Lakes and Mountains Connect Environmental Educators from Siberia to Colorado
Sharing our love of water, land, mountains, culture, faith, and teaching; the late summer exchange partnership with Irina Aiurzanaeva through the Eurasia Foundation US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange became more abundant than I could ever have expected. Irina and Sarah on Richmond Ridge of Aspen Mountain, near Aspen, Colorado I met Irina in January 2022 as she was a student in my virtual Leave No Trace Trainer (LNT) course along with four of her eastern Siberian colleagues and a handful of other students from the USA. This course was a continued courageous adaptation of what used to be a 2-day camping trip version of the LNT Trainer courses. This virtual variation of the training course started in July of 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. Meeting in person and fostering both a professional relationship, and also a strong friendship with Irina would not have happened should I not have taken the risk of figuring out how to do what seemed nearly impossible at the time: virtual outdo
