This is a series of flash interviews with people I admire, people who are doing something—anything, a lot of things—for the Earth. These folks walk the walk, each of them in their own way, using their own unique skillset. They dedicate their energy, their time, and their hearts to a crucial cause: the preservation of this precious planet we call home.
Tricia Kyzer calls herself a “Blue Wall Wanderer”—an homage to the beautiful, wild place along the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment where she lives, works, and communes with nature. She is a naturalist, writer and environmental educator who has worked for 20 years with children, teens, and adults, leading nature-based programs and developing curricula that involve the natural world. Currently she teaches fourth and fifth graders at Wild Oak Independent School, a nature-centered school in Hendersonville, NC where all students take “wonder walks” daily and enjoy lots of forest play and outdoor learning.
Aside from her day job, Tricia teaches adult Master Naturalist courses (she holds certifications as a South Carolina Statewide Master Naturalist and a Palmetto Environmental Educator), speaks at the S.C. Native Plant Society and serves on the board of directors for the Foothills Trail Conservancy. Recently she appeared in a brand-new film about the Trail, created by Traveling Panda Media. (See below.)
In the summer, Tricia is even busier: She co-leads a travel/adventure camp for middle school girls and also works with a local lake outfitter to take children into nature through a nonprofit program called Jocassee Wild Child.
In the tradition of Emerson and Thoreau, Tricia often expresses her love of the wilderness through writing. Her poetry and musings on the human-nature connection can be found here on Substack at tkyzer.substack.com. When I asked her to sum it all up by naming one of her “bucket list” life goals, she didn’t have to think long: “I want to have the opportunity to name a lichen (species) in the Jocassee Gorges.”
Spoken like a true naturalist!
Tricia, please tell me about some of your early experiences in nature.
The first air I breathed was salty sea air. The first ground I walked on was limestone and seashells. As children, my sister and I spent hours trying to break open coconuts, applied aloe from the yard to our sunburns, and wandered on our own through John Pennekamp State Park in the Florida Keys while we waited for our grandmother to get off work. The soundscape of my formative years was the ocean, cicadas, gulls, and red-winged blackbirds. The water was all my favorite shades of blue, the sky all my favorite shades of pink. I don't remember learning to swim. I have just always known. My fears included hurricanes, barracuda, and Portuguese Man-o-Wars. From this island world, we moved to northern Michigan. The contrast captivated me! Pines replaced palms. Snow replaced the sea. I filled Maxwell House coffee cans with wild strawberries and blackberries and foraged puffballs. My sister and I spent hours creating secret worlds of our own in the Michigan woods. I can still imagine the smell of warm pines and cold snow. My Miami-born mother could not handle the winters, so we headed South. We ended up in rural Upstate South Carolina. I was undaunted by another wild place to explore. Oak hickory forests, bamboo stands, and kudzu giants became the new playscape. My early experiences were defined by having an imagination, a sister, and abundant free time to explore and create magical worlds in nature.
How did those early experiences shape your relationship with the natural world?
I grew up with a sense of place. I could not have put words to that at the time, but fully experienced it. The contrast of the Florida Keys, northern Michigan, and South Carolina helped me begin to see possibilities. The independence we had as children to explore ignited a curiosity about the world around me that I still carry today.
How do you connect with nature now … through your work or leisure or both?
In my free time, I am always thinking about my place: wondering, wandering, and writing about it. My Instagram, bluewallwanderer, is an outlet for expressing my love for this place through photography and prose. The Blue Wall is filled with endless possibilities for exploration. The more I know, the deeper I want to go. I want to see more of this place in more seasons, more lights, more weather. I am absolutely greedy with my place. In all my jobs, I am always pointing people to place. As a guide for Jocassee Lake Tours, I get to share my heart place with people from all over the world. In my naturalist courses, I show people how to pay attention to our place. At Wild Oak Independent School, a nature-infused school, I have the opportunity to share the wonders of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains with my students. We take daily morning walks in all weather. I am intentional about getting them intimately acquainted with their place through local hikes and nature studies on our 46-acre campus. I feel so fortunate to spend so much of my life connecting myself and others to our natural world.
What are your biggest fears for the future of our planet?
My biggest fear is that future children will have no need or desire to go outside. That adults will not make them. That they will not be connected with their place in a personal and real way and as a result will not realize why it is so important they protect it. I am afraid they will not see sunrises, see frost on the grass, or watch the creek rise after a good rain. I am afraid they won't wonder about fireflies or be spooked by an owl's call. I am afraid they won't have favorite trees.
What is your biggest hope for the future of our planet?
That I am wrong! That there will be enough voice to fight against this tide of change.
Thank you, Tricia, for being a Champion of Nature!
Students taking "wonder walks." What a fantastic thing to do!
Thank you to the Tricia's of the world whose commitment to the next generation is so needed during these times. Her individual story, and the story of the community coming together for the foothills project, are inspirational. What gorgeous scenery in the video!