Origins

Nick Stoughton

Owner / Operator

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As a young person I grew up in lower Dutchess County with family and community that instilled values and principles around integrity, equity, ecology, operational sensibility, and the value of hard work. I was fortunate to have camping and wandering in the woods as regular life occurrences. I worked for a traditional tree crew and landscaping company and learned some basics. Aside from equipment operation, it was mostly hard work, non-verbal communication, and how to not get eaten by the chipper. Treework sure, treecare.. not so much.. still, great people, worthwhile experience, and a good foundation to build from.

 

Working through my schooling, I completed a B.S. in Business at SUNY New Paltz School of Business and a minor in Disaster Studies through the Institute for Disaster Mental Health (IDMH). Post-graduation, I continued on my path and joined AmeriCorps with SBP after Hurricane Sandy wrecked the shoreline of the NorthEast.  We were the founding team of this affiliate and I was to lead volunteers as a site supervisor managing post-disaster restoration of small residential homes in Monmouth and Ocean County, NJ.  We successfully returned several families to restored homes and engaged hundreds of volunteers through the 10 month AmeriCorps term. This helped me hone my residential construction skills, level up my volunteer engagement and cultivate my project management skills. The St. Bernard Project, later rebranded as SBP, was an organization founded after Hurricane Katrina on the following (paraphrased) principles:

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• Grandma Rule: Treat everyone as if they were your Gramma.

• Constructive Discontent: Even good and great can be better, actively look for improvement areas.

• Problems are Solvable: Self-explanatory. Do the work. Trust the process.

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This ignited a fire. There was the semblance of a model for community resilience that gave real benefits to all stakeholders. It is awesome to turn a storm-battered home back over to displaced families after the ordeal that was Hurricane Sandy. The volunteers get to do good work for someone in need, learn new skills and network while a community heals. Skilled local volunteers come out and jam regularly. Organizations send groups of employees to collaborate and help with the restoration efforts. Those folks and their organization derive tangible benefits like problem solving in new environments and team building as well as shaking up the dynamics of the org structure.. they're all on a collaborative voyage through a novel situation that's measurably helping a displaced family in need. Brilliant stuff. Mutual benefit for sure. SBP went on to write the playbook (literally) for volunteer led post-disaster restoration work. 

 

Doing some networking of my own with volunteers, there was a short stint as a property field claims rep for a large insurance company which was a great learning opportunity but not at all where I should be and thankfully a good friend pointed me towards another AmeriCorps program, PowerCorpsPHL . ​​

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​The folks at PowerCorpsPHL were pioneering Green Infrastructure Workforce Development and at the same time fostering Community Engagement and spearheading Youth Violence Reduction and Prevention. Their goal was to engage the service-learning model to cultivate and connect local skilled talent with employers. PowerCorpsPHL stoked relationships and worked with employment partners in the sectors that were in demand with actual career paths that provide a living wage and opportunity for growth. This was quite successful (unsurprisingly in retrospect) and gained a lot of interest from other service learning programs, workforce development programs, municipalities looking to staff infrastructure needs, and trades industry leaders.

 

As a Site Supervisor, GSI Industry Academy Foreman, Industry Training Manager, and Operational Consultant for our Buffalo Affiliate launch, I was fortunate to be among the frontline staff in a daily operational and educational role. We were helping to cultivate necessary personal, professional, and industry specific skills and reduce personal barriers with PowerCorps members while also transforming community spaces, creating community resilience, and staffing up the municipal and private sector Stormwater Infrastructure workforce needed to maintain area GSI Installations. We made pocket parks and community gardens. We maintained rec centers, planted countless (although we did count.. shout out to data coordinators) native perennial trees, shrubs, grasses, and fostered food forests. We implemented a successful Green Stormwater Industry Academy and maintained the contract for surface maintenance for around 200 stormwater management sites in the City of Philadelphia on a monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis.  PowerCorps has staffed and continues to staff up the Philadelphia Water Department's GSI Maintenance Division.  They continue to spawn partners and affiliates leading the charge in engaging young folks to level up while engaging industry professionals who need cultivated talent.

 

Game changing model.​​​​​

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Life and time are not to be told where they should go. We all have (or will) lose people close to us and its important to take the time immediately and on into the future to grieve and heal. After I lost someone close unexpectedly, I soon returned to the Hudson Valley to heal and be closer to family. RIP G.

 

I started building a small business to cultivate spaces and promote low impact remediation strategies for invasive plant management... manual thorny shrub removal is a great way to work out some grief. The next step in remediation after removal is the planting of natives to build back the ecosystem's balance and the cultivation of beautiful and functional spaces for enjoyment. And that was the start.

 

Currently I operate independently with a community of competent and skilled gardeners, horticulturalists, farmers, landscape designers, and skilled tradespeople who love cool projects and do great work. Be well and if applicable, heal thyself human.