Life as a Conservationist

One thing that I have learned about careers in conservation with smaller park systems is that for many people, what they studied in school and got hired to do is not what they end up working in. Careers are much more focused around having a broad range of skills, and doing whatever your employer needs done or has funding for. For example, Brett, one of the employees of Lake Metroparks we were working with two weeks ago, went to school for and was partially hired to monitor bird and animal populations and diversity, but now most of his job involves planting, building and maintenance of the ponds. The people we were working with at Holden Arboretum could identify nearly every plant we saw, knew bird calls, geology, and a lot about maintaining a forest in general, and their status as "conservation crew" meant that they could be doing anything from pulling garlic mustard to delineating wetlands to petitioning the association to limit and close horse trails. Regardless of what they were doing, everyone we met on the job was there because they were passionate about preserving natural areas, allowing for plant and animal biodiversity, and providing areas for recreation and learning to everyone. As Amy, another person that we shadowed at Lake Metroparks, told us, it doesn't matter what you study, as long as you're learning something you find interesting and proving that you have the persistence to learn it, and it doesn't matter what you spend your life doing, as long as the same things apply.