Tanner Sutkowski

I am writing in support of Tanner Sutkowski. Tanner has been a volunteer at the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center for the past two years. As the Director of the center, I have worked with him extensively. I have always been impressed with his maturity and dedication to the center. He performs all the duties asked of him in an exemplary way. These include such things as assisting the public with canoe rentals, answering questions about the marsh and any other project that needs to be done.
He also is not afraid to help with the less glamorous jobs. If the job needs to be done, Tanner is always there to help and he gets the job done.This year Tanner is also helping out with Audubon camp at our Falmouth location. By the end of this season, he will have accumulated approximately 120 hours of volunteer service to the center. The most impressive project that he has undertaken for the center, was his Eagle Scout project. As part of our educational outreach we provide programs for thousands of schoolchildren, special groups, and the general public. Getting these people out into the salt marsh has always been a problem.
We have not been allowed to construct a permanent boardwalk system due to the sensitive nature of this unique habitat.So we have tried to put a makeshift boardwalk out for people to use when viewing the marsh. This boardwalk was uneven, wobbly and because it was not connected to anything, could float away at extreme high tide or storms. This problem was presented to Tanner and he took on the job of trying to figure out how to make a better system for viewing the marsh while providing a more stable walking area and one that would not float away. The end result was an over 300 foot system of boardwalk. The sections are cabled together and periodically anchored in the ground by stakes.Tanner worked all last fall and winter making these boardwalks to be installed in the spring.

It was fitting that the culminating day should fall on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Not only, did all the members of his scout troop, their parents and community members come to finish the project, but we had a group from the Coast Guard also come to help complete the project. Making and designing this new boardwalk system, was a huge undertaking and Tanner did an excellent job, one that has been noticed by all visitors coming to the marsh.Many returning teachers and visitors have commented on how impressed they were ith the new boardwalk system. Just recently, we were approached by a group, picture posts to have a post at our center. These posts are put in the ground facing true north and then pictures are taken in 8 directions (N,NW,W, etc) and posted on the web. I knew who to ask to do this project.
Tanner jumped at the chance to set this up on our nature center and also set it up for us on the internet (http://picturepost. unh. edu/post. jsp? postId=115). I have worked with many young people over the past 25 years at the nature center. Tanner stands out from the others and is a valuable member of our nature center team.