KNOX — One of the latest appointments to Knox’s Conservation Advisory Council is already well-versed in its work.

The town board appointment Marla Briggs, a former CAC member, to the council at its March 13 meeting. However, Briggs hadn’t been the board’s first choice. She was appointed after Patrick Walter, who reportedly was upset that he wasn’t appointed to the planning board instead, heatedly withdrew his name that night.

Briggs joins a slew of new appointments to the planning and zoning boards and the CAC.

Briggs had served on the CAC in the 1990s. It was then that she studied the town’s wetlands with the late Daniel Driscoll, who headed the initiative for Knox’s first comprehensive plan and was involved in numerous regional and local planning and preservation initiatives.

Briggs and her husband moved to Knox 25 years ago.

“We love our community,” she said, describing how she enjoys her neighbors, the nearby farms, and the surrounding nature. She said she applied to serve on the CAC again because she wants to give back to Knox. (See related letter to the editor.)

Briggs received her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and forestry from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as well as a master’s degree in environmental studies from Bard College.

Briggs worked for years as an environmental planner and a wetland specialist for firms both in the Albany and Poughkeepsie areas. She went on to work for Audubon International as a senior ecologist and educator, where she helped make places like golf courses into viable habitats. She said that there are large amounts of space not typically used on courses that can become just that.

Briggs then worked for the Cornell Cooperative Extension and worked with its Master Gardener Program. She would take the master gardeners on hikes at Limestone Rise Preserve off of Route 146 in Knox and also on salamander walks in nearby wetlands.

Briggs now does contract work for Audubon International as well as the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, including working with herpertologist Al Breisch and continuing her work on the threatened Blanding’s turtle, which she studied as part of her master’s thesis.

Briggs is currently homeschooling her children — her oldest child is in college — and brings them with her on hikes. She also goes on her own and tracks the wildlife she observes, she said.

“I just continued to study the environment, just from a passion point of view,” she said.