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BRAEA.org was started by Wayne and Brittany Newberry and their neighbor Liz Nicholas.  All of us are committed to the environment and making our little part of the world a better place.  We both have ponds and are fortunate enough to enjoy the flow of a natural spring creek on our properties that feed the ponds.  Our ponds host a wide variety of wildlife such as fish, frogs, toads, slider turtles, snapping turtles, blue herons, kingfishers, hooded merganser and wood ducks, Canada geese and a host of song birds.  We love enjoying all of this wonderful wildlife!
 
We experienced a situation in our ponds that was causing our fish to die.  We started navigating the system through the public health department, the Environmental Protection Division, the UGA extension office and others and realized that we really have no environmental organization here in Blue Ridge.  We wanted to create a place for people to communicate about things going on in their areas, a place to learn about local environmental issues and a coalition of people interested in monitoring local legislation, water issues and land development issues as they relate to the environment.  So, here we are!
 
We want to have a wide variety of information on the site and promote organic growing, healthy environmental action, recycling and just better sustainability.  We need to take care of this wonderful area we have been given!  We are more than willing to come talk to schools, home owners associations or other groups who would like to learn more about helpful actions they can take to improve our environment.
 
A little about us:
 
We, Wayne and Brittany, are Atlanta natives and moved to Blue Ridge in May of 2008.  We moved here to get away from the "city life".  We got pretty tired of the traffic, the crime and the crowded, constantly busy city.  We came here to enjoy the wonderful outdoor activities that Blue Ridge offers and to seek a more sustainable way of life.  We started a civic club in our neighborhood back in Tucker (complete with website) and found that this addition to our neighborhood really promoted the exchange of information, encouraged us to look out for each other, gave us a place to report on any crime or suspicious activities in the neighborhood and generally improved our relationships with each other.  We wanted to carry that success to the Blue Ridge community.
 
Wayne Newberry retired from the military in 2005.  Since then he and Brittany have been running an online fiber and pottery business at www.knitwitch.com.  Wayne is a potter, graphic artist and handyman and is able to keep the BRAEA and Knit Witch websites up and running!  In addition to those sites - he maintains the sites for both Provino's and Scalini's Italian Restaurants.  He also started another website back in 2005 at www.smallerfootprint.net.  Through Smaller Footprint he and Brittany organized a music event that benefited the Georgia Conservancy.  The Smaller Footprint site was designed to collect environmental sites and information that are relevant to the residents of Georgia.  Wayne served as the webmaster for the Edinburgh Estates civic club in Tucker before moving here to Blue Ridge.
 
Brittany Newberry is a nurse practitioner and holds a Master's degree in both nursing and public health from Emory University in Atlanta.  Brittany's public health degree is in environmental and occupational health.  She worked as a pediatric nurse educator at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta until May of 2008 when she moved here to Blue Ridge.  Brittany has been the president of the graduate council for the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the president of Rollins Environmental Health Action Committee (REHAC), which is the student environmental organization at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and was also involved in the Student Government Association (SGA), Student Outreach and Response Team (SORT) and the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research (CPHPR) at Rollins School of Public Health.  In addition, she also served as the president of the neighborhood civic club in Tucker until moving to Blue Ridge.
 
Liz Nicholas, a Pennsylvania native, moved to Georgia in 1992 for her professional career in telecommunications. Today, along with her artistic interests, she is a licensed small mammal wildlife rehabilitator as well as an educator speaking for the "wild ones". Liz has always been committed to nature, recycling and environmental effects of the human species to this planet most all of her life.  She's served on wildlife committees in an around Atlanta for many years now, and is frequently ask to speak at local clubs and governmental municipalities about wildlife conflict, and peaceful coexistence. She's commuting between both Gwinnett and Fannin County and covers both in her nature endeavors.  She is hoping to move to Blue Ridge permanently in 2009.  Liz has a special interest in educational development for Pre-K thought 12 concerning Georgia native wildlife with a focus on helping the youth of this planet to understand the impacts they have with each and every action. She keeps her hands busy all year round carrying a full time job and tending to orphaned or injured small mammals; (yes she loves squirrels, opossums, groundhogs, chipmunks, turtles and even snakes!).  Her educational presentations cover a wide array of topics, most requested is on migratory birds, specifically vultures, hawks and owls.  She's associated with the AWARE Center (Lithonia GA) center as a rescue transporter, remote rehabber and educator, but has also worked with aquatic mammals and has done ground coordination for whale strandings with the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo Florida.  She has spent a great deal of time exercising her love of animals and the environment with many other animal endeavors, and has help other non-profits raise funds through her colorful animal paintings.