The climb to the platform was one of the scariest things she ever did. It was at the top of a huge granddaddy pine that leaned way out across the bend in the San Jacinto River. The summer sun was blazing, platform burning her feet, and friends encouraging her to jump. A gentle breeze stirred her hair. Cicada’s echoed in the trees, her heart was pounding. She jumped…right into love with the wilds of Texas.
Amanda was born in Houston, and was raised just north in Montgomery county. She got her daring from her mother, Garlene, and her love of nature from her father, Wendel. Born in 1976, she spent a great deal of the 80’s chasing adventures with her father and two siblings into caverns, wild beautiful scenic rivers, down historical railroads, into forests of Indians and many museums across Texas. In the 90’s she spent time with her mother birthing piglets, raising livestock and learning to process it. She rode horses, went to rodeos, campouts, and county fairs with her friends. The most influential people were her grandparents, Quie & Margie Golden, from whom she learned gardening, hard work, canning, cooking, & sewing.
Jumping into the river that day, Amanda never imagined that years into the future she would be teaching conservation education. Always having been close to nature, She and her 3 children always watched nature programs. The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, was a nightly event at her home. His death sent the family into mourning, as with many others around the world. A man they had never met. With his death, Amanda’s activism “light switch” had flipped. She began by signing petitions online. It wasn’t enough. Then it grew into community clean-ups, engaging the youth, organizing public events, and blossomed into more. Over the last few years she has been employed by The Woods Project, a non-profit organization, teaching inner city youth the joy of outdoor education. She teaches programs like Project Learning Tree, PLT Greenschools, The Leopold Project, and TPWD Angler Instruction. She has collaborated with the US & Texas Forest Services, TPWD, & SFA in educating the general public in conservation education. She has lobbied alongside Rainforest Action Network and Sierra club for conservation rights. Helping to maintain hiking trails in national forests, Amanda fell in love with being a naturalist. For her, identifying a new plant or tree is like an introduction to a fascinating new individual. Her joy of the land ran over into her green thumb and in 2009 she earned a Permaculture Designers certification. Her earth-care principles are now flowing into the property she resides upon.
At this time, Amanda is living in a cabin set back into the piney woods of Davy Crockett National Forest. She plans to implement permaculture on the 11.5 acres she resides on with her youngest child, Trisdon. She has two granddaughters and a hound dog she enjoys watching play in the well water spicket near her home. She is currently working as a beekeeper and looking for a teaching position. Amanda’s goals for the next year include writing often, improving the soil in her garden, and finish the farm business plan. In the heat of the summer, she’ll load the truck, head off down some old dirt road until it runs into a winding river bottom and there, she’ll chase down new stories.