A land ethic

A man and a tree

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 16:08:00 +0000

10 years ago, we lost one of my favorite college professors, Dr. Jon Wallace. He was the advisor for our student newspaper and guided me through my editorial responsibilities of hiring, firing, and managing a crew. When the University administration was upset at what I wrote in my columns, he called me into his office to tell me that more people were reading the newspaper than ever before. He pushed students in our writing courses. To this day, I believe I use more of the skills learned from him in my daily life than those from my biology professors, but please do not share that with them...

Just as I was graduating college, I noticed a unique photo hanging in his office. After hearing of his passing, I wrote this poem in a matter of hours. It is a true story about a man who meant a lot to me and many others, and a story about a tree and a photo. You can find it published in Cursed with Wings: and other Frustrations

Life is uncertain. Life is not fair. But we all leave our mark on the world, in some way--even if that mark is etched in the sky.

A man and a tree

I once knew a Man who took a photograph of a Tree.

The photograph amused me, as the Tree was near my grandparents’ house.

A tall Cottonwood on a hillside.

The Tree marked a corner where our car always turned toward town.

When I was young, the Tree had seemed enormous with leaves dancing in summer winds.

Cows swatted flies in Its shade and thought slowly about staying cool or moving to find water or grass.

I remember struggling awake from a nap in the car, but knowing where we were because I could see that Tree.

The Tree in the photograph had aged a bit, but so had I.

Maybe it was too many cows or too much rain or maybe trees just get old,

but the Tree had lost Its leaves, lost Its bark, and lost Its cows.

The smooth, massive truck stood stark-white against the lush grass of the hillside.

Chunks of branches lay where they had fallen, and the photograph captured the sun struggling to rise above the stunted arms of the great Tree.

It was odd to see that Someone Else had noticed the Tree, as it had always been something I saw but never mentioned to anyone.

One of those private markers along life’s paths, with no conversation value.

But, there It was in His photograph.

The Tree near my grandparents’ house, and a sun rise I had never seen.

And, this Man.

I didn’t know He took photos, just as I didn’t realize He had ever known my Tree.

Odd. But, I remembered Him each time I passed the Tree after that.

Last month, I turned this corner and noticed the Tree was gone.

It had completely dissolved into the Earth.

Not even a stump; just an empty hillside.

But along the curves of the sky, I could trace where the Tree had once stood.

Branches straight and long, leaves green and quivering in the breeze.

It was still majestic in Its absence.

The Man and the Tree.

An Eternity carved into my mind, marking a corner of my world.

L. Powell, 16 October 2010
For Dr. Wallace

COVID-19: a student's perspective on remote learning

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 21:30:00 +0000

So far in this series, we have thought about things from an instructor's perspective. Of course, we need to hear from students, so today I did a Zoom session with a student near and dear to my heart: my son, Tristan. He was upstairs in his study area, and I was downstairs in my make-shift office.

Tristan really took my production and video editing skills to task, but he also shares some great ideas (and they were all his!) on what's going well in his classes and what is maybe not going so great.

By the way, Tristan is really good at editing video and he will eventually need a job. Please. Email me.

COVID-19 Teaching: group contracts for on-line projects

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 17:16:00 +0000

In today's 1.5-minute Teaching episode, I'm joined by Dr. Jason Headrick who shares some great tips on using student-generated, group contracts for your larger group or team projects. These are excellent to clarify everyone's expectations as students embark on these joint efforts. These are good for any group project situation (in-person or remote communication), but perhaps even more important now.

He also mentions carrier pigeons...see if you catch it.

COVID-19 Teaching: platforms for our groups to work together online

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 20:18:00 +0000

Today's 1.5-minute Teaching episode is about platforms for your students to use to complete group projects! How do we do this, now that we are online? Dr. Taylor Ruth from the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication department in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln joins me to share her ideas from her course.

Quick trip to see the sandhill cranes

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 04:13:00 +0000

Before COVID-19, I had several plans to see the world-famous sandhill crane migration in Nebraska this spring. There was a crane festival to speak at, and a couple of other groups to assist with their viewing opportunities. We were going to make sure my mother saw the cranes in person for the first time. However, those were all canceled with COVID concerns.

But, I wanted to see the cranes. They were still there.

This afternoon, I grabbed my son and we left Lincoln about 5pm in a quick trip out for the 8:06pm sunset extravaganza at the viewing platform south of the Gibbon exit along I-80. Per normal, at first I was worried perhaps the warm weather had sent the cranes northward. However, right at sunset, they started to fly over, finding sandbars and taking their last look at the setting sun.

Enjoy the photos--sound on with the video!

This guy landed 20 minutes before the others. Maybe he's 'social distancing'??

Sunset and the cranes start to circle the Platte River.

Piling into the sandbar for the night.

Amazing view--still lots of cranes late in the season.

COVID-19 Teaching: admitting what is happening around us

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 14:46:00 +0000

In today's episode of 1.5-minute Teaching, we go to my front yard. I was all set to sunbathe with my daffodils until I discovered something awful had happened. Snow! Do I stay the course and sunbathe, or admit things have changed? Of course, I need to adapt or I will freeze to death.

