, and to all our volunteers, for helping protect, preserve and restore wildlife habitat through providing educational materials and opportunities for everyone.