Meet the Orleans County Team
As Conservation Specialist, Abraham will be working on the Memphremagog RCPP doing conservation practice planning and nutrient management plan development and updating and working on Lake Shore Restoration Programing.
Abraham grew up in a farming community in Connecticut. He fell in love with Vermont when he pursued an education in Environmental Science at Green Mountain College in Poultney. After working on farms out of college, he went on to learn about land management by controlling invasive plants. This led him to conservation work for The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. After six years of working with land trusts, he decided he wanted to focus on projects which would more directly help the land and the people who live there. He lives in Brownington with his partner Maia and their adventurous cat. He enjoys fishing, boating, aquaponics and skiing.
Ted is the newest member of the Orleans County NRCD. As Conservation Specialist, he will be the lead on natural resource restoration programs that primarily deal with aquatic environments like streams, rivers, and wetland/floodplains, as well as web based information sharing about the OCNRCD.
Prior to moving to the Northeast Kingdom, Ted was a research fish ecologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in La Grande, Oregon leading monitoring efforts on Snake River Pacific salmon. Ted earned his Master’s of Science from Montana State University, and for the last 25 years, he has been involved in the development, coordination, and implementation of large-scale aquatic habitat and water quality monitoring programs throughout the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains. Ted’s passion is in the conservation and recovery of watersheds for both human use and natural flora and fauna through restoration of ecosystem functions, especially in aquatic and riparian environments. As such, his interests include developing relationships and collaborative problem solving among stakeholders; finding sustainable solutions for the community, aquatic organisms, and riverine systems; evaluating and designing restoration of ecosystem processes to promote clean water and sustainable habitats; and building resilient a landscape for future generations. As is in common with most Vermonters, he and his family enjoy everything that involves being outdoors whether it’s in the woods or on the water and exploring the world at large.
Bevin Barber-Campbell is thrilled to join the Orleans County NRCD as the Conservation Assistant/Community Engagement staff. She is looking forward to assisting the District Manager in general district procedures and leading outreach and communications efforts for our programs and services. This summer she will increase her hours to include community engagement work with lake associations on lake restoration work.
Bevin comes to us from the Memphremagog Watershed Association and bike advocacy/alternative transportation work. She has been in Vermont for a few years and lives in Westmore with her family. She is passionate about her work, uses personal connections, communications and education to inspire individuals and leaders. At the same time, she values listening and learning about people’s experiences. These interactions provide the basis for constantly evaluating her strategies and programs, leading to thoughtful and creative innovations and solutions.
Joanna Lidback is a dairy farmer, business consultant, and lifelong farmer advocate. She and her husband Adam own and operate the Farm at Wheeler Mountain, a diversified dairy farm located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The farm consists of 80 registered Jerseys and Holsteins and a direct farm sales business for beef and composted cow manure.
Off the farm, Joanna is CFO for Adirondack Farms, LLC and the principal consultant for Adirondack Management Services, LLC. Previously, she was a business consultant with Yankee Farm Credit and has also held various positions with Farm Credit East including loan officer, director of Knowledge Exchange, and lead author of the Northeast Dairy Farm Summary.
She was inducted into Vermont’s Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2019 as an Emerging Leader and recognized with the Young Jersey Breeder national award in 2016. She volunteers as a board member for the Global Farmer Network, she is first vice president of Orleans County Farm Bureau, and can be found judging youth dairy cattle shows throughout the summer and early fall.
Joanna has a bachelor’s degree in applied economics and management from Cornell University and an MBA from Babson College. She and Adam are raising three children on the farm: Thomas, Eli, and Audrey. You can find Joanna at Facebook.com/TheFarmatWheelerMountain and @JoannaLidback on Instagram and Twitter. You can read her blog at farmlifelove.com.