The Cheshire County Conservation District Honors Wendy Ward as the 2025 Educator of the Year
- Nina Halsted
- Oct 2
- 7 min read
It’s an annual tradition for the Cheshire County Conservation District to honor a community member or organization as the “Educator of the Year”. This is done to celebrate the efforts the recipient has undertaken to steward a conservation ethic and awareness through their personal and professional work. This year, we are honored to announce Wendy Ward as our 2025 Educator of the Year.
Wendy Ward is a lifelong resident of Cheshire County who has dedicated her life to the local community and natural world through her work in conservation. On any given day, you can find Wendy sharing her passions for nature with those around her. While Wendy may not be an educator in the traditional sense, those who have had the pleasure of interacting with her know that she has an aptitude for sharing her knowledge with the community and a deep passion for connecting people to the natural world that surrounds them. She has achieved this through numerous workshops, one-on-one work with landowners, and volunteering for several organizations. Wendy is a lifelong learner and believes that the key to educating is being open to learn from those you're meant to be mentoring. She believes that education starts with connection and that there is always an opportunity to learn and listen.
Wendy was born and raised in Keene, New Hampshire. Her parents chose to settle in Keene right before she was born, as it was a compromise between their hometowns of Marlborough and Manchester. In Wendy’s own words, “I never found a reason to leave. It’s just so beautiful and wonderful here.” Growing up in the Monadnock region, she always felt a deep connection to nature. Now an avid bird watcher herself, she grew up birding and hiking with her Dad. As a child, she spent a great deal of time learning from her nature-loving father. That upbringing cemented her passions and career into her adult life. The more time she spent in the world, it was surprising to her the number of people who knew so little about the natural world around them, which further inspired her to bring people to nature.
Wendy did not follow the typical path of pursuing college immediately after high school. Her career in conservation was something, as she says, “she just fell into it”. In her early adulthood, she worked as a seamstress with her mother and as a stay-at-home mom for her two young daughters. When her daughters started full-time school, she began searching for an opportunity that would utilize her knowledge and skills in ecology and birding.
She initially began volunteering with the New Hampshire Audubon Society, leading field trips that ranged from birding to wildflowers and butterflies. While Wendy eventually ended up doing fewer field trips due to working full-time and raising two young children, forty years later, she still leads field trips, educating participants on local birds and blooms. Around the same time, Wendy also helped her Dad volunteer as part of the USGS Bird Breeding Survey. This survey tracks breeding bird populations and provides key data for scientists, conservationists, and bird enthusiasts to point to in their own work. Wendy also pursued and completed an extensive Forest Land Steward course through The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, where she later volunteered at one of the local sanctuaries.
The knowledge and passion she developed at these opportunities led her to the NRCS office, where she met with the District Manager and Conservationist. She began as a volunteer there and felt inspired by the work they were doing. She states, “I really liked what I saw there, what they were doing because I hadn’t been exposed to conservation practices being put on the ground.” Eventually, Wendy was able to start there as a part-time employee, and then they were able to hire her full-time as a Biological Science Technician. The wide array of programs NRCS Conservation Planners work with is not the same as when Wendy started. She would still go out and provide conservation planning and topographic surveys, but under different programming and guidelines. The work she did there early on was a defining experience for her in her life. She truly loved and lived by the NRCS motto, “helping people, help the land.” In her early career at NRCS, her work with landowners primarily focused on wildlife conservation. For most of her career, Wendy held the title of technician; however, her goal was to take on more responsibilities as a soil conservationist. In her early years there, she was introduced to the biological activity and vastness of soil science, from cover crops to water quality; there was so much to learn. However, she needed her Bachelor's Degree to do so. As a result, Wendy pursued her Bachelor's Degree at Granite State in Natural Resource Management. Over her thirty years at NRCS, Wendy pursued numerous educational opportunities and advanced in her position, eventually becoming the District Conservationist in 2020.
In 2013, Wendy began working with the Monadnock Conservancy as part of the Lands Committee, a volunteer role she continues to undertake into her retirement. More recently, she has also gotten involved with the Monadnock Bird and Nature Club, leading birding field trips. Wendy also enjoys serving as a birding mentor at the Birding on the Farm workshops, organize
d by the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District and the Cheshire County Conservation District. It marries her love of birding with her passion for conservation work at the NRCS. Wendy says these workshops provide imperative education on the land practices farmers use on their farms to benefit wildlife. It even helps people understand the full picture of farming and the compromises they sometimes have to make to balance farming with the conservation of wildlife. It helps people understand the enthusiasm many farmers have and the role they play in ecology. These workshops are just one example of the extensive educational work Wendy has undertaken throughout her career and personal life.
While the work of a conservation planner would not typically be considered the work of an educator, there is a significant overlap. The intent is to develop and implement conservation plans tailored to the needs of both the landowner and the land; however, to achieve this, a connection must be established between the landowner and the planner. Wendy states, “I learned quickly, early on, that you need to first listen and meet people where they are at with their property. When you first go out, people are usually anxious to show you what they are excited about or things that they’re upset about. A big approach is to first listen.” Wendy further elaborates that as the conversation continues, that’s when the educational piece starts. Her discussions with landowners often led to the integration of aspects of the ecosystem that they may not have been aware of. In her own words, “from the tiny to large, the world is fascinating, and there is so much to learn.” With so much to learn, Wendy often saw her work as planting a seed. Sometimes, implementing conservation practices relied on timing and the readiness of the landowner. Wendy expressed that while she could suggest a pollinator garden as a useful practice and expand on the benefits of its implementation on the land, it could be years before the landowner installed it themselves. The most beautiful thing is planting the seed of an idea and watching as the landowners bring it to life, with or without the help of NRCS.
Wendy is passionate about connecting people to nature. In her career and her work outside of it, Wendy developed an understanding of how overwhelming the complexities of nature can be. It is crucial for everyone to understand the impact their actions have on the planet. It is easy for all of us to make a decision that inadvertently harms the ecosystem. Whether it’s working with a landowner or running a workshop, starting with the little pieces of information that connect them to their landscape leads to more meaningful conversations and a deeper understanding of what surrounds them. Wendy says, “You don’t need to know the names of everything, but recognizing the connections between organisms, or even human actions to the environment, will help everything.” Wendy recalls an example of how connecting people to the little things in nature can change their entire perspective. When packing up her office upon retirement, she found a letter from twenty years ago, written by an NRCS client, that said, “I never realized all these birds out here. You have opened my eyes to the wonder of watching these birds and listening to them; the world isn’t the same now. It’s better.”
Wendy encourages everyone to engage with nature in small ways and, as she says, “there are so many more opportunities for people to go out into nature than twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago.” Wendy further explains, “There are many apps, such as Merlin, that allow people to explore and learn.” She also notes that attending the many events at the Cheshire Conservation District, the Harris Center, and Distant Hill Gardens provides additional ways for people to connect with nature in Cheshire County. More than ever, organizations are presenting opportunities for people to connect with nature and start exploring the ecosystems around them.
Throughout her thirty years of experience at NRCS, Wendy's biggest takeaway was the shared learning experience that exists among everyone, from field trips to workshops to one-on-one visits at a farm. As she states, “you learn from other people, as much as you think you are imparting your own wisdom, there is always something to learn from every encounter you go out to. While I might be going out with a plan to impart this information or that, you are always the recipient of someone else's knowledge, and you are always learning”. Furthermore, Wendy emphasizes that a great deal of learning can occur even among coworkers. At NRCS, Wendy learned a great deal from everyone, whether they were soil scientists, grazing specialists, or engineers. In her own words, “in this little corner of the world, I still have so much to learn.”
Comments