Our teaching should be the same way. Listen for some ideas about how to incorporate realness of the situation as you work with your students.

COVID-19 Teaching: a little empathy will go a long way in the next few weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:48:00 +0000

To date, in our 1.5-minute Teaching series, we've covered how to get ready for online teaching. That's happening now. However, we are now starting to see the indirect and direct effects of COVID-19. This is not just taking our courses online...we're taking our courses online in a VERY unique situation. Our students may get sick. We may get sick. Our students may be working more hours to keep their families' afloat. People are getting laid off from work.

We can't keep teaching like the world around us isn't happening. Check out the video for some ideas on how you can adjust and work with your students.

COVID-19 Teaching: worrying about what might go wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 17:57:00 +0000

As we prepare to teach online, it's natural to worry about all the things that might go wrong. This is new to most of us! But, my Grandma Powell had some good advice, and I hope you'll check the video to see how it applies to teaching with Zoom and other online adventures.

Keep Teaching everyone! This is the last scheduled daily video, but who knows? We may be back in the near future with more teaching hints and ideas. Leave a comment here if you have an idea for a topic to cover!

COVID-19 Teaching: we meet my office mate

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 14:35:00 +0000

Today, Mr. Kudu (my office mate) reflects on what he's noticed during the last week of video-making. Check it out. You also learn why I am not a ventriloquist, sound engineer, or cinematographer.

COVID-19 Teaching: structuring your online course materials

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 16:12:00 +0000

Today, we're going to think about the content for your new online course (lectures, assignments, etc.) and how to structure them. We aren't in the classroom anymore, Toto!

So, you can use this technique: Chop and Flow

Think about the flow of how you want students to work through material and chop it into accessible pieces. Check out some ideas here!

COVID-19 Teaching: moving exams and quizzes online (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 15:15:00 +0000

Today's video shares information that can help you structure your exam or quiz in your learning management software in a way that is challenging for students who are attempting to work together. Perhaps normally you would be watching the class take the exam in your classroom, or your Testing Center would provide oversight. However, that's not possible now. What can you do? Check out this short video for some key ideas.

COVID-19 Teaching: moving exams and quizzes online (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 17:51:00 +0000

If you are needing to give an exam or quiz online, now, your students are most likely sitting (unsupervised) in their home or dorm room. Today's video covers how to restructure that exam to assume it is open book. Ask higher level questions that don't have answers found directly in your textbook or other resources!

COVID-19 Teaching: moving labs online

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 16:44:00 +0000

If you teach a lab course and suddenly need to move it online, here are some hints from some of my colleagues at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on how to modify and reshape the laboratory experience to fit online.

COVID-19 Teaching: Backward Design

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 20:37:00 +0000

If you teach at a college or university, you've joined a club of instructors who have made it through 2/3 of the semester and now need to restructure your class to be online or completed remotely. COVID-19 has forced students out of the classroom, and we're really starting a grant experiment to see how we can construct student learning opportunities quickly and in a completely different manner than we had planned.

I'm starting a new series of videos, called "1.5-minute Teaching" in which you'll find short but (hopefully) helpful ideas to help with teaching in this scenario. And, maybe the ideas will be useful later in the normal world as well!

First off, let's talk about Backward Design. Your first step is to figure out what you are going to do--you have to change the syllabus. What content can you keep? How do you redo this section of the semester?

Backward Design is a great tool for constructing your course. If you haven't used it before, here's a great chance to use it for a small piece of your course. Take a listen!

Lessons from a waterhole

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 14:06:00 +0000

We had spent the day driving from waterhole to waterhole in this large, dry national park in southern Africa. The trees and shrubs on the edge of the road were white with the dust from cars who had made the same trek the day before, and somewhere out there were elephants.

“You arrived too late,” we were told at one waterhole. “There was a black rhino here just five minutes ago, but he has wandered into the bush past that large camel thorn tree.”

And so it went—a journey of being 15 minutes early or 5 minutes late, over and over. Should you sit and wait at an empty waterhole, or move to another one just 15 km away?

For the elephants and rhino, there was certainty. They knew exactly when they would appear for water, but they would not share their appointment calendar with us. Hidden by trees, we could only see evidence of their presence by the large, softball-sized chunks of poo that resembled a shredded globe of garden mulch. The poo mocked us, “Late again.”

Finally, as day was ending, we began to leave a waterhole after watching four giraffe decide whether it was safe to drink—necks and heads tentatively down, then back up at the smallest noise or burst of wind. Giraffe are so shy; it is amazing they do not die of thirst at the edge of the waterhole. But, eventually, the world synchronizes for them—the wind dies, nothing stirs, and the waterhole is empty of other animals. The giraffe bend down to drink.

