Meet Our Staff: Olivia Waterhouse Joins the Development Team

Hello and thank you all for welcoming me to the Peconic Land Trust community! I joined the Trust’s development team in early May, just a few weeks after graduating from Barnard College. My degree is in archaeology, but over the past few years I’ve realized that my passions lie less in field research and more in the community-building work of preservation.

I grew up in a small town on the coast of Maine, where my local land trust, Great Works Regional Land Trust, has protected some truly magical places from the pressures of development. My love of nature comes from having access to the quiet and wild spots, something that everyone deserves. Shared landscapes have an incredible power to bring people together, and I want to be a part of making that possible.

A few weeks ago, I crossed Shinnecock Canal for the first time. Getting out of Brooklyn had been a nightmare, and it was dusk by the time I turned off the main road towards where I was staying in North Sea. I slowed down as I passed Cold Spring Pond (to the chagrin of the locals driving behind me) and watched the kayakers and picnickers backlit against the final glow of the sunset. 

Before joining the Trust, I had only really known this place through the stories of my grandparents, who lived in a sailboat in the Sound for a decade or so. The more I learn about this landscape through our projects and preserves, the more honored I am to be a part of the urgent and ongoing work of protecting it. I’m about to move to Riverhead and can’t wait to spend my weekends exploring the trails, shorelines, and other wild and rambling places that we’ve helped to protect across the East End. I hope to see you there!