Jennifer Surdam

Private Citizen

July 23, 3009

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

I'm not sure that any ONE interaction with any one particular animal or with nature itself has had the biggest impact on me. I literally was "raised in a barn." So, I was around nature all the time. I've always been the one to try to rescue even the worse-case of animal possible. I love them all, and they have gotten me closer with nature. I love looking outside my window and seeing trees, grass, pasture, horses, cats, dogs, etc. And I've been fascinated with it since childhood. I love animals and nature in general.

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

As a child, the barn. Now, there's a creek area nearby that I love to climb the hills and the creeks. It's special for a number of reasons, and it's part of what got me back into being on the nature path.

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

I think probably as a whole, the large cats, the undomesticated, and probably the wolves. I see such a connection between them and the domesticated cats and dogs, but yet such a difference, too. It's very fascinating to me how they are so close yet so different. However, I do believe they belong out in nature, and not domesticated--while beautiful in their own right, they belong where they belong, and it's not living beside us in a home where they can't be what they were meant to be.

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?

Now, I think it's really just pollution and the problems we as humans have created. I don't believe in "global warming." I think that's a great political game being played, but the real challenge is just a global problem with pollution--warming doesn't say anything about the problem. It's pollution, it's landfills that are full, it's ignorant people not recycling. There are so many things we can do if we stop worrying about politics and start looking at the REAL issue. I think going through landfills is a great start--what can we start recycling now? In the future, IDK, because I'm really concerned about how long in the future we'll have based on how badly we've tried to destroy what we have now. I really think that doing our best to deal with what we have now might make our greatest challenge in the future overpopulation of once-endangered species--but not if we don't take ahold of the problem NOW, as in yesterday!

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

Use your head. What is that, you ask? It's that thing stuck between your legs and up your A$$. Yeah, that thing. Try it every now and again. You just might find some good ideas. Seriously, though, I think that we need to recycle as much as possible, but that means that recycling needs to be easier for everyone. In my area it's a real pain to recycle, so very few people bother to do it. If you want something to be done, you have to encourage it to the point where it can become a great habit. Recycling and composting are the two easiest things to do, when made so. But it has to be cooperative with the city dump, so people aren't searching for hours trying to find a close place to do it, yet driving an hour to get there. And buy a hybrid vehicle your next time. It does and WILL save a ton of money in the end--I have one, and I want another! :)