Meet our Guests: Matt Radar

Matt Radar

BLM Wildlands Fire Fighter

Shoshone, CA

11/15/21

Matt Radar, a BLM Wildlands Fire Fighter, joined us in our Shoshone California to camp to tell us about his career in natural resource management and firefighting.  After graduating from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in biology, Matt worked briefly in research labs but quickly discovered that he wanted work outside and in conservation.  He trained to become a timber feller, one of the more hazardous jobs in wildland firefighting and also one of the most challenging.

Earlier in the day we met him briefly at the China Ranch, where he was felling and cutting hazard trees from the recent Willow Fire on the Ranch.  Energetic and upbeat, Matt also generously shared his advice about how to get jobs in natural resource fields:  be persistent, take unpaid internships to get your foot in the door, do good work, and people will notice you.  And sometimes, trust serendipity. 

By Phil Brick

Photo credit: Neave Fleming

Meet our Guests: Kerry Holcomb

Kerry Holcomb

Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mojave Desert, CA

11/12/21

     Deep in the Mojave Desert, giant boulders are playfully stacked atop one another while Joshua trees tilt and dance in the mid-day sun. The scene fits better into a Dr. Seuss novel than a modern-day conservation story.

      Amidst the fantasia, Kerry Holcomb, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), proclaims, “you can’t do conservation if you ignore the human element.”

      After moving from Appalachia to the desert, Kerry turned his focus to the endangered desert tortoise. At one time, desert tortoises were the dominant herbivores on the landscape, sequestering carbon and changing the mosaic of plant communities. But now, Kerry explains, “we have functionally extinct populations [of desert tortoises] in parts of the Mojave.” And he believes ravens are to blame.

     Thanks to the advent of the air conditioner, non-native people started settling in the desert, and raven populations began to multiply rapidly. Ravens are generalists, meaning they can adapt to a wide range of ecological conditions. Ravens adapted well to their new food source at landfills and as their populations soared, they added the desert tortoise to their menu as well.

     Both ravens and tortoises are holy to the Mojave and Chemehuevi people, but Kerry explains, “the Tribes see the dichotomy of the tortoise being higher than the ravens.”

     In a desperate attempt to save the desert tortoise, the USFWS has resorted to oiling, which causes suffocation of raven eggs to diminish their population. But, with new houses popping up in the desert every day, Kerry recognizes that the desert tortoise has a human problem, not a raven problem.

By Josh Matz

Meet our Educators: Kent Woodruff

Kent Woodruff

Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service (retired)

Methow Valley, WA

8/28/21 – 9/2/21

     The mid-afternoon sun glistens from a cloudless sky as Semester in the West arrives at the Methow Valley Interpretive Center. A pair of vibrant blue eyes and a warm, youthful grin greet the group at the entrance to Twisp, Washington. Kent Woodruff, Methow Valley local, will be the Westie programming guide for the next ten days.

     Kent’s professional life has been as rich and complex as the natural landscapes that he works within. While in the Methow, the retired U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist shares three of his most prized regional conservation projects with the program: beaver and wetland restoration with the Methow Beaver Project, raptor conservation on Chelan Ridge with HawkWatch International, and a freelance project to relocate and nurse rare Townsend big-ear bats.

     Despite his myriad of accomplishments, Kent insists that his greatest pride comes from working with young environmentalists. During this era of climate change and mass ecological destruction, Kent is devoted to educating and nurturing the successes of an upcoming generation of biologists, ecologists, and activists.

     On Kent’s final day with the Westies, one student asks him how we are going to get through these perilous times. Kent pauses. Water pools at the base of his blueberry-bright eyes. He reaches down and fastens his fingers around the hand nearest to his own. “By finding people to hold on to and care about. And partner with and find solutions with. I think that’s the way we are going to get through this. Make connections and hold those people close. Love will help us get through.”

By Kate Joss

Meet our Guests: Joe McCormack

Joe McCormack

Tribal Fisheries Biologist, Nez Perce Department of Fisheries

Wallowa, OR

8/26/21

The Nimiipuu people, known by most as the Nez Perce, were forced from their homeland in what is now Wallowa County, Oregon in late 1877 by white settlers and the US Army. Since the infamous Flight of the Nez Perce, most tribal members live on a reservation in Idaho, hundreds of miles from their traditional territory. Joe McCormack is a biologist for the Nez Perce Department of Fisheries and one of the few tribal members still living in Wallowa County, working to revive populations of the salmon his ancestors subsisted off of since time immemorial.

Salmon historically spawned in the Wallowa River basin, but more than a century of stream channelization and habitat degradation has pushed their numbers close to extinction. After earning a degree in fish biology from Washington State University, Joe moved to a ranch in Wallowa County and today spends his time working to restore salmon to the Wallowa River. Most days, that means monitoring fish populations or adding structure and native vegetation to river banks. Joe considers himself lucky to have studied fisheries biology, as it gave him the privilege of living in his ancestral homeland, and he thinks education is an important step for other Nimiipuu to return to their ancestral land: “Young people now are getting undergrad degrees, graduate degrees, doctorate degrees... and that I think is key to people moving to Wallowa County, with those tools.” Joe is using his education and Western science as a lever to return culturally significant animals and tradition to his people’s home.

By Kevin Faeustle

Photo credit: Phil Brick