Dr. Meg Lowman Profiled In National Geographic Magazine
Elmira, NY (05/13/2022) — Dr. Meg Lowman, founder and executive director of TREE Foundation, was recently profiled in a special National Geographic Magazine issue on saving forests. The profile, "How To Be An Arbornaut,"* appears in the May 2022 issue and highlights Lowman's work as a tree-top explorer, called an arbornaut.
An Elmira native, renowned conservationist, and author, Lowman worked with Elmira College faculty to develop a sustainability minor. Launched in the fall of 2019, this program prepares students to identify the links between environmental, political, and social factors that influence health and development. Students learn through a combination of interdisciplinary courses and immersive, on-location research in the Finger Lakes region or around the world, gaining the skills necessary to meet the major challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.
Lowman was also recently featured in an episode of Branching Out with ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee and her family. They went on a high-energy, eco-friendly road trip to learn more about trees and how to take care of them.
Lowman's roots are in Elmira but her studies have taken her around the world. As a graduate student exploring the rainforests of Australia, Lowman realized that she couldn't monitor her beloved leaves using any of the usual methods. So she put together a climbing kit: she sewed a harness from an old seat belt, gathered hundreds of feet of rope, and found a tool belt for her pencils and rulers. Up she went, into the trees.
Forty years later, Lowman remains one of the world's foremost arbornauts, known as the "real-life Lorax." She planned one of the first treetop walkways and helps create more of these bridges throughout the world.
*National Geographic Magazine subscription required.
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An Elmira native, renowned conservationist, and author, Dr. Meg Lowman worked with Elmira College faculty to develop a sustainability minor that launched in the fall of 2019.