Refuge Notebook
Peninsula Clarion Article
Dated
11 August 2000
Outside the Box
by Natalie Dawson
As a child in overalls with a layer of mud, I never thought much about future
experiences in Alaska. I loved nature because I hunted, fished, caught insects
and trapped rabbits with buckets and string. Years of experience brought more
questions than answers about the natural world, so I began to pursue a career
in biology. Growing up in the Midwest, I longed for mountains, large animals and
more snow than Michigan could provide. After my first trip out West I knew that
the place I would call home would change dramatically as I grew up.
In
college I soon learned that it is important to think “outside of the box,”
i.e., to look beyond conventional wisdom and try to see the big picture. Alaska
is definitely outside of the box! After years of dreaming, applying, reading and
more applying, I found my way to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, where I am
working for the summer in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program called the
Career Awareness Institute. This program started with two weeks at the National
Conservation Training Center in West Virginia, where I learned about different
programs in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Department of the
Interior as a whole. I honed some of my field skills and then set out for Alaska
for the summer.
Working with the Kenai Refuge biologists, I have learned
how to capture wolves and lynx to monitor them with radio collars. I have seen
both brown bear and black bears, and have learned how to distinguish moose browsed
twigs from twigs browsed by snowshoe hares. I accompanied the Ecology team to
an archeological site to take core samples from trees for aging, and I have learned
how to operate a grid of snowshoe hare live traps. Working with lynx and snowshoe
hares has been especially interesting; smells of cat scent and alfalfa cubes were
at one time foreign to me, and I now miss them when they are absent from my daily
routine.
Seven weeks of field experience is not nearly enough time to come
to conclusions about a future with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, so I hope
to work with them again. Nor is seven weeks in Alaska time enough to catch more
than a fleeting glimpse of what the forty-ninth state has to offer. After my term
at the Kenai Refuge I will work in Denali National Park for a week on a backcountry
patrol, hopefully with the biology crew.
My time in Alaska has definitely
reinforced my dream of becoming an ecologist. I have learned about the ecology
of the northern latitudes, experiencing it first hand on backpacking trips above
tree line. Even the tundra, snowfree for such a short amount of time, presents
a delicate yet thriving ecosystem.
As my next adventure I would like to
try a different approach all together, possibly taking an international assignment
so that I can not only work in new ecological territory, but also in new cultural
territory. I am interested in European conservation methods because Europe has
had to confront conservation issues much longer than has the United States. I
don’t know if the Europeans have been able to think “outside the box”
about their environmental problems, but I am eager to learn more about their approach.
I would strongly encourage other students, whether in high school or college
to take the opportunity to work outside their familiar environment. Being away
from friends and family is the slight price to pay for an unforgettable experience.
I have not only seen amazing sunsets on the continental divide and swam in lakes
with icebergs floating nearby, I have also met enthusiastic colleagues from all
over the world that have taught me about different cultures and shared their viewpoints
with me. A person can never know too much, and as an idealistic college student
in search of the perfect future, I feel like I can never know enough about that
big world outside my own box.
-------------------------------------
Natalie Dawson is a junior majoring in ecology at Central Michigan University,
who is working this summer at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Information
on the USFWS Career Awareness Institute can be found by calling 907-786-3510.
Previous Refuge Notebook columns are on the Web at http://kenai.fws.gov.
|
