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Judy Storro - Founder
Brilliant turquoise butterflies the size of birds! Beetles with faces! Towering trees, encircled by strangling vines, standing in spongy soil; the complex, yet fragile species interdependence of the rain forest. In 1974, I was privileged to spend time in the Amazonian River Basin, and was changed forever.
Growing up in Northern California, I’d always drawn sustenance from the natural world. As a child, an expedition meant a hike along a backyard stream to commune with giant frogs. Yet the realities of adult expectations steered me in other directions. I briefly entertained a career as a CPA, eventually becoming an elementary school teacher.
During a partnership with Ronn Patterson I was able to broaden my explorations. As part- owner of Dolphin Charters, a natural history travel company based in El Cerrito, we brought passengers and teams of naturalists up Alaska’s Inside Passage. Against a backdrop of translucent glacial walls, we glimpsed the private lives of humpback whales, dolphins, bald eagles and bears. During land excursions, we saw that there, too, were rainforests.
In other travels, I’ve witnessed the wildlife and vegetation of Hawaii, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, the Galapagos Islands, Kenya, Egypt and Ethiopia. Closer to home, there’ve been study trips through the Sierras, to the upper rim of Utah’s Grand Canyon, and more. It came to pass that I had built a body of knowledge around my passions.
But a brush with mortality, when my partner experienced a near-fatal accident, triggered my determination to somehow realize those passions. Life is indeed short: there had to be a way to bring the wild order of the Rain Forest to others, to give them even a sense of it.
As soon as his health was stable, I resigned from teaching. I filled my car with plants from a wholesale nursery, returned to my school district, and announced, “The Plant Van is here!” Orders followed; the seeds of The Rain Forest had been planted. The rest is history.
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The installation was great your people are great!
Mark Kane - Marina GMC | |
