Lindsey Duval

http://themigrationstation.blogspot.com

July 23, 2009

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

Last summer (2008) I interned with Audubon Pennsylvania. Part of my duties was to put up mist nests and band birds, and also to partake in IBA point counts. The incredibly close contact of these birds completely changed the way I viewed them, and got me completely interested in becoming a birder.

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

I spent part of my childhood on the now closed (and bulldozed) Loring Air Force Base in Loring, Maine. There used to be a wooded area near a playground on base housing that had trails and an abundance of blueberries. While it's sad to lose a childhood home, I've been more than happy to find out that natural area likely still exists as a nature preserve.

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

The turkey vulture. I like that it is a sort of 'underdog' of birds, not loved by very many, and seen as ugly and gross due to it's featherless head and diet of dead animals. Their size alone impresses me, and the fact that they are one of nature's great recyclers fascinates me. I've also been in close contact with them and they really come across as shy, retiring, and fragile birds. People have some misconceptions about how they might attack their dogs or are vicious, but they really are harmless.

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 greatest challenge is to figure out many new ways of living that increase recycling of resources, using "new" resources that have less negative impact on the environment and are not as likely to dry up within decades or centuries, and having cleaner energy. There are, of course, much larger issues at stake, but I think the ones that everyone, including those with little interest in the environment, can take part in are vital.

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

To remember that the environment (nature) is essentially everyone's home. I think people easily forget this, living inside their boxes, they feel sheltered from the outside. But really, a house is simply a temporary shelter inside of a much larger house - the Earth. People forgetting this simple fact shows up on the horrified faces of people who lose their homes to forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. It is not a matter of building a bigger or stronger shelter, it's a matter of realizing that you always have that other "home," the environment, and finding ways to replenish it and work WITH it rather than against it.