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William Arvey holding Japanese fishing floats
No full textWilliam Arvey, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, holding two large glass Japanese fishing floats at Togiak National Wildlife Refuge
Map of the National Wildlife Refuge System and National Fish Hatchrey System
No full textA map showing all units of the National Wildlife Refuge System and Natiional Fish Hatchery Syste
Future of Conservation
No full textIn this episode of The Future of Conservation, we’re joined by authors Steve Meyer and Christine Cunningham, to discuss their book, The Land We Share, a captivating collection of over 60 outdoor essays. Published in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, this collection explores the deep connections formed through hunting on public lands. Steve, a lifelong hunter, and Christine, an Alaskan who embraced hunting later in life, reflect on how these experiences nurture the human spirit, sustain health, and foster a deeper appreciation for the natural world. Accompanied by their loyal bird dogs, they share stories of how hunting builds relationships, connects people to the land, and plays a vital role in conservation efforts. Tune in for a conversation that celebrates the intersection of good dogs, good people, and the wild places we strive to protect.Catherine Blalack:
In partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Geographic has published a remarkable collection of over 60 outdoor essays called The Land We Share. These essays are written by Steve Meyer, a lifelong hunter, and Christine Cunningham, a lifelong Alaskan who embraced hunting later in life. Accompanied by a family of bird dogs, the two authors delve into how hunting on public lands nurtures the human spirit, sustains physical health and deepens appreciation for the natural world.
Steve and Christine love hunting, and they love their hunting dogs. They are talented outdoor writers who have vividly described their adventures and experiences. In their award-winning book, we see the valuable intersect of good dogs and the people with whom they hunt. This is the Future of Conservation podcast, where we feature thought leaders on the frontlines of protecting wild places and wild things and share their story to inspire us to look at nature in a new way.
I'm your co-host, Catherine Blalack, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Catherine Blalack:
I'm Catherine Blalack, and I'm a fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Library. We're here today at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. I'm pleased to be speaking to authors Christine Cunningham and Steve Meyer about their new book, The Land We Share: a Love Affair Told and Hunting Stories. This book is a collection of essays all about special places and the relationships that form around hunting.
Steve Meyer is a lifelong hunter and Christine Cunningham is a lifelong Alaskan who embraced hunting later in life. Accompanied by a family of bird dogs, the two authors delve into how hunting on public lands nurtures the human spirit, sustains physical health, and deepens appreciation for the natural world. Together, their outdoor writing and photography have been featured in a variety of conservation publications, including Alaska Magazine, Sports Afield, Pheasants Forever, and Delta Waterfowl.
Although most stories are set in Alaska, in the Dakotas, their messages and themes resonate across the nation, appealing to both hunting advocates and those with a profound connection to the great outdoors. Thank you, Steve and Christine, for being here today. So, you're both outdoor writers and you all have work together writing, alternating columns for Anchorage Daily News. Can you guys share how that work evolved into the book we're going to be discussing today?
Steve Meyer:
Well, it's largely Kevin Painter's fault. Kevin Penner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on January 21st, 2022. He sent us an email, said, you guys going to do a book, put these all together in the book? He said, if you're not, you know, maybe we could talk and something like that. And Christine knows more about it than I do, because I can barely read.
Christine Cunningham:
It's not true. [laughs] Steve can read.
Steve Meyer:
A little bit.
Christine Cunningham:
But no, it was. We started writing an alternating column in our community newspaper, and it was really fun because we would write our column would appear every week, but sometimes we'd write about the exact same thing, and it would look like two completely different stories. Just because the perspective what we focused on was so different. And, that kind of grew.
We did that for about five years, and then the Anchorage Daily News column, a wider audience. And it's hunting. We're writing about hunting in Alaska, but it's to a general audience. So, we were reaching a lot of people who were really interested readers, and they would write us, and we'd run into them on the trails. And it was really great experience, sharing about something where there was a lot more common ground than, than anyone thought going in.
Catherine Blalack:
Nice. So, while writing this book, you mentioned reminiscing through old stories and reliving some of your best memories and moments in your lives. Of the 61 essays, which one is your favorite?
Steve Meyer:
Oh, that's a tough.
Catherine Blalack:
[laughs]I know.
Steve Meyer:
that's really tough.
