10/14/2026
Conference 2026 Presenter Focus: Jessica Kagle
To register for the conference, please visit our website and click register now!
https://northeastwildlifetrackers.org/conference/
Jessica is the Founder and Director of Kestrel Educational Adventures, a unique environmental education non profit formed in 2003. Kestrel works to connect schools with public lands surrounding them, guiding approximately 2,000 Pre K-8th grade students annually in doing original research in the natural world. Jessica’s uses a constructivist approach to teaching, inviting students to use their own experiences and observations to generate understanding of how natural systems work. Jessica can often be found bicycling around New England or standing out in the rain listening to frogs and watching salamanders.
Predators, including hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats, and fishers, are essential to every healthy ecosystem, yet so much fear surrounds them. Learn Kestrel’s approach, which involves students in collecting field data using tracking and trail cameras to glimpse how predators use the spaces near their schools. Through these methods, they develop understanding of how predators are connected to the whole ecosystem, from specific types of plants that feed prey, to the prey they keep in check. Field data is incorporated into videos, maps, and other projects shared with the community to promote awareness and conservation.
