A naturalist by training and a teacher by both training and inclination, Catharine Tucker received her Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University and her Master's from the University of Michigan, both in botany.

She has led field trips, taught classes and addressed civic groups on topics as varied as “Natural History for Moms and Tots”, “Wildflowers of a Trout Stream” and “Virginia's Native Shrubs” for organizations as varied as county recreation departments and the Maymont Flower and Garden Show. Her own photographs of wildflowers and their habitats illustrate her presentations.

She maintains her status as a field botanist listed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as qualified to search for endangered plant species. As long-time activist in conservation, she has served on state-level committees such as the Tier Three Waters Citizens group convened by the Department of Environmental Quality and has the distinction of being appointed by both Governors Wilder and Allen to the Senate Study Committee on Stormwater Control and Regulation. In 1995, she received the Conservationist of the Year award from the Virginia Wildlife Federation. She served as Virginia Council Chairman of Trout Unlimited from 1993 to1995 and as an elected member of the National Resource Board of Trout Unlimited 1994-2001, one of two women on the 40-member Board. Most recently, from 1995 to1999, she served as a member of the Administrative Board of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Catharine has been an accomplished fly angler for more than thirty years with a special interest in teaching women and young people, using this skill as a vehicle for outdoor education. She has served as a fly fishing instructor in the “Becoming an Outdoors Woman” program sponsored by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. She has participated as an instructor foe a number of years at the Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp in Pennsylvania and at the new Rivercourse Camp in North Carolina and has conducted three classes at these camps: “Streamside Etiquette and Ethics”, “Reading Water,” and a survey of riparian woody vegetation entitled “What's That Bush My Backcast's In?”