Steve Meyer:
I guess the one that means the most to me. I can get through this. Yes. The one about, Gunner. He's, He was a chocolate lab that we rescued, and, very special dog. And there's a story in there about saying. Sorry, saying, saying goodbye to him.
You remember the name of it?
Christine Cunningham:
Oh, gosh.
Steve Meyer:
I don't, I don't remember.
Christine Cunningham:
It's the one about Gunner.
Steve Meyer:
Yeah, but that one, that one is the most.
Catherine Blalack:
Vivid still.
Steve Meyer:
Still, it really hits me still. And that was five years ago. Longer than that.
Christine Cunningham:
Yeah. So, for us, our our dogs, they're our family. They live with us, they hunt with us. There's a lot of shared memories. And, so I was going to say my favorite one is in the book is not all about reminiscing about dogs gone before, but there's a couple in there that are our tear jerker is if you've ever loved a hunting dog.
Christine Cunningham:
And there's another one of our English setter, Parker and that's by Steve. But he when it comes to dogs, he tends to be pretty emotional. And I think those are really the best stories when it's not just I can be in my head a lot and he can really tap into that, what it feels like to be out there.
And I think that's why those two, if they make you laugh or cry, they must be good, right? No one makes me cry.
Catherine Blalack:
Good writing. Thank you. Whether it's learning about wildlife and their instincts, deepening your appreciation of wild places, or becoming more responsible as hunters, I'd love to know, maybe a couple of, like, key moments or special memories that shaped who you are today as hunters and conservationists.
Steve Meyer:
Wow. That's- there's so many. And for me, it goes back to when I was five years old and I, my dad and his friends hunted and from the time I was just very little, I just wanted to go with them. I was already, I don't know, I was already in my blood. So, they started taking me long when I was five years old and the most wonderful part about that is when they took me, I was one of the guys. If they were cold, I was cold. If they were hungry, I was hungry. You know, if we crawled through the mud, I crawled through the mud.
Catherine Blalack:
Yeah. You're holding your own even as a boy. Yeah.
Steve Meyer:
And so that's that early memory is still very, very precious to me.
Christine Cunningham:
For me, I didn't I didn't go on my first duck hunt until I was 27. I went with Steve. And in my mind, if you had to ask me what hunting looked like, the only thing I could conjure would probably be like the Warner Brothers cartoons with Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck, and I just didn't really understand what hunting was, even though I grew up in Alaska and I was around it there, there I didn't really have a sense of what it was. So going that first time was really, Steve treated me, like he would any hunting partner there wasn't special consideration. It wasn't like, here, here's a blanket and some snacks, and it wasn't like that.
And in fact, I was surprised we were going duck hunting in the rain, which is I mean, duck hunters know that's when it's the best. But we were we were kind of, we're coming up on some ducks that Steve had saw on a pond ahead of us, and he's like, we're going to have to crouch down like, okay, so we're crouching on the- this is like Elmer Fudd and we're sneaking up on the ducks. And so we're he's like, we're gonna have to get down on our knees. And at the time, we're in a, tidally influenced area, and, the tide had gone out and there's rotting salmon in the in the marsh, and I can see shrews darting into and and cobwebs and I'm thinking, oh, gosh, on our knees.
So we're inching along on our knees. And he says, after we're getting pretty close, we're gonna have to crawl. And I thought, you're kidding me. Like, we're gonna crawl and I'm wearing borrowed rain gear.
And I'd been to the gun range, and I learned how to use the shotgun, and I'm just thinking, oh, my gosh, like, this might be- I'm done.
Catherine Blalack:
Like, you're into an adventure!
Christine Cunningham:
So I start crawling and I'm using my shotgun to clear the path, and I'm just trying to get it over with as fast as possible. And I feel this, this tug on the back of my leg, and I turn around I [say] what? And he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I'm crawling. I wasn't stealthy at all. I took off like I was in a diaper derby, and Steve's never seen anybody crawl so fast in his life. I just was trying to get it over with. So, we stand up, the ducks fly. I shoot once, which I only shot one time. For a long time, I was much more proficient. But, the ducks fly away, and I'm watching them fly off into the sunrise, and Steve reaches down and picks up a shotgun shell and he says, holds up to my nose, and he says, this is what fall smells like to me.