As we turned to leave, a portion of the universe aligned for us and the elephants as slowly 1, 2, 3, 4, and then eventually 50 wrinkled, gray creatures silently stomped out of the forest towards the water. The smallest of the herd began to run, disregarding all thoughts of danger, and their mothers trotted after them. The entire group walked into the water, drank gallons, and finally baptized themselves with sprays of water and mud. They churned the mud with their feet and reveled in the flying muck. Some of the young were so small they had not learned to use their trunk, but they giddily twirled their little nose-tubes like a baton and were covered in goo by the by-products of others’ mud baths.

Just like that, it was over. A leader turned back to the bush, and the herd disappeared as quickly as it had emerged. We were left in silence at the waterhole with a single vulture who had silently watched the chaos.

As we drove away, we passed another car just arriving to the empty waterhole. “Justice,” we grinned, and we drove out into the world willing to be disappointed again.

Elephants at Klein Namutoni waterhole, Etosha National Park, Namibia. June 2019, Photo by Larkin Powell

Basics about applying for grad school in wildlife or natural resources

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 15:22:00 +0000

If you are near graduation or have recently graduated with a degree in wildlife management or other natural resources management area, you may be considering graduate school. If you have no idea how to do that, you're not alone. Here is some background that I share with my undergrad advisees when we meet to talk about grad school. I hope this helps get you started. In addition, you should talk to current grad students (the TA in your mammalogy lab, for example) to see how they got their position and talk to professors you know about the process.

Image from kissclipart.com

LIMITED OPENINGS: While undergrad programs typically accept anyone who meets ACT, GPA or other requirements, grad programs are limited in capacity by two things: (1) Each professor can only take on so many students (typically my lab has had an average of 4-5 grad students, which means I take on about 1 or 2 students per year) because of large time commitments to graduate students. A professor is going to be working with our grad students on their thesis project, logistics of the projects, finding funding to continue projects, and preparing students as they write their thesis, so we often meet with them for at least 3-4 hours each week, and we may spend a large portion of our summer working to assist them with their field research. (2) Funding--grad students typically have an assistantship to pay a small stipend (UNL's is currently around $20K per year) and tuition remission (students on assistantship usually pay no tuition, just fees each semester). Obviously, the professor/adviser needs to find that funding (sometimes with the student's help), which limits how many students we can accept. The Department or School may have some assistantships, but they are also limited in number (in my case, UNL's School of Natural Resources has funds to pay assistantships for 2-3 new MS students per year).

So, all of that is just to note that graduate positions at a given department are limited each year, which means it is incredibly valuable to investigate opportunities at a large number of departments--for example, keeping track of available assistantships on the Texas A&M Job Board (serving all schools nationally).

If you are geographically limited by a relationship or family circumstance (that's the case for many people), it will be VERY important for you to get field experience and investigate all opportunities with faculty in programs near you. That is, you will need to be very competitive as an applicant if you are limited to applying to only 1-2 programs. You may also want to consider a non-thesis program in this situation (see below).

It is often the case that a potential graduate adviser who looks to be a perfect match in terms of their research program has a full lab with no openings that year, or they may not have funds to bring on a new student that year. And of course, when they do have an opening, they will have multiple applicants for the position, and many good students will not be selected for that opening. So, the search for a program takes some stamina and stick-to-it-ness to keep investigating and not allow yourself to get distressed at lack of a match or a positive response from a professor when emailing them. Everyone gets rejection letters, so don't let that make you stop applying.

THE BACK DOOR AND FRONT DOOR: I like to describe two ways to get into grad school.

First, you can apply 'through the front door' to the department for assistantship positions that the department's Graduate Committee controls. That means an official application and application fee to the University. The Committee will look at all applicants, assess the match to faculty in their department, and select the best students. Some departments, especially Biology departments, have large numbers of Teaching Assistantships to assign to incoming students. Those students will be required to teach labs for their assistantship. Some departments also have Research Assistantships that may not require teaching, but instead are used to recruit high-quality students to their research program. But, the bottom lines is that the Front Door type of applications relies heavily on GPA, GRE (in some cases), and other types of rankings that can be determined from an application, essay, or resume. The Committee is trying to bring in the best students they can, but they don't usually spend much time talking to the applicants. However, some departments do bring a short list of applicants to campus for interviews. Additionally, the Front Door method provides an assistantship, but it does not include any research funding, so the student's adviser will have to provide that or work with the student to quickly find that funding (to buy radio transmitters, pay for gas, technicians, or lab materials--whatever is required for the thesis research project). Students with high GPAs or a set of exciting experiences on their CV/resume may do well in the Front Door approach, because of how students are selected by the Committee.

