Meet Catie Lang
Catie Lang is passionate about the outdoors. She loves exploring new places, running, and photography—all of which offer her more opportunities to explore the outdoors. She spent her childhood summers on Shelter Island, and already had an understanding of the Group’s work when she joined the team as an environmental associate in 2026. As the summer season comes to end, we asked Catie to reflect on her time with the Group and what she’s looking forward to next…
How did you learn about the Group?
I learned about the Group through my father who grew up coming to Shelter Island and working with Kristina Lange. This connection introduced me to the Group, and after learning about their environmental work on the East End, I had to get involved! I have come out to Shelter Island my entire childhood, so this opportunity to give back to the area and help protect the natural environment is a gift—even more so now that we are hosting programming in the Shelter Island School!
What are some of the most memorable moments from education programs?
The most memorable moments from our Group education programs must be when our students have the chance to hold or interact with live animals! On our Morton Wildlife Preserve field trip, students get to feed songbirds by hand. Anytime a chickadee or tufted titmouse lands on someone’s fingers, you get to witness pure joy and excitement from the entire class. At our beach field trips this same joy is produced when students interact with the tinniest animals, like mud snails or fiddler crabs! Usually, students will sing to the mud snails to get them to move around, and it is by far the best part of any beach field trip.
What are you looking forward to in the next school year?
Coming into my position so far into the school year, I missed out on teaching some of the classroom lessons that we offer. This year I am looking forward to being in these reoccurring classrooms and building a strong foundation of environmental education with these classes. Seeing as we conduct lessons for wildlife migration, adaptations, ground water, classification of local species, and Long Island’s geology, it will be exciting to lead each of these lessons with the same classes, and watch the students learn and grow by the end of the year.
What are some other projects you’ve worked on? Any fun surprises?
I have been lucky enough to join Jen Skilbred in all our classroom and field trip lessons for students! This has included trips to Chatfield’s Hole, the Walking Dunes, Maidstone Park, and various other locations across the East End. Along with this, we have partnered with local schools and organizations such as CAST and Project MOST to host programming and lead nature outings. Outside of our classroom and nature outing programming, a fun project I am helping to create is our East End Explorers Group sticker badges! This is a fun new program initiative we are hoping will bring excitement and energy to our nature outings and encourage participation in our young attendees!
What do you enjoy most about being outdoors?
I most enjoy the unknowns and unpredictability of the outdoors. Nature is constantly doing its own thing. Plants are growing, the weather is changing, and animals are moving all the time, which makes every moment in nature its own unique experience. This is a beautiful thing that allows for no two nature outings to ever be the same! You never know when you will run into a turkey on a trail or get to see an interesting gall in a tree. When you are outdoors you constantly get to have new experiences and see or learn new things—you just have to look around and notice it all!