Catherine Blalack:
Mm, and I remember reading that, yeah.
Christine Cunningham:
There's a story in the book. And that was, I was really it was almost like smelling salts, like, I'd missed something, and this was- I wanted to do it all again and understand what I was doing. There was a lot to this. So I that was kind of what hooked me right from the day one, the first miserable day. I submitted my first article for publication shortly after that about that experience. Wow. Because I it was so meaningful. Just felt like there
Catherine Blalack:
Crediting Steve for teaching and passing on that tradition. That's really amazing.
Steve Meyer:
Actually, the title of the article was “No Sympathy” because I had no sympathy for what we were doing. But it was wonderful.
Catherine Blalack:
Can you speak to the advantages and enjoyment of having your loyal companions along for all of your hunting adventures?
Christine Cunningham:
Yeah. We love the dogs. There's just something about how much they love to go and be wild and free. We have abundant natural resources and lands that they can run, and do what they're bred to do. We've got big running setters for upland hunting in the mountains, for hunting for ptarmigan. In the flats along the coast where with the duck dogs and, just them by your side.
I like to think about the setters as being like a medium between the wild and domestic, because they're, you know, we're civilized. They live with us in the house, they're domesticated, and then we're both out there, and yet they have these gifts that we don't have. I mean, and they're closer to the wild. They don't have to hold anything back like a wolf would.
Catherine Blalack:
I think in one of the essays you mentioned, like, as they're in living room, they kind of go crazy, stir crazy. But then when they're in the wild, it, like, makes sense. They're doing the pointing. They're doing the retrieving. So, I love how you captured that.
Christine Cunningham:
Thank you.
Steve Meyer:
Yeah. Do you know what they're bred to do.. And, yeah, I, I don't even know how to start to say what that means. I'll say for, you know, in, especially in relation to public land, when Winchester, he's our he's English setters on the cover of the book when he came into our life, he changed everything because he is so- he loves being in the mountains and he loves doing his job. And he's got more, drive to be out there than any other creature I've ever been around. And when he came in, it was like, okay, I got a partner that I've always wanted and as a result, that really brought Christine in into tune with this wonderful, experience that we have when, when we're out and doing what we do.
You know, sometimes we might follow a trail into the mountains, but that’s never really the goal. It's about more about getting to the end of the trail and then following the dogs and as a result, they take us places that we probably never would have gone. And, and we have the freedom to do that in Alaska, which is such a reward.
Catherine Blalack:
Yeah. How did you go about naming your dogs? I love the names.
Christine Cunningham:
The names! It was so, so people think we're crazy sometimes because we're not breeders, but we bred two English setters that we had, and we were going to keep a pup, one of Winchester's pups, but we ended up keeping the whole litter.
Catherine Blalack:
Oh, wow.
Christine Cunningham:
So, Winchester, the mom is Parker. And those are both names after, a shotgun in both cases. But so the puppies, when we weren't going to keep them all, we weren't going to name them, because if you name one of them, you're probably that's the one you're going to keep. So, we had we call them all by their spots- one spot, two spot, no spot. And one day Steve called out to a black and white setter pup and calledthem Colt and I was like, oh, no, we're keeping that one. I really wanted to keep them.
Catherine Blalack:
It's official. Yeah.
Christine Cunningham:
Right. And, so then pretty quickly we named another one Boss. And then, Hugo is, aberration of, Huglo.
Steve Meyer:
It’s all gunmakers.
Christine Cunningham:
Yep yep yep. And then Cogswell. Cogswell and Harrison, another fine gunmaker. And then Purdy. I mean, she the little girl, the only female. And we kept a whole litter and it's, been wonderful. It's been crazy.
Steve Meyer:
And Rigby, he's our latest addition. Okay. He's an English Labrador, so he's named after Rigby's. The great gun maker from Britain.
Catherine Blalack:
That's awesome. I love all those stories. It's really cool. Such a family of dogs, you know, companions.
Steve Meyer:
We miss them dearly. Yeah.
Catherine Blalack:
I have a final question. So, although hunting is an age old tradition, the number of hunters in the United States has declined in actual numbers. And as a percentage of the total U.S. population. Delta Waterfowl reports that in 2022, only 6% of Americans hunt. What advice would you give the next generation, or perhaps even a first-generation hunter when they're trying to get started?