The Back Door method is to apply to an individual professor's advertisement for a position (such as those listed on the Texas A&M Job Board). Let's say I have a position available--that means that I have received some grant funds to pay for the assistantship, tuition remission, and the research funds. I post the ad, and get several unofficial applications (they don't apply to the University, rather they send their materials to me--they don't pay the application fee). I personally sort through the applications, select 3-4 people, and interview them over the phone/Skype. I might bring the top candidate to campus to make sure I think they are a good match in person, and to allow them to see they think they can work with me, and to see if UNL/SNR is a good match for them as well. I then select them, at which time the student applies to the University and pays the application fee. I ask our department's Graduate Committee to look at the application, and they do so knowing that I want the student (which means that I believe the student meets the requirements) and I have funding for the student. The Committee's decision is largely a rubber-stamp at that point. The Back Door method, therefore, is very directed towards specific projects--I might advertise for a waterfowl project or a quail project or a painted turtle project. And, the professor may take experience into account (e.g., experience working with waterfowl or quail or general field experience) in addition to academic scores. Students with lower GPAs may find the Back Door method to be an easier way to get into school, as it relies less on the GPA, typically. Students can also contact the professor directly and talk to them during that process.

THESIS and NON-THESIS MS PROGRAMS: the traditional MS program involves the proposal of a thesis topic, carrying out the research, and analyzing the data to write the thesis. At UNL, MS students need 30 credits for a thesis-oriented MS degree. They take at least 20 credits (so, only 6 or 7 courses) of 800-level or 900-level courses, and they get the other 10 credits as 'research credits'--a course taken similar to Independent Study that gives them credit for preparing and writing the thesis. Thesis programs are essential if a student wants to go on to a PhD, and a thesis-based MS may be preferred by many agency or NGO jobs that involve research or want the thesis experience for their hires.

Non-thesis MS programs are becoming very popular in recent years, given the preference for a post-graduate degree by many hiring firms and the limited number of thesis-based MS opportunities. Some of these programs are available on-line, and regardless of on-campus or on-line, they might often require something like 36 credits of coursework including a small project (might be literature-based or a small research project). These students still have a graduate adviser, but they will not meet with them as often as a research student. The non-thesis Masters program gives the student additional skills and knowledge in a special area. Some firms, like environmental consulting firms or NGOs, and some agencies like students with this background. Compared to thesis-based Masters students, non-thesis Masters students might take more courses in policy, management logistics, leadership, human resources, or other topics that give them critical experience that makes them a good employee when research is not required in a position.

The other potential benefit of a non-thesis Masters is that the admission is more like undergraduate admissions--typically students apply and are accepted based on minimum requirements. However, the trade-off is that the student has to pay tuition and fees on their own. There are few programs that provide assistantships for non-thesis graduate students.

Bottom line--these are very different programs. Talk to several people. Get advice on which is best for you.

WHAT DO I NEED TO BE ACCEPTED? Students are accepted to graduate programs based on 3-4 main criteria. First, undergraduate GPA (and maybe GRE--some places still require this wretched test that has been shown to not correlate with potential). Your GPA is a record of your academic abilities, and graduate courses are typically harder than undergraduate courses. Second, experience. How have you spent your summers or free time? Have you worked with a professor on a small project? Did you do an Honors project? Have you gotten some field experiences during a summer job or extended classroom experience? Third, aspirations. Your statement of purpose essay about your professional interests is incredibly important. Why do you think graduate school is the direction for you? How will a graduate degree (and specifically the one to which you are applying) benefit you? It's not enough to say you need the degree to be employable. And, fourth, "match". Your potential advisor will be assessing your general attitude, eagerness, confidence, and communication ability during an interview. For a thesis program, you are literally being hired for a 2-3 year (Masters) or 4-5 year (PhD) job. If I'm hiring an employee, I want to hire someone that will be nice to work with as a colleague during their program--I'm going to be meeting with you and working with you in the field. I want to know that I'm going to enjoy this experience, to be honest.

This emphasizes the fact that a graduate program is very different from an undergraduate program. You are applying for a special relationship with an adviser (so you need to make sure you like your potential adviser as well).

Now, if you had a bad freshman year, and you ended up with a low GPA, don't give up. Front Door-type applications may be harder for you (see above), so concentrate on Back Door opportunities. And, you are going to need to augment your lower GPA with more experience. It is all about balance--with a lower GPA, you are going to need something else to show an adviser that they should consider you on par with a person that did not have that bad freshman year or a bad experience in Chemistry. Plenty of current professors had lower-than-you-would-guess GPAs! We know that everyone doesn't get a 4.0, and we also know that some 4.0 GPA students do not have the experience in the field that we want for students in our lab. In your letter to a professor (see below), explain the totality of your package. If you have a GPA lower than 3.0, your potential adviser may need some ammunition (even if they want you) to convince the Graduate Committee in the department to accept you. So, help them with that argument.

Also, I think it's important to mention that you should also pay attention to your history. If you didn't do well in math and statistics as an undergraduate, you probably shouldn't be applying for graduate programs that require a lot of quantitative skills like statistical analysis or population modeling. If you tried very hard as an undergraduate, but just couldn't pull off a GPA higher than a 3.0, that's not a career-ending thing. You may need to get experience and apply for agency jobs at a lower level and work your way up. Maybe graduate school is not for you--and it's important to state that graduate school is not the only way to a career in natural resources. Talk to a person who will listen to you, and investigate other possible paths for you.

WHERE TO APPLY: How do you know where to apply? Who offers graduate programs in wildlife management or other fields?

