“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” -Aldo Leopold
For my placement, I am grateful to join the team at the Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center as an intern. The wildlife center is a non-profit organization in Madison, Wisconsin that takes in around 4,000 wild animals in need each year and fields more than 5,000 calls from the public annually. The center follows the mission of the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, which is “to provide professional care to sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals so ultimately they can be returned to their natural habitat.” Wildlife Rehabilitation is important not only for respecting the lives of individual animals (including their right to humane euthanasia when necessary,) but also for tracking and studying ecological trends and zoological diseases with vast implications for conservation. The center doesn’t receive any funding from the government and relies on donations. They have 6 paid staff members and hundreds of hardworking volunteers!
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail winds over 12,000 miles through the landscapes of Wisconsin. Its route follows the edge of this region’s most recent glaciation. From the Ice Age Trail, hikers can see countless glacial features such as kettles and moraines, as well as the ecosystems and cultures which make up the State.
My summer placement with the Ice Age Trail Alliance focuses
specifically on the work of their Saunters program. Based on a quote from John
Muir; “it is a great art to saunter”, the program seeks to connect youth with the
Ice Age Trail. Through this connection, the Saunters program ensures future
interest in our public lands, educates today’s youth about biology and
environmental conservation, and most importantly empowers the leaders of tomorrow.
My two closest colleagues in this work will be Amy Lord, who heads the Saunters
program, and Abbey Leary, and undergraduate summer intern with the program.
For my summer placement project I will be stationed on an island in Thailand. As part of the Phang Nga province, Koh Yao Yai (shortened to KYY) is located in the southern region of Thailand and only accessible through ferry. I was granted this opportunity through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), specifically the Asia Regional Office (ARO) branch.
Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city! This is the famous Pao de Acucar or “Sugar Loaf”, a symbol of the city.
I am at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
working with the Conservation International –CI Brazil. Here I am assisting CI
team to consolidate and promote a landscape restoration project in the Amazon
rainforest. This project aims to increase global carbon stock, aid local
property owners to regulate their lands according to environmental law, build
ecological corridors, and support biodiversity. The project hasn’t been implemented
yet, but CI has already secured money to start the restorations activities and
there are already 3 companies interested in implementing the program on their
lands. In order to kick off the program, CI lacks studies indicating, at the
property level, specific areas for restoration as well information of costs and
benefits of restoring these areas.
Bull elephant, approximately 45 years old, calmly watches me while browsing. Four other males were next to him as well but were a little more camera-shy. PC: L. Cleaveland
Who Am I Working With?
For my placement, I am working in Gaborone, Botswana with the Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS), the country’s oldest nonprofit conservation organization. My advisor Nathan Schulfer and Program Coordinator Meghan Kautzer, approached me with the idea of collaborating with KCS as the Nelson Institute had begun a relationship with the nonprofit, Botswana’s former President, and the Minister of the Environment when Schulfer attended the Giants Club Summit, a conference centered around elephant conservation and necessary actions needed to reduce the ivory trade.
Clean Lakes Alliance (CLA) was founded in 2010 and their goal is “to raise community awareness of the issues facing the watershed, advocate for the welfare of our lakes, and help procure the necessary funding to clean and protect these waterways.” According to the annual report, phosphorus input greatly impacts the water quality in the lakes of Madison because it triggers algae bloom events. CLA relies on donors and partnerships to address this issue and community outreach is an essential component of their programs in order to get people to care about the lakes, raise money, and benefit from the work of volunteers.
My summer leadership placement will be spent at the Region 1 offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), based out of Portland, Oregon. During the Obama administration, a new division of the FWS was created called Science Applications. Their main role is to integrate climate change science into the regular tasks of the FWS, including thinking about large-scale habitat connectivity. To achieve this, funds were dedicated to the creation of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) across the country, managed by Science Apps employees. This is how the Pacific Northwest Coast Landscape Conservation Design Initiative was established. My supervisor, Tom Miewald, has been thinking about large-scale connectivity since the LCC’s creation, even when funding for all LCCs was cut in 2016. Continue reading C3: Communicating Coastal Connectivity→
I’ve never seen such respect for an unwritten rule as that for standing on the right and walking on the left of an escalator in D.C. I quickly learned this norm taking the blue-line metro from the land of black suburbans to Crystal City on the first day of my internship with Conservation International (CI). On top of the vast array of free coffee, a meditation room, and free-for-all desk selection each day because so many people are traveling the world, CI is doing truly great work to ensure the resilience of our planet.
For my project placement, I will be working at The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Portland, Oregon office, where I will help develop a strategy for implementing Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) in Oregon. NCS focus on developing partnerships between governing agencies, landowners, business and other stakeholders to increase the carbon sequestration potential of land. This can take many forms: better forestry and agricultural practices, tree plantings on marginal land, improved wetland management and better fire management and prevention, to name a few. I will be assisting with stakeholder research, policy research and a literature review of the efficacy of past NCS incentive programs in support of the project team. I may also assist in an effort to develop pro-NCS messaging in support the Natural & Working Lands Challenge, a project of the U.S. Climate Alliance focused on developing carbon sinks on natural and working lands.
The Nelson Institute: Environmental Conservation Leadership Projects 