Summer in the Yucatan: What I’m Doing and Why I’m Doing it.

-Houston International Airport

            At this time last year I was at a research internship in Alaska where I worked on a statistical analysis of juvenile salmon growth and wrangled migrating juvenile and adult salmon out of a creek for a larger study on the side. It was truly a fantastic summer.

            This year I decided I needed to try something completely different.

            I am currently on my way to Mérida, located in the Yucatán Peninsula of México, to spend two months taking Yucatán kids on hikes and teaching them about birds with a local non-profit called Niños y Crías (Kids and Critters). While my research internship last summer represented my childhood dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist, my plans this summer represent the massive re-thinking I’ve done this year about what my goals really are and how to achieve them.

            Being a wildlife biologist is a lot of fun. You get to travel to awesome places, spend lots of time outdoors, and learn cool and importing things about animals. But I’ve realized that it doesn’t fulfill the large conservation and humanitarian concerns that are what really drive me. Research and “pure science” alone do not satisfy me at the moment; I am interested in applied actions (which rely on research) to advance conservation on a global scale. I’ve come to learn that this is an extremely difficult goal because of how complicated the world is. No scientific study, research organization, or NGO will be able to solve all the problems facing conservation. I’ve thought about this a lot, and one of the only courses of action I can think of that can still make a global and significant impact is education of children.

            If you sit down and analyze as many conservation problems as possible, you will come up with many complex and interconnected factors causing each problem. But if you go a level deeper, you will realize that at the root of every problem is some lack of understanding, appreciation, and/or respect for the natural world. Whether it’s a farmer who does not care about biodiversity on his land or a corporate tycoon who values nothing but financial profit, this issue affects countless people. I don’t mean to say that appreciation of nature is the only cause of all conservation problems, but I believe that it lies at the root of nearly all.

Not only can an early connection to nature make a life-changing difference for one person, it can create a ripple effect that affects many. By helping kids discover nature, they too may go on to spread this care to others. For these reasons, I want to experience firsthand the impact environmental education can have on kids. My goal this summer is to share my enthusiasm and knowledge of nature with kids I meet by taking them on trips with Niños y Crías and helping them become inspired by nature.

            Ok, that’s probably the most serious I’ll be for the rest of my blog posts. Soon I’ll be writing about the places I go, the people I meet, the wildlife we find, and the meaningful experiences we have. Oh and don’t forget, I’ll be posting awesome photos and videos of the people and wildlife.

            Next stop: The coastal village of El Cuyo with it’s flamingos, young birders, and flamingo research team! ¡Hasta pronto!

*Check out Niños y Crías's website here! http://www.ninosycrias.org.mx/eng_index.php

-E.B.