First, you can Google 'wildlife graduate program'. Duh, right? That's going to give you a lot of hits to track down, but it might be inefficient. But, maybe it will lead to a surprise.

Second, you can look at journal papers that you've read in courses or used for a term paper. Who are the authors? What University is listed as their address? Who is doing research that sounds interesting to you?

Third, log onto Twitter and start following people who post about their research. Twitter will help you find other people to follow. This will take a bit of time, but might unveil some opportunities you hadn't considered, including the potential to work with researchers in other countries.

Last, watch job postings for assistantships listed with The Wildlife Society, American Fisheries Society, Ecological Society of America, or the Texas A&M Job Board (a huge database of openings serving all universities in the US--I post my announcements there). If you don't see a topic of interest, these postings will still give you information about what universities have wildlife programs and where those programs are located. For example (and yes...this makes your job very difficult), some wildlife programs might be in a "Department of Fisheries and Wildlife", while others are in a "School of Natural Resources", while others are in a "Department of Biology" or "School of Life Sciences".

CONTACTING POTENTIAL ADVISERS: When you have prepared your CV/resume and taken the GRE (yes, it's a horrible measure of a student but some places still require them), it's time to start contacting professors. You should begin this process in mid- to late-Fall Semester, as many departments have late December or early January deadlines for applications for the following Fall Semester admittance.

Send a short email to the adviser (you'll be sending to many people). You can briefly describe where you are (senior, junior, post-graduate) in life, your general area of interests, and why you think they might be a good match for your interests. Mention something specific on their web page that you found interesting (it shows you aren't just emailing everyone in a wildlife department). And, try to make each email somewhat unique, especially if emailing more than one person in a single department--because we often forward these emails to our colleagues in case they might find you interesting. If they have already received your email, and it looks exactly like the one I just forwarded to them, that looks like you're not really interested in each person as an individual. And, we have egos.

In your email, you should attach: your resume, a scan of your transcripts (unofficial) with grades, and a scan of your GRE scores (unofficial). Think of it from our angle (the professor): if we are excited by your email, we want to check to make sure you stack up, academically, and through your experience. To me, someone who does not send any of that information looks like they are hiding something. See above for how to augment a low GPA with experience, and tell me about that in your letter.

Also, I suggest that if you have any traits that might open up some additional funding opportunities for me as the adviser within my University, tell me. There are programs at many universities to support assistantships for Hispanic, Native American, African American, and international students. So, drop that fact at some point in your letter ("I'm excited to contribute to diversity in the wildlife profession as a passionate, experienced Hispanic student."). I might be able to find funding for you in a unique location that you are not aware of--so tell me. Help me help you!

DON'T GIVE UP: as I mentioned above, if you do all things listed here, it's still a good chance you will get a "I'm sorry but I don't have a spot in my lab" letter. Don't give up. Don't send a nasty email back (sometimes funding opens up later, and I now have your materials on-hand). Keep applying.

Good luck with your quest for a graduate program!

On going away periodically and fallowing the fields

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 11:21:00 +0000

Any visitor to the house is interesting when you live in the country, up a quarter-mile lane. During my childhood, my mother routinely entertained the Avon lady with her lotions and smell-goods, and sometimes the mailman ventured up our lane with a package for my father. But the encyclopedia salesmen were the most interesting, as they always carried an example volume ("A", typically, but sometimes "N"). Their visits seemed timed to ensure that my brother and I would be home, so we could devour brilliant pages of Antarctica, Antietam, and Appaloosa while my mother smiled and listened for the price. "Maybe next time."

Seriously, trying to sell encyclopedias in farm country in Iowa during the emerging farm crisis of the 1980s must have been only job more challenging than farming at that time.

At some point, however, a decision was made to purchase the entire set of Encyclopedia Americana with the two-volume dictionary. I don't know if it was a good year for corn or a smoother salesman, but it turned out to be a well-used purchase. My brother was (and is) publicly known for this behavior, but the actual truth is that both he and I used to sit in our shared bedroom and leaf through "P" and "R" and "C" and their peer volumes into the night, exploring the world that existed beyond Rural Route 4, Creston, Iowa.

And, what a world it was. Tribesmen of Indonesia danced in those pages, and the wildlife of Africa and Asia charged around the spine of the books. The volumes put our lives in context, there on the farm. Thinking about it now, I'm sure that Donald Trump never sat down with an encyclopedia.

Fast forward to 1998, the year I finished my doctorate program and decided to take a pay cut from my short postdoc in Georgia to accept a full time teaching gig at a small undergraduate University in eastern Iowa. Like the encyclopedia, there was something about a career in academia that seemed enchanting. After 20 years of teaching and research, I can confidently say that the workload is never ending. No teacher at any level every says "Well, I'm all caught up, now." And, the bane of a research professor's job is that there are only so many minutes in the day, and our brains are wired to continuously think of new ideas and new possibilities for exploration. It is easy to lose oneself in the job.

