Anonymous

VISTA Volunteer - AmeriCorps

July 23, 2009

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

Trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2003.

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

No, I just liked being outside and we lived in a small neighborhood outside of town, good-sized yard, gravel road with a lake nearby. We traveled by car in the summer often to historic or national park type places. Gave me the opportunity to see a lot of the "outside". Now....I still like just being able to be outside. I lived in Chicago many years and feel the lakefront was a "great outdoors" just as much as the mountains I'm living in now in Colorado.

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

Can't pick favorites. Just too hard. Felines probably come to mind first, but I love visiting aquariums and a few years ago found a love for Komodo dragons. Amazing creatures. I frankly get fascinated by most animals.

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?

Educating the public now and in the future. While it seems the public is more educated and environmentally aware I think about people like my sister-in-law who just doesn't care, despite having kids who will inherit the earth after us. The other problem with public education is the fact that we seem to jump on the bandwagon of solutions without thinking about the sustainability of them. I think of ethanol, where people may think that is helping our oil issue but the transfer of land use to grow more corn has a whole new set of problems. I don't think we think through the solutions very well and people don't seem to question that.

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

Think about the big picture, cause and effect, the connection between everything.