A Bit About Myself

 Before I dive straight into conservation technology, I wanted to post a bit about myself and how I came to be interested in this work.

Shrub-steppe habitat, Eastern Washington. Image Credit: Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/51023828102/

My love for nature started at about 6 years old when I joined the Tiger Cubs. My dad was an avid backpacker in his heyday, spending weeks at a time alone in the shadows of Mt. Denali. So when the opportunity came to get me started in Scouting, we both jumped at it. I stayed active in Scouts and Venture Crew until I was too old, and have had some amazing adventures, including an Alaskan hike of my own over Chilkoot Pass. I grew up in Western Washington, which simultaneously provided stunning natural beauty along with copious amounts of rain. This ensures you savor every second of sunshine you come across. After moving to Eastern Washington, and finding out they enjoy an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, I never looked back. In addition to the solar perks, there is a rugged beauty to the shrub-steppe hills and valleys here which is unique and vibrant. With the most dominant feature, sagebrush, standing two to three feet tall, it's easy to overlook the diversity hidden in the vast seemingly empty spaces.

During my time in college, I majored in Anthropology and minored in Environmental Science, and knew that environmental and conservation work was something I wanted to do for life. After graduating, I joined the Peace Corps as an EAFS (Environmental Action & Food Security) Volunteer, and was sent to Togo, a small West African country between Ghana and Benin. It was there where I truly experienced the importance of bold, data-driven solutions to conservation issues. Togo is a relatively small country, and as with many places in the world, land disputes and development pose a significant threat to the wild places in the region. My work in-village focused mainly on reforestation, tree nurseries, and nutritional assistance especially for infants. Many of the people I worked with, and later became friends with, had been doing this work for decades. One man, Djama, would literally point at trees as we drove down the road and say "We planted that tree 20 years ago! Ah and that one just 10 years ago." No one paid them for this work.

A photo of myself in Togo, West Africa (June 2017)

After coming back to the U.S., I got a job with an analytical lab which mainly works with drinking water and waste water analyses, as well as food safety work. We do a lot of assorted microbiological and chemical testing for both the public and private sector. I get to play around in the field, and work with environmental permits helping to keep our waters, food, and lands clean. I also get exposed to some pretty cool technology. Yakima is an agricultural hotbed, so I've been inside just about any kind of food processing plant you can imagine (so many fruit packers...) Some facilities are brand new and look like the inside of the International Space Station, and some look like they were (and very well could be) built 100 years ago. I can see 60 years of technological improvement across the street from each other. Which really got me thinking...

Then I read this amazing book, recommended by an amazing friend (Thanks Will!). The book is Thank You for Being Late, by Thomas L. Friedman, and it had me thinking about big tech and where the future is taking us in a whole new way. While I have been a science-fiction fan since my dad took me to see the re-release of Star Wars in 1997, it's always been difficult for me to imagine technology in a positive, flying-cars-will-save-us kind of way. I probably read way too much Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. growing up. So it goes. Anyway, Friedman's book showed me the other side. Yes, big tech is sucking up more of our data than we have hairs on our head, yes police literally have robodogs already on patrol, but it doesn't have to all be one giant episode of Black Mirror.

Through this blog, I hope to shine light on areas where technological developments and innovations can be used to repair our relationship with nature and, hopefully, with each other. I believe there is incredible potential to better both human and natural life in the power technology can make available to us. I also believe that there is likely little chance of us making it out of the current ecological crisis without it. The future is calling, and it demands a bold answer.