The way out is the academic sabbatical--an every-seven year break in routine, which, tangentially, had its origins on the top of Mount Sainai with Moses. Leviticus 25 records the following direction to Moses:

When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. 3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; 7for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

As a wildlife biologist working in agricultural landscapes, I find the ethic behind these directions to fallow the fields in the seventh year intriguing. Incredibly insightful, actually.

But, I find the ideals hidden in that passage even more interesting as I begin an academic sabbatical period in the pastoral lands of southern England. Our family has arrived for a multi-month stay, during which I will be engaged with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust to assist with research on grouse in agricultural landscapes. A break for the mind. No pruning. None of the general reaping. Instead, preparing for the next period of our lives by living off the energies that have been invested over the last years. Side note: if the energies we invested to clean our house and prepare for the sabbatical abroad are included, we have no worries of running out of energy...

I am a big believer in taking advantage of the sabbatical opportunities afforded to university faculty. Our job is a unique one, for sure. And, it is stimulating and rewarding to have the opportunity to step away periodically and engage in a new direction--to bring back new experiences and information to our courses and research back home. It is certainly breath-taking, almost 40 years after first viewing "England" in the Americana set, to wander into the little village that serves as the backdrop for this time with family and new friends.

Today, it seemed worthy to record the first day of this adventure--with a feeling like opening the first page of an unread volume of the encyclopedia. What comes next? Not sure, but it doesn't matter. I'm on sabbatical.

The gray bits about elephants and hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 22:39:00 +0000

It's more complicated than you'd think

In the past weeks, news of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to allow imports of elephants from Zimbabwe has been front-and-center. I thought a few facts might be useful as folks weigh their response to this decision. Now, even President Trump has described his own administration's action as a 'horror show'. Is it?

African elephant in Etosha National Park, Namibia. 2017.
Photo by Kelly Powell.

Most gut reaction to the news is shock--perhaps partially because most liberals (I'm one) are primed to react with shock to anything the Trump Administration decides to do--indeed, Don, Jr. decided to pose with his trophy elephant's just-removed tail in a manner that I don't feel is respectful of the species and respectful of the process of hunting in general--and those photos fuel anger about the issue. That didn't help. But, the strong reaction is also partially because most folks don't know what is happening with elephants and elephant conservation and management around the world. So, let's address the latter. I can't control Don, Jr.'s actions.

Some quick clarifications:

Elephants are listed as a species of conservation concern under international agreement
Poaching is a huge problem in elephant conservation. The African Wildlife Foundation says 8% of the population is poached each year. So, is habitat destruction and encroachment of humans into wild places in Africa.
However, the plight of elephants varies tremendously from country to country.
The most recent US Fish and Wildlife Service decision only applies to elephants hunted in Zimbabwe.
The decision only affects elephants imported from Zimbabwe to the United States (elephants can still be legally hunted by trophy hunters in Zimbabwe from other countries).
Elephants can currently be imported by hunters who hunt in Namibia and South Africa, as well as elephants hunted during certain time in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The decisions made about elephant import to the US, made by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, come down to the question, "Does prohibition or allowance of import support conservation of the species?"

Be honest--did you know that elephants could still be legally hunted in Africa? Many people are not aware of this, and cannot conceive of it.

How to react? One problem with this issue is that conservation groups disagree on the role of hunting as a support for conservation. The African Wildlife Foundation would like to retain the ban on imports of elephants to the US from Zimbabwe. In contrast, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) points to the example of Namibia where regulated trophy hunting has had positive results to support the recovery of wildlife populations that were previously headed for eradication. Note that WWF uses a similar rubric as the US Fish and Wildlife Service--only supporting trophy hunting when there is clear evidence that it helps conserve the species.

Another problem with knowing how to react is that most citizens of the US cannot imagine life in Africa. I've lived in Namibia for one year, and I've stayed with families that live in mud huts in the bush. They can recount stories of people being killed by elephants and crop damage by elephants--the recovery of elephant populations in Namibia has been astonishing. And, this causes human-wildlife conflicts similar to those issues with wolves in the western US and deer-car collisions in much of the eastern US. Hunting is a management option in those situations. When problem elephants in Namibia are identified by authorities in the regulatory agency, a permit is issued to a waiting list of clients of professional hunters. The money paid by the client for the hunting opportunity may be US$25-50,000. And, that money is designated to be used to support conservation in the community, just as hunting supports habitat conservation in the US.

Now--a good question is whether that money will reach its intended target (see this National Geographic article on the topic), and this is one reason for the recent decision by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service decided that regulations and political structure in Zimbabwe had improved so that a client could trust that these funds reach their destination. You can read the decision here. All politics aside, I truly believe that the decision has nothing to do with Trump's family's hunting interests--but the most recent political upheaval in Zimbabwe (I predict) will most likely mean a reversal of this specific decision. Zimbabwe's political climate is now different than when the US Fish and Wildlife service made their decision, and it's hard to justify the decision based on a more stable regulatory system until Zimbabwe decides who will be their leader.