Steve Meyer:
That's another really good question. You know, in the perfect world, you get started through your family, with people you trust and who will take you and show you and allow you, yeah, give you permission to be that person. It's a little harder to find in someone who's not your family, but, I think that's really important to be able to connect with someone who you trust, who you accept for who they are and what they are and their values kind of go along with your values and, you know, it’s a it's a great question because while hunters, the numbers have decreased, there's also been a decrease in huntable land. You know, the constant progress of society continues to whittle away. So even though there's less hunters, there's still plenty. I mean, there's lot.
Catherine Blalack:
Definitely.
Christine Cunningham:
I think hidden in that number is something interesting and that's that there is a greater diversity in the hunting numbers. And there's been programs that I really love and recommend in Alaska. Becoming an Outdoorswoman is a great program. And it it's great because you're not left alone after that initial workshop that where you learn about, one aspect of it, you can go back and learn more and build on all the different things, cleaning game, using firearms, regulations. So programs like that and every community's different. And where whether it's a conservation group or a local club somewhere, there's going to be a group usually that that helps people so that they're not alone in those early parts of it. And they do have someone they can ask the questions, but it's, it's such a- Steve's right. It's a tradition. It's a way of a way of learning and a way of knowing about the natural world. So you do need, I don't know, I don't love the word mentor, but you need you need someone who cares about your kind of well-being going into that, that you can trust and ask and call.
Catherine Blalack:
And be your teacher.
Christine Cunningham:
And be your teacher. So, if you're if you're lucky enough to find that person, otherwise, there's I think all these programs looking to be that for people in a more general way, a lot of them are great programs.
Steve Meyer:
They can tell you how to do things. You know, you can go to a class or a course or whatever, and they tell you how to do things. But having someone that's been there and done that, that you can have a relationship with and when I say a relationship with, it's not like, well, we're going to go Saturday and then we won't go again for three months. That doesn't build a relationship.
Catherine Blalack:
Or a skill.
Steve Meyer:
Or a skill. It doesn't build much of anything. So, in that regard, you know, the Indigenous people, a lot of the Indigenous people valued the hunting partner relationship as much as they did the marital relationship. So, when you have that in both, it's free. Amazing.
Catherine Blalack:
Yeah. Spoiled. [laughs] Well, thank you guys so much for that quick rundown about your book. So, thanks for listening and we'll see you guys next time.
Steve Meyer:
All right. Thank you.
Catherine Blalack:
Hunting is an age-old tradition that has been an integral part of human history, connecting people to the land and the natural world. America's public lands provide space for many soul nourishing outdoor
activities like hiking, climbing, canoeing and kayaking. Moreover, these places also play a vital role in supporting the hunting tradition. In fact, many of our public lands provide refuge for healthy harvestable populations of game animals.
If you're interested in keeping the tradition alive, be inspired by Steve and Christine's work and find yourself a mentor or guide to show you the way. Thank you to our listeners and a special thank you to our guests, Christine Cunningham and Steve Meyer, for all of your beautiful writing and your love affair told in hunting stories. To continue listening to the Future of Conservation, check us out on Apple podcast or other podcast apps. And if you know of anybody interesting for a future episode. Contact Catherine Blaylock at [email protected]. We'll see you next time
Thoughts From Home
No full text Nature based solutions (NBS) refer to approaches for addressing various societal and environmental challenges by utilizing and working with nature rather than against it. Recently, a workshop was convened at the NCTC to identify priorities for applying NBS. In this episode in the Thoughts From Home podcast, Jake Greenfield, NCTC Course Leader, talks with Lyric Buxton and Matthias Benko, FWS Maintenance and Infrastructure Fellows Program Climate Fellows about how NBS helps us meet our mission and how they became MIFP Climate Fellows.Welcome to thoughts From Home, your conservation podcast from the National Conservation Training Center. We're located along the Potomac River in historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and are home to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy.
Jake Greenfield
So hello y'all. On this episode, we'll be talking about our nature based solutions workshop that's going on here at the National Conservation Training Center this week. It's March the 20th of 2024. We've been going for a few days now. today's the third day of the workshop, and I'm here with a couple of our maintenance and Infrastructure Fellows program. Climate fellows. But first, my name is Jake Greenfield. I'm a course leader and fish and wildlife biologist, and I focus most of my time on climate change in decision analysis courses and why don't you all go ahead and introduce yourselves?
