Lowrie Tucker Is Saving the World: One Tree at a Time
Lowrie, E&H Class of 2001, is now president of the company he went to work for nearly 15 years ago. Conservation Services is laser focused on finding environmental solutions in a world that is sometimes far more interested in building and development than taking care of the land we’re building on.
He understands how the environment works, and how it was intended to solve the problems of earth, and his business is all about restoring natural solutions where nature has been uprooted
He spends much of his year planting trees and establishing riparian buffers around waterways. He jokes that he really only works hard for about 16 weeks of the year; but the rest of the year is spent getting ready for all the projects that have to happen within a relatively small window. Because they spend much of their time planting trees, he and his team have to do their work at the right time in order to be successful.
He is feeling encouraged about the environment because he is busy! When development happens, Lowrie gets called to do the kind of work that will help to offset a new building and a newly paved parking lot. He admits that it’s not a perfect trade-off, but he is encouraged by the improvement he is seeing in reports from watersheds like the Chesapeake Bay – he says that’s proof that we’re doing better by the waterways that run through Virginia. “Virginia leads the way – and has high standards for environmental impact and improvements. We’re doing the right thing, and we’re fighting the good fight.”
- Lowrie Tucker, E&H Class of 2001