This is a tough issue, and I'm not going to argue a specific side here. Hopefully you can think about your decision on the issue with a bit more information about elephant conservation and the role of hunting of elephants in Africa. I hunt deer to fill a freezer, but I can't imagine hunting an elephant--it's a personal decision. I'd much rather pay for a photo safari, and I'm not rich enough to even think about elephant hunting.

But, stay tuned as human encroachment into elephant habitat will only increase in future years, and elephant conservation will continue to be a tricky issue. For the moment, I hope the information provided here shows how 'gray' the issue can be for these large, gray mammals, even for conservation organizations.

Time-lapse video of elephants at a waterhole in Etosha National Park. Video by Larkin Powell.

Easter is in the wind

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 12:41:00 +0000

If you were to ask me about Easter when I was growing up, I’d tell you about the lamb cake my mother made each year. It was a white-frosted lamb sitting in the midst of a pasture of coconut that had been colored with green food coloring, accented with colored jelly-beans or other bright Easter candy that was left over from the Easter Bunny.

That cake required a double-sided mold, and to me the magic of Easter was how my mother knew how much cake batter to put inside the mold so that it would expand perfectly to fill all the cracks and crevices—up to the ears.

Easter was usually a time of family gatherings when I grew up, and a busy time because my Dad’s occupation has involved doing taxes that were also always due around Easter. One year, I think my Mom was distracted and she set the cake mold in the oven upside down and used too little batter because the poor lamb came out faceless. In the natural world, this would have been a problem for the creature, but it was quickly remedied with various materials and a lot of frosting…and the next day, the lamb had his face, and all was well before we cut him into slices of rich chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

My brother and I didn’t get a lot of candy during the rest of the year, and Easter was also a time of joy when we searched for our Easter basket that was loaded with jellybeans and chocolate. We would go to church, but the main memory of Easter Sunday is of spending the afternoon with cousins at my Grandparents’ house.

Easter was an odd holiday, timewise—first, the visit to Grandma’s house was always a lot shorter than the visit at Christmas, and we cousins had much less time to get out toys or perhaps get in a short game of football if the weather was nice. It was always over too quickly before we had to get in the car to go home.

And, of course, Easter never arrived on the same date, so there was a mystery around Easter—it would be announced rather than anticipated like its cousin December holiday. And, as an adult, I have forgotten to put Easter on my spring calendar more than once, which has bewildered my mother to no end. How could you forget Easter?

Easter means different things to different people, but to me it was always a reminder of spring. A promise of new life. The grandest metaphoric myth that provides hope while reminding us of our insignificance in the cycle of life that has happened for all time. Birth and death. Birth from death. Emptiness transformed to wholeness.

For the past 10 years, my job has been to train fledgling biologists to observe, capture, and start to record data on prairie-chickens in Nebraska. For me, this has marked Spring, and usually by the time I have them trained, it is time for Easter to happen. So, perhaps I haven’t forgotten Easter—in some ways, I have been more in tune than ever in my life with the natural rhythms that are used to describe the timing of Easter—the first full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox, or the first day of Spring. I’ve been out and watched the moon waning in the morning as the prairie-chickens gather to continue their eons-old cycle of mating in the midst of the prairie.

Except this year. For the first year since coming to Nebraska, I have no field projects to start in the spring. No students to train. But, I did have a visiting student from Thailand who needed to see the sandhill cranes, and so we took her to the river to watch them dance in the fields and find shelter at night on the sandbars of the Platte.

If anything can substitute for the prairie-chicken, it is the sandhill crane. Darkness came to the river as thousands of birds descended, and eventually we could tell they were there only because of their calls to each other. Those birds must have many adventures during the day, because they sure have a lot to talk about when they land in the river and get acquainted with their neighbors again.

As we walked away to our vehicles in the dark, there was a promise behind us. The sun would rise, the cranes would leave and as darkness descended again, they would return until the spring winds carry them away until next spring when we see them once more. Cycles of life, in our own back yard.

There is a Christian story that will be read in churches on Sunday about a group of ladies who found an empty tomb. But, I have an opinion that if a Christian were to live a life focused solely on the miracle of that empty tomb, without connecting to those around them, they have missed the message of Christ’s life. Indeed, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew states that the second-most important commandment is to love others. In similar fashion, Buddhism also suggests that we create meaning by helping others. There are many paths with the same message.

The moon has been growing from a slim crescent the last few days, until becoming a full moon on April 11. It is time for Easter. How do we find ways to reach out beyond ourselves? I encourage you to start by exploring the sacred spaces around you. Find the connections between the message of Easter and your life by looking at your flowerbed or taking a short walk in a park or a timber. Find new flowers and new buds on branches. Look up in the sky to watch the geese and other birds migrating north, and find a way to watch the sun rise and set on the same day.

Then, reach out to someone. We can’t all make a lamb cake, but find a way to mark this special time of year. Football games in the spring mud are good. Family gatherings or coffee with friends also work. Giving someone the surprise equivalent to a basket full of chocolate is a brilliant idea. The message of Easter is that it doesn’t matter if your effort falls short. A lamb cake’s face can be repaired, and next year will be here before we know it to try again.

Easter is always in the wind. Happy Easter, everyone!

Saving the world through a mid-life crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 16:12:00 +0000

This week my School held a meant-to-be-comforting meeting for its junior faculty to discuss the future in uncertain times, and a few of us who are starting to get long in the tooth were invited to provide some perspective. It occurred to me that perhaps hoping for comfort from a set of people with their own mid-life ponderings highlighted by tinges or splotches of gray hair was not the best idea, but we vamped. We rose to the moment to talk about our early days, and we spoke from the heart about how we had turned mistakes into eventual success. And, there were cookies, so everyone went home happy.

As the cookie was digested, happiness turned to thoughts of insignificance for me, as the message most clear from the meeting was that there will always be young folks to take your place, and they might even be smarter than you. So, Mr. Senior Faculty Member, just remember that as you think about retirement and the need for the University to keep you around. I sulked.

Years of experience have contributed to my current grumpiness, as my initial plans for saving the world have gone south. I blame my high school speech teacher for starting this with an off-handed comment that someone with an unusual name like mine is destined for greatness. So, I started my quest. The world slapped back more than once, but somehow I arrived where I wanted to go--a University campus with brick buildings filled with people using phrases like "high impact" and "science-supported decisions" and "learning objectives," and it felt like home. Some successes occurred. Struggles eventually resulted in advances. Brilliant opportunities happened. Even then, I realized that the singular demographic principle that I studied, rate of growth, had turned to bite me, as my long-term goals were still farther in the distance than I wanted. And, the years left in my career could now be counted using some of the digits on my four appendages.

I suppose this is how a mid-life crisis happens.

My internal ponderings have not led to purchases of candy-red sports cars or the like. But, one does start to compare yourself to those nearby as you claw for examples of relevance and meaning in your day-to-day existence. My father figures, in their own ways, made contributions to their communities--one kept a small town's vehicles running for almost half a century and the other solved micro-economic problems for farm families. Although they set the bar of relevance fairly high, I suppose there are lessons in their stories about finding your niche and doing a job well to help people.

But, how does their impact compare to pile of published manuscripts about ducks and prairie chickens and a rotating door of students through my classes? Further, the world still was an environmental mess. A real mess. Maybe worse than when I started?

The cookie from our faculty gathering was mostly a forgotten entity by the time my wife and I called our son on the same night this week to chat. He is at the University in his first year, and I suppose his new-found ability to fend for himself and mostly excel at life decisions is also cause for a realization that my wife and I have one less responsibility in this world. Still, he needs life-polishing from time to time, and I had noticed a $38 charge on his student account that had not been explained. I used my conversation time to ask him what kind of illicit material he had charged to us.

"I needed a new SD card for my camera for class," he replied, which was disappointing as I hoped it would be something outrageous like two large pizzas or a video game, so we could have a discussion about good choices.

"Well, you owe me $38," I muttered.

"How about I pay you back by saving the environment?" asked the idealistic kid with no job, who didn't know he'd just landed a glancing blow on a sensitive spot on my psyche.

"Good," I retorted as I recovered. "Because, I'm not going to get that done." And, that was the honest truth. I had given up.

"Well, we'll know a lot more about prairie chickens," he replied. And I was finished. Game, set, match. Points go to the man-boy, who made his parents roll with laughter fueled by pent-up anxiety. A message of comfort laced with truth.

Do what you can, where you can. Save the world a little bit at a time. And, keep making those big goals, son.

Downturn in the ag economy: Trump and the 2018 Farm Bill

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 15:03:00 +0000

If you are a member of the ag community, your head must be spinning--and for good reason. The President you helped to elect is eliminating trade deals that benefit you, while the ag economy stumbles. Layer on top of these dynamics the divisive Congress in DC, and hopes for a timely 2018 Farm Bill appear slim.

In 2015, I published an essay on the impending bust in the ag economy, in which I suggested planners should begin to think about the 2018 Farm Bill as an opportunity for an innovative direction for conservation on farm lands. I wrote: "History shows that political will and innovation come together during times of economic crisis to shape the future of conservation."

Since writing that piece, I've honestly been amazed at the trepidation of the ag community to admit that a bust in the ag economy was on the horizon. You can see this hesitation in the descriptions offered by many (except for farmers directly involved) in this recent piece by Harvest Public Media. However, this week, the Wall Street Journal (a non-ag publication) finally declared that the bust is here. Why the hesitation to talk about impending economic woes? Is it a function of the typical optimism of farmers? Is it a function of the PR machine of agri-industry that has a vested interest to encourage large-scale production of low-price corn and beans? Or, is it simply a human tendency to hide your eyes before a crisis occurs?

Trepidation or not, the bust is occurring, and we have to talk about it. We have to plan for it.

I've updated the figure on land values from that journal article to post it here. The trends for states in the Great Plains and Midwest illustrate changes in my metric for assessing booms and busts--comparing current land values to land values 10 years ago. The use of this metric clearly shows past booms and busts, and 2013 was the peak for most states. The question now is...when will the slide towards the bottom of the trough stop?

Here, I'll