Matthias Benko
Hi everyone. My name is Matthias Benko. I am one of the Maintenance and infrastructure climate fellows. I'm originally from Indiana, but I now reside on Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge.
Lirik
And hello everyone, I'm Lirik. I am a biologist and climate adaptation fellow working on nature based solutions and some communication efforts.
Jake Greenfield
Thanks y'all. So nature based solutions. You know, there was a Vox article that came out that said that the messaging on nature based solutions isn't always hitting home. So why don't you tell us what nature based solutions are? Do you mind taking this one?
Lirik
Sure. Yeah. Nature based solutions are really those actions to protect and sustainably manage ecosystems, but not just for the benefit of nature, but also the benefit of humans. And that's really the key aspect of this, is it's intentionally trying to benefit human communities.
Jake Greenfield
Do you want to add anything to that with us?
Matthias Benko
I think Eric nailed it. What we're really trying to nail down is that it's not just ecological restoration as usual. It's those human aspects as well. So including social variables too.
Jake Greenfield
Yeah. We heard on the first day of the conference that sometimes here at the Fish and Wildlife Service, we do what's called random acts of restoration. And, you know, our mission is conserving wildlife and fish for the benefit of the American people. So a few more words in there, but it's on our website. So it seems to me like we're already benefiting people. So what are these co-benefits and how does that differ from just our normal operations?
Matthias Benko
Right. So the co-benefits of nature based solutions are the positive benefits related to the reduction or avoided loss of greenhouse gases. Right. So these nature based solutions help us deal with climate adaptation. So what's going on now. But they also help us with carbon. So uptake in carbon is one of the most important ways that we can deal with climate change. Because carbon dioxide is a very potent greenhouse gas. So we really want these nature based solutions to hone in on these co-benefits to maximize our fight against climate change.
Jake Greenfield
Excellent. Thanks a lot. So one of the things we saw on Monday was a big banner that was brought over by the manager of Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge, and it had a big bluestem grass. And if you look at it, the grass above ground is about six feet tall and you had eight feet of roots, and that's a lot of carbon that gets sequestered a lot more than currently we can do with technology. What's one of those big barriers to implementing nature based solutions? Is it communications? Is it the funding? Is it? Tell me what it is.
Lirik
I think one of the key issues is the messaging. Like you said, we've done some of this a lot and some people think that why do we need to add something else different? But I think the key to nature based solutions is adding in the human aspect. We want to make sure we're being intentional about the human communities around us as we're implementing these nature based solution projects. And while they are practices that we've done, they're a little bit different because we want to think holistically about the restoration that we're doing.
Jake Greenfield
You know, Matthias, what about funding? How are we paying for nature based solutions right now?
Matthias Benko
So funding is always going to be a hard question when it comes to restoration activities, especially when we want to do large scale projects or landscape scale projects like nature based solutions. So we really look towards the big pots of funding that come in. So they usually come in through disaster funding, like you're hurricane Sandy. A lot of money came in and practitioners on the ground were able to incorporate nature based solutions into their projects. But more recently, the bipartisan and Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act provided a lot of money for ecosystem restoration. And within the Inflation Reduction Act in particular, there was more opportunity for us to implement criteria that incorporated nature based solutions into the projects. Right? So all of our ecological practitioners, these biologist who are going in and doing projects, planting the materials needed, they had to sit down and do those criteria that they normally do for a project, but then also think about how is this going to affect people, how is this going to affect the communities surrounding the refuges? Because at the end of the day, the refuges isn't just about the refuge themselves in that land. It impacts the people who live nearby and who visit them all the time. The National Wildlife Refuge System has millions of visitors every year, and everyone is impacted in some way, shape or form by a wildlife refuge.
Jake Greenfield
Very nice. Thank you. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about what we're doing here this week. So, not only are Mathias and Lyriq fellows working on projects within the Fish and Wildlife Service, they were also some of the core members of the organizing team for this workshop. So they had a hand in everything from choosing our speakers, our partners that came that are coming tomorrow, panelists and, everything that went into it. So why have we convened this workshop and what's the purpose of it? I mean, why can't we just send an email?
