Caryn Corriere

Facilitator of Learning - Tifft Nature Preserve/Buffalo Museum of Science

Today’s Date: April 25, 2008

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

I can't pick just one, but I think just regularly being out in nature made a big difference. Lots of my memories of when I was younger involve being outside. I remember hiking at night in the Bankhead National Forest with my grandparents looking for "glowworms"(firefly larva) in a cave my grandfather discovered while camping one night.

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

I got to hang out a lot at Indiana Dune National Lakeshore and other spots along southern Lake Michigan and love those dunes. After moving around more as an adult, I really treasure those places, because I know that they are special places that not all kids get to grow up near and enjoy.

Now? I don't have a favorite, but it's pretty great that I get to work at a nature preserve 3 days a week. Anywhere near water is good for me, and I'm lucky to have Niagara Falls and Lakes Erie and Ontario really close to me now.

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

I have two favorites- sea turtles and dragonflies.

When I was in college, I had to watch a movie for my oceanography class and chose sea turtles as my subject. I fell in love with the babies waddling out on the sand to their first swim in the water. I was lucky enough to see adults when I visited Hawaii.

Dragonflies are a new fascination and I can't explain why. I just get so excited to see them flying around and I’m learning a lot about them.

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 think the biggest challenge both now and in the future is the disconnect that humans have with the earth and how the basic things we need to survive are all natural and we so take them for granted. We need to reconnect and raise ecological literacy. How to do that I think is a huge challenge we need to tackle.

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

Learn about it, realize we are completely connected to it and even if you don't love it, learn to appreciate it and share that with those younger generations. You and they can't love what you/they don't know about.