The goals of our group--a coalition--are to conserve, connect and provide equitable access to our city’s natural areas. Burlington is in a fantastic physical location, bounded by Lake Champlain to the west and the Winooski River to the north and east. Because of the city’s extensive, undevelopable floodplain, and a few other key parcels of land, Burlington is 50% open space and 25% of that space is in a natural state, either woodlands or wetlands. These natural areas have few signs to help visitors find their way, and many haphazard and unconnected trails. If you find your way into a natural area, it can be hard to find your way back out. Additionally, most city residents don’t know about many of these natural places. Our coalition thinks of them as hidden gems. A group of residents starting talking about what the root causes of this situation were and started dreaming about how to fix that problem. We also recognized that this was an open space justice issue, and because people of means can hop in a car and head out for a nice hike in the nearby mountains, there was little pressure to solve the issue in the city.  Burlington is a refugee resettlement city and is economically and ethnically diverse. We believe deeply in the value of conserving our unique habitats. We are home to globally unique species, large mammals such as bobcats, acres of floodplain forest, and we believe deeply that everyone, regardless of ethnicity or economic background,  should get to share in the magic and respite of these ecological wonders and we are committed to making that happen.