Lirik
I think the purpose of this workshop is really to get people together in one space to talk about nature based solutions. We really wanted to get all the programs of the Fish and Wildlife and our partners together to have this conversation of how we can best implement nature based solutions. And I think that having this in-person experience is fostering different dialogs that we hadn't thought about. So I think this is a really unique opportunity to get everybody together and learn more about what nature solutions are and how to best implement them, and really get some work done in the advancement of based solutions and climate change.
Jake Greenfield
With Ice, one of the first times that I knew or that I saw, that the federal government was working hard on nature based solutions, was actually when the white House released their roadmap for implementing nature based solutions, Duke University, the Nicholas School of Duke University collaborated with the Department of the interior to put out our own nature based solutions, roadmap that includes many, many different strategies for all different ecosystem types. Why isn't that enough? Why isn't it enough that a policy comes out of the out of the white House? Or we do a roadmap? Why can't we just hand that to field biologists and expect that that's going to get done? Is there some other step that needs to happen?
Matthias Benko
So policy is always going to be one thing. But implementation of that policy is another. It's really hard to look at just a piece of writing, a DM, a departmental manual, a chapter or a roadmap and be able to pick up on it and just go out onto the field and follow it. Exactly. You're going to need help and guidance.
Matthias Benko
And that's what we're trying to do here, right? We're trying to provide people from across the Fish and Wildlife Service, from all the different regions, from all the different offices, from the field to regions to headquarters. We're providing them the tools to understand what's going on and this policy, and then they can go back out and apply it. It's really important to have the help, right. You can't just this is a team effort. We can't not act together.
Jake Greenfield
Yeah. That really resonates. One of the things we're trying to do here at the National Conservation Training Center is focus our learning on the learner itself. So doing learner centered learning and some newer ways of, adult education and training, it really kind of I was thinking about that a lot on Monday when the directorate was out here talking to us about what we can do with these concepts, and a lot of it had to do with making sure we involve the community early, highlighting those co-benefits so that they know that even though a project may take a little bit longer or cost a little bit more money up front, the overall benefits over time are going to be a lot better. So do you have any advice or thoughts about how we share these stories with our community members, and how we communicate nature based solutions there?
Lirik
I think that's a great question. And we definitely need to think more about how to engage the community early and often, and make sure we're getting a consistent message out. I think that's really key. If, hey, we're doing this project and it might take this long time, but we are really trying to do something that in the long run will benefit you. So I think making sure we're listening to them, as we're going out to the communities and taking in their considerations and listening to their priorities and kind of try and integrate those into what we're trying to do and make sure we're relating to them, that we're working for them.
Jake Greenfield
Awesome. Thanks. Yeah. And, you know, the Fish and Wildlife Service is only one of the bureaus in the Department of the interior and they're working hard on nature based solutions. Some of the other bureaus and the Department of the interior are here with us this week, and they're engaging on nature based solutions as well. so more to come from them.
Jake Greenfield
Let's bring it away from nature based solutions a little bit. So in the next few years at the Fish and Wildlife Service, at least, probably across government, many, many of our employees are going to be eligible for retirement. And one of the things we're trying to do is figure out ways that we can attract and retain young, smart and focused and motivated young people. And can either one of you describe the fellowship that you got and started working with Fish and Wildlife Service services?
Matthias Benko
Sure. Elliot and I are a part of the inaugural class of Maintenance and Infrastructure Fellows, and this is a program that is through the service's Infrastructure Management Division. And it's not just us, the climate change fellows. There's a bunch of different cohorts. There's data operations and facility maintenance. There's maintenance itself, engineering, hydrology, just to name a few of them. So it's a program that's appealing to professionals or people of our age who are looking to start our careers in many different disciplines and areas. And we heard about it through happenstance on Google. So your local search engine is always going to be your best friend when you're looking for jobs as an aspiring college graduate. And the application process is very straightforward, you fill out a form and then if you're a match, they contact you, you do a couple of interviews and then you get placed. So it's been a fantastic opportunity to learn about the Fish and Wildlife Service and how the service operates. But it's also giving us the skills and the tools necessary to, take what we learn and to start a promising career in conservation. Or for myself, only a career in climate change or environmental change. Very cool.
