We’re thrilled to announce that Karina Dailey will be joining VNRC as Ecological Restoration Coordinator. In this position, she will be responsible for running VNRC’s dam removal program and contributing her scientific knowledge and expertise to policy issues around the conservation and restoration of Vermont’s waters.

Dailey comes to VNRC from Trudell Consulting Engineers (TCE) in Williston, where she served as Senior Ecologist for nearly a decade. In addition to overseeing natural resource-related projects, she performed wetland and stream delineations; prepared wildlife habitat assessments; conducted rare, threatened, and endangered plant surveys; and conducted spatial analysis and natural resource assessments using GPS and GIS systems. Dailey also provided expert testimony for Act 250 and Act 248 land use permitting projects.

Formerly, Dailey was a Project Manager for the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District and a Restoration Ecologist and field biologist for the US Fish and WIldlife Service and Intervale Nursery. Before moving to Vermont, she taught environmental science and worked in conservation in the Greater Yellowstone area in Wyoming. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Dailey to the team,” said Brian Shupe, Executive Director of VNRC. “Her scientific background, practical experience, and personal commitment to protecting Vermont’s natural resources will be an important addition to our policy and dam removal work.”

Dailey said, “I am excited to work as an ecologist for an organization at the forefront of natural resource protection in Vermont, and to apply my science and ecological consulting knowledge to help formulate environmental policy. Now, more than ever, we all need a healthy environment where we can live, work, and play. I look forward to bringing a natural science perspective to the table.” 

On dam removal, she added: “I love that I will have the unique opportunity to work first-hand to reconnect river systems in Vermont and organize stakeholders to support this work.” 

Last fall, VNRC and partners removed the Mill Pond Dam in Colchester, taking with it an estimated 17 tons of phosphorus and reconnecting 31 miles of stream.

Welcome, Karina!