We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan Lotz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.

Megan, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Being an educator not only means you are getting to help others learn something new, but that you are also constantly learning new things. While I studied wildlife biology and ecology and other related topics, and spent a lot of time hiking, camping, kayaking, and just spending time in nature in general, it was more learning how to engage with incredibly diverse audiences as someone who always considered herself to be not a people person. Being thrown into a situation where I had to lead a group of 3rd graders on an ecology hike showed me that I love teaching people about the importance of nature and managing our incredible natural resources.

Megan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Yeah, so, my name is Megan, and I am… I guess you could say-creator-of Nature Immersion. It is still very much a work in progress, but it started as an Instagram page where I could share cool, fun, weird, interesting-you name it- things about nature with people at a time when I wasn’t able to do it in person. I had spend nearly seven years leading all kinds of different nature programs at the Eddy Discovery Center in the Waterloo Recreation Area, and then when COVID hit, I missed getting to lead all of the programs I used to lead. So, I started Nature Immersion. It was designed to give people a place where they could learn something about nature that might inspire them to get outdoor; to inspire a new appreciation for the amazing natural world around us.

Once COVID settled, I started developing public classes with the goal of giving people an easy place to start their adventures in nature. I’ve helped people discovery a love for nature journaling, inspired people to try backpacking, and looked into why people should switch to native landscaping and the importance of planting native. in 2021 and 2022, I started looking into developing programs and curricula that could be taken into the schools to help give kids a field trip experience without having to travel to an outside location, alleviating some of the expenses of a field trip.

I am most proud of anyone who has ever attended anything I have taught; whether during my time at the Discovery Center, or from attending one of my Nature Immersion lessons. I hope they have even a slightly new appreciation for nature, it’s value, why it’s important to us, and why it is worth protecting.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being a natural educator is getting to see the way people’s eyes light up when they learn something new about nature; when they get to experience something they’ve never experienced before. Whether it is learning something new about the natural world or getting to hold a millipede, snake, or frog for the first time, I love getting to share in people’s excitement for nature.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is to create a deeper appreciation for our natural world by giving people an easy avenue to explore nature. Nature is incredibly beneficial to our health and wellbeing. And the rate at which we are losing natural spaces and wildlife is astounding. I want people to understand why nature is important by creating opportunities to experience nature, without having to “do something extreme” like, I don’t know, backcountry camping or whatever else holds people back from getting into nature. I want people to realize that nature is not just the nature “out there”, but that it is also the nature in our own backyards, and how making a change to help nature can be something as simple as planting native flowers, trees, or shrubs in our landscaping.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @nature.immersion
• Facebook: @getimmersed
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Megan Lotz