Jake Greenfield
So what types of opportunities have come out of it? Lyric. is there a mentorship component? What types of professional development have you done? And I think probably the biggest question is, does it help you get a job at the federal government.
Lirik
So there is a mentorship component every fellow is paired with a mentor during orientation, and you really get to know your mentor over the course of your fellowship and build that relationship. And I've had a really great experience with my mentor. We really get to connect on a personal level and a professional level as well, and she's been really great and helped me out with some job opportunities and some tips and tricks. So that's been a great experience.
Jake Greenfield
What about professional development with us?
Matthias Benko
Being here at Nctc this week is a fabulous professional development opportunity, and we are able to go to different seminars and workshops, whether that be at Nctc or beyond, at different conferences that apply to the work that we're doing. We have that flexibility within our fellowship to do that, which is great. We have a professional development stipend, and it's great that this program isn't just about learning and training to be a good employee and getting familiar with the workforce. It's also helping us develop skills that are going to be necessary for here and beyond.
Jake Greenfield
Let's ask the big question that I'm sure any, any person that's about to graduate from college is thinking about more than anything else, obviously at graduation parties. But other than that, will this help me get a job?
Lirik
Yes. They've designed the program as such, so that you get a Public Lands Corp certification at the end of it, or after you reach a certain amount of hours, you can apply to do liberal jobs. And this is good for two years, and it's a noncompetitive hiring authority. And it has helped some of the other fellows in the cohort land jobs already. So it's been great.
Jake Greenfield
Well, fingers crossed for the both of y'all. I know you're all about to finish up. I can tell you, from what I've heard this week, that you've been very impressive to a lot of people and there's a lot of hiring managers that came here to this conference because, whenever we do something where we're really trying to integrate a policy into our operations, that takes a lot of experience.
Jake Greenfield
From everything that I've heard from this fellowship program, they learn just as much from you all as you learn from them. So very, very impressed. All right, so one last question about the fellowship. So did y'all come out of a graduate program? You come out of an undergraduate program. Is it restricted to any of those?
Matthias Benko
It depends on the cohort that you get placed in. So some of the cohorts require a college or a higher level degree. The maintenance fellowships do not. From my personal experience, I just graduated last spring. I got this opportunity about three weeks after I graduated. So I'm fresh out of college. Cool.
Jake Greenfield
What about you there?
Lirik
Yeah, so for me, I just finished grad school and was looking for something and very early in my career and wanted to get it started.
Jake Greenfield
So great. So I myself was part of a different fellowship program. I was a presidential management fellow, which is one of the fellowship programs for recent graduate school graduates as well. So definitely, if any of our listeners out there are about to graduate from graduate school, check that one out. Check out the MFP fellowship. And if you just look up DoD fellowship programs, you'll see those at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Jake Greenfield
We also have the Directorate Fellows program where they take, cohorts every year, all great opportunities. So I think we'll wrap it up there. Thank you so much for listening. If you're interested in finding out any more about the policies we talked about, you can just Google search the white House NBS roadmap or the Doi NBS roadmap, and they'll pop right up there. Public documents. There's nothing secret here. And, y'all have a wonderful day. Night afternoon, whatever time it is where you're listening. Lyric with us. Anything to wrap up now?
Matthias Benko
Thanks for listening.
Lirik
Thanks for this opportunity.
Jake Greenfield
Also, folks, I'd like to mention that Nctc has an eagle cam as well. So if you just Google search Nctc Eagle Cam, you'll be able to pull that up. We've got two eggs in the nest this, this spring. And don't forget to scroll all the way down. Read the comments. Endless entertainment.
Thank you for listening to the National Conservation Training Center podcast series. If you have feedback, thoughts or stories you'd like to share, contact us at [email protected]
Harvesting a hatchery pond
No full textHarvesting a hatchery pond at Gavins Point National Fish Hatcher
Prescribed marshland wildlife
No full textPrescribed marshland wildfire. Alyssa Lu with member of fire team at Seney National Wildlife Refug
Duck team members capture Laysan ducks at catchment
No full textMembers of the Duck Team capture endangered Laysan ducks at Catchment on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge during the Seabird Protection Project
Members of shorebird team ride down active runway
No full textMembers of the Shorebird Team ride down the active runway on Sand Island during efforts to haze shorebirds to Eastern Island during the Seabird Protection Project on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge