conservation tagged posts

A Life Among the Silver Backed Males

I work in a pretty male-dominated field. I remember 20 years ago when I was interning for a wildlife conservation organization, my supervisor described our colleagues as “silver backed males,” a fairly apt description for the typically gray-haired men leading most of the conservation movement at the time. At the first conferences I attended, I was often struck by how skewed the gender demographics were in traditional wildlife management.

Jodi Stemler

I felt I had another strike against me as I was trying to shoulder my way in to the profession, because I grew up in the most densely populated state in the country. New Jersey – little bitty state, lots and lots (and lots) of people...

The Tale of “the Sisters McGregor”

Merrill and Christie McGregor on Phantom Canyon

We’ve often been referred to as “the Sisters McGregor”. We work in the same professional field, share the same friends and are both avid outdoorswomen. Although we’re 10 years apart, we both have distinct memories of fishing off our grandparents dock in Charleston, camping with our parents and siblings in KY and WI, or hiking with friends across the southeast. 

We’re also pretty inseparable – living together off and on for over 10 years –or at least we were until Christie, the older/wiser one, decided to up and move from South Carolina to Washington DC for a new job (note: the younger sister, Merrill,  is NOT bitter and is DEFINITELY not harboring any resentment against her older sister who left ...

Connie Parker

I step into the cold water of the Gallatin. I search for the rock shadows where they live.  I cast awkwardly as fly fishing is a long way from my dad’s boat, a spinner, a chub and hours on the water. I plant my feet solidly on the slippery rocks and cast again.  This time my mind drifts to the lakes of Kansas, to endless hours of catching one fish after another and remembrance of the seven year old girl handing the pole (not even a rod) to her father and saying, “Here, you take a turn; I am tired!”  The roar of my father’s laughter who had caught nothing still rings in my head.

Suddenly, my line goes straight. I go from Kansas back to Montana in an instant. The cut throat and I play for a while and then I marvel at his beauty and his magical ways of taking me home once again!