Spotlight on Lauren Natwick

In 2022, we celebrate 25 successful years of a partnership with the Florida Conservation Corps. Part of that celebration includes highlighting members who continued their careers by joining the Florida State Parks team.

Lauren loves AmeriCorps so much she served four terms, two of which were with the Florida Conservation Corps before she became an FLCC staff member!

Between 2009 and 2013, Lauren served 5,915 hours! Lauren served her first term in Nevada working on trail and fence maintenance. During her second term, she helped build a 5-mile post and cable fence outside of Las Vegas to protect a wilderness area - the pristine desert. She also cut fresh trails and maintained recreational trails in Lake Tahoe.

Lauren’s third term was served in Florida on the Project A.N.T. traveling team surveying, identifying and treating non-native plants. On her fourth term, she served as an individual placement FLCC member at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, where she surveyed, identified and treated non-native plants, recruited and managed volunteers, participated in outreach and interpretation, and worked on prescribed fires.

Lauren said, “While working my last term at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, I had the opportunity to work in some of the most remote, pristine prairie located in north central Florida. During my service, I created a non-native plant management plan with my member counterpart to bring large areas of the prairie to management condition. I cut tunnels through thick black raspberries, taller than me, to search and destroy all kinds of non-native vines, trees and small plants. In addition, I was able to share my accomplishments at the state park staff meetings, manage student volunteers in some of our hand pulls, and interpret the importance of native plants versus non-native ones. I not only felt like a part of the Florida Park Service family, but also knew my small accomplishments were meaningful on a large scale to preserving and protecting our state's natural areas. It was the best 11 months I'd had in the FLCC AmeriCorps Program.”

These days you can find Lauren working hard at the FLCC office as an assistant program coordinator. She focuses on recruitment for the program; FLCC event coordination; FLCC member support (including one-on-ones, training initiatives, answering service-related questions, and conflict resolution); FLCC site supervisor support (including one-on-ones, member management/supervisory role training, service-related questions and conflict resolution); quarter report final review; survey creation; member and site supervisor orientation; site visits; and much more.