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March 03, 2007
Appalachian Trail Conservancy Employee
Profiled in Asheville Citizen Times
Photo Credit: Special to the Asheville Citizen-Times
The Asheville Citizen Times ran a profile today on Julie Judkins of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. This is one of the many reasons why the Asheville Citizen Times is one of my favorite daily newspapers here in the southeast. And I say that as a self admitted newspaper junkie! Whenever I travel to Asheville or the surrounding area, I'm always sure to pick up a copy of the paper. Their online site is also quite good.
I met Julie last April at the Hot Springs, North Carolina Trailfest. She is a dedicated and knowledgeable trail professional.
Julie will be leading two workshops at the upcoming Great Southeastern Hiking Festival planned for May 3-6 in Montreat, North Carolina. She will lead a session about a joint project of the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy entitled A Trail to Every Classroom. This unique project seeks to teach classroom teachers techniques for integrating multidisciplinary content about the Appalachian Trail into their curriculum. Julie will also be leading a session about non-native invasive plants, and how to remove them.
Registration for The Great Southeastern Hiking Festival is currently open. Registration for the full 4 day event is $150, and includes 9 meals. For more information, please visit our festival website.
As a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, I feel good to know that I'm supporting an organization that hires dedicated and qualified employees like Julie. As a hiker, I take my hat off to Julie and say "Thank you" for her good works!
To read the profile as it appeared in the Asheville Citizen Times, please click the link below.
Name: Julie Judkins.
Age: 30.
Residence: Montford.
Family: Boyfriend David Legler, an instructor with Camp Whitson, a wilderness camp for incarcerated youths in Swannanoa.
Occupation: Resource program manager with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a West Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail, the popular trail from Georgia to Maine that thru-hikers are starting to hit this month.
Job description: Judkins works in the Asheville office of the ATC to protect the plants along the trail and control non-native invasive species, like kudzu, Oriental bittersweet and multiflora roses.
Judkins also advocates for the trail, preaching Leave No Trace ethics to trailblazers and hosting events to promote the trail, like last week's Mountain Sports Festival panel that featured four panelists who shared their stories of thru-hiking the trail.
Along with trail promotion, she also works with education and outreach programs to add conservation curriculum to area schools and to set up partnerships with trail towns like Hot Springs.
"It's a way to open up communication with the towns that attract hikers and bring economic value to the town," she said. "We want to elevate the value of natural resources in those areas as a conservation effort."
Background/experience: Judkins graduated from N.C. State University with a degree in communications but took her first job with the Peace Corps in Armenia, where she hiked across the country to raise environmental awareness. She later worked for Outward Bound in Florida before taking a job with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Favorite part of job: Working with volunteers, she said. (There are about 5,500 volunteers who work on the trail from Georgia to Maine.)
"They're all really different and unique, and it's fun being out there with them," she said.
Least favorite: Explaining to callers the best parts of the trail to go to, she said, and entering data into the databases.
Favorite outdoor activity: Hiking.
Favorite outdoor spot in WNC: Max Patch, a bald with a 360-degree view that sits right along the AT.
Sign up to volunteer or learn more: Visit http://www.appalachiantrail.org
by Lindsay Nash
Asheville Citizen Times
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