BURLINGTON – Ted Lawson has been the executive director of ECHO for two years. In this conversation, he reflects on the mission and programs at the Burlington science and nature museum on Lake Champlain.
Q. Previously, you directed a maritime school and embarked on a sailing journey with your family. What did you learn during that time? What made you drop your anchor at ECHO?
A. My wife and I wanted to fulfill the dream we had for 20 years to sail distant shores on a sailboat with our kids. We sailed from Maine to New Zealand over the course of two years.
We got a front row seat to just incredible wildlife. We went through the Panama Canal, across the entire South Pacific, visiting tiny, little coral atolls and tucked-away places and met incredible people.
It was a really life-changing, wonderful experience for all of us. But… we needed to get back into the real world and work again.
I read about ECHO and its work, its place in the community, its connection with UVM and research, but also stewardship and STEM and outreach programming.
I was lucky enough to land the job, which brought us to Vermont. We've been here for two and a half years, and it's been a great experience so far.
Q. ECHO is all about the lake. What do you think led to this?
A. What we need right now is the will to continue to protect natural resources. To me, that comes through a care for our natural resources.
Care comes through understanding. And understanding comes through actually learning about our natural resources and the environment around us. That's where ECHO plays a huge role.
It's connecting the community to science and to the lake to better understand the natural resource that it is, the benefits it has for humans, but also the natural world and ways we can individually and collectively work to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Q. ECHO’s zebra mussel exhibit is a great example of telling the story of the lake. What other threats are you trying to educate the public about?
A. A major issue confronting the lake is obviously invasive species. There's also runoff from communities and from farms that have deep impacts, leading to algal blooms and whatnot for the lake.
Then there's just climate change. Generally, a warming climate and a warming lake is having deep impacts for the native species.
We have our baby turtle program where we collect turtle eggs and neonates and care for them over the winter to give them a head start in the spring.
Q. Are there more actions ECHO is taking to reflect your overall goals?
A. One out of five folks that come through our doors come through either for free or deeply discounted admission through our open door program.
It's a deep investment in making sure that folks, regardless of socioeconomic status, have the opportunities that we provide.
We're also taking the museum on the road.
We have this huge outreach set of programs that are connecting with 15,000 Vermont school children and teachers every year: setting up STEM festivals in rural school gymnasiums, running a teacher institute, so (we are equipping) elementary school teachers with the knowledge, skills and materials to have STEM engineering programs in their curriculum.
Right now, we serve the upper third to half of the state through our STEM outreach programming. We'd like to build on that and really, truly go statewide.
Q. What other long-term goals does ECHO have?
A. We would love to become a net zero campus.
We're a high energy use building because of all of our aquatic habitats and tanks to keep that water cold and treated for the animal ambassadors that we have in our collection.
It takes a lot of energy. It's a big building.
We've got some exciting plans to work towards becoming a net zero operation, but that's a goal that we're still trying to find funding for.
Q. Many generations are visiting ECHO each day. What do you hope that kids, as well as parents and grandparents, get from ECHO?
A. The hope with kids is that we're just lighting a spark. We're getting them excited about science, about stewardship, about these incredible native species and ecosystems that they represent.
Science, by nature, should be a hands-on, playful experience, and we just want to provide as much opportunity as we can for kids to gain that here.
Nobody's too old to learn about the incredible natural places around Vermont or the species that exist in our beautiful landscapes.
My hope is that parents and grandparents leave here a little bit inspired about ensuring that their children and grandchildren have opportunities in the future. And the way to those opportunities is through sustainability, is through caring for our natural resources and continuing to invest in science and education.
For more information about visiting or donating to ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, go to https://www.echovermont.org/
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