Introducing Our New TerraCorps Members
The 300 Committee’s two new TerraCorps service members are off to a terrific start, helping at Coffee Clean-ups, learning our land monitoring software and sketching out their capstone projects. Grace Vachon, 24, and Liam Mertens-Harker, 25, started their 11-month service internship in September.
Grace graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2023 with a degree in wildlife biology and conservation. For the past year, she served with AmeriCorps Cape Cod. As a regional AmeriCorps member, Grace worked on several land management projects with The 300 Committee, and when we advertised our open TerraCorps (a division of AmeriCorps) positions this summer, she quickly applied.
“The 300 Committee seemed like a great group of people who were passionate about what they’re doing,” Grace said.
Fortunately, Grace already had housing in Falmouth, living with a roommate just around the corner from The 300 Committee’s new headquarters off Thomas B. Landers Road.
“The Cape has such a beautiful variety of habitats,” Grace said. “Woodlands, and marshes, and beaches. So I’m very happy to be sticking around.”
Each TerraCorps member executes three “capacity building projects” as part of their service year. “The projects are aimed at making an organization better at what it does,” Grace explained.
Grace knows what two of her projects will be: installing signage along the Coonamessett River Greenway about Wampanoag tribal history and land use; and, second, leading nature journaling workshops for adults.
The 300 Committee’s second TerraCorps member, Liam Mertenz-Harker, 25, grew up on the border of Maine and New Hampshire. “I’ve always enjoyed being outside, and that childlike wonder of finding out about what’s going on around you in nature,” Liam said. “I was the kid who asked questions about everything.”
Liam is now on the cusp of finishing his degree in environmental science and policy through the University of Southern Maine. He lives with his father in Marston’s Mills.
Like Grace, he has two settled ideas for his capacity building projects: to set up wildlife monitoring cameras in Beebe Woods and hopefully integrate them into Falmouth Academy’s ecology curriculum; and, second, to install “insect hotels” on Falmouth meadows and grasslands. Similar to bird and bat boxes, insect hotels provide pollinating insects a safe place to lay eggs and hibernate before re-emerging in the spring.
The 300 Committee is thrilled to have Grace and Liam as part of our team. Our TerraCorps service members do the critical legwork of preparing our state-mandated annual monitoring reports for the over 100 properties we are responsible for stewarding; their hard work ensures Falmouth’s conservation lands are properly looked after. Welcome Grace and Liam!