Barbara Sallee

Retired DoDDS overseas teacher

Today's Date: July, 27, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

In 1983 I participated in Earthwatch in Kalimantan, Indonesia to help with the orangutan project. Contact with these amazing apes and the fragility of the rainforest, changed me forever. A few years before that, I entered the world of birding and that experience has also changed my life. It's a tie!

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I loved the fields and woods around my home in Annandale, VA. It is all suburban development now. My family also spent a lot of weekends camping in Westmoreland State Park, VA.

Now? I have so many places around the world that I love, but the Goksu Delta in southern Turkey is a very special place where I have spent a lot of time watching the wildlife and the battle to keep it natural.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I cannot pick one animal as I respect and find fascinating all life. I look more at the incredible adaptations of each species as well as the ecosystems and how all living things work together. From childhood I have been especially interested in reptiles and my experience in Borneo has given me a personal relationship with non-human primates.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

I find increasing destruction of habitats around the world very alarming. Our challenge as humans is to see ourselves as animals and part of nature and not the rulers of the earth. All of our efforts need consider how we impact on a healthy planet.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Everyone should be an "environmentalist" and work to conserve our resources as well as reverse the destruction that we are now doing to the earth. Think like a Native American and respect our natural world.