Interview with Eric Powers, Your Connection To Nature
For as long as he can remember, Eric Powers loved playing with turtles, salamanders, snakes, and bugs. Today, Powers heads and works full-time for Your Connection To Nature (YC2N), a Long Island-based company that he started in 2003 to help city dwellers appreciate and gain a deeper respect for nature. “My mission is to save the Earth by helping save plants and animals from extinction,” Powers boldly states. “I do this through education, by showing people animals and taking them into nature.”
As a child in Greeley, Colorado, Powers was only allowed to keep bugs and reptiles as pets if they did not cost his parents money to maintain them. That is when he began interacting with nature in a strong, fun, educational manner. He remembers having to care for his first pets, saying “it not only made me more responsible but made me learn about the ecology of the animals without even realizing it. I had to learn exactly what it ate and go out and catch it.”
Powers, through YC2N, offers several wilderness trips, live animal shows, and many other programs in the NY area. According to his website, YC2N.com, Powers promotes reconnecting with nature because it “can teach us lessons about ourselves, our religious beliefs, and help us keep perspective in our lives.”
“I often tell people that if you take away all of nature, people die.” Powers explains, “but if you take away all the people, nature thrives. I think that really helps people understand my message.”
-By Tamir Elterman, student at NYU
Meet some of Ranger Eric's Animal Ambassadors...
Photo credits go to the amazingly talented photographer, David Rosenzweig (IG: @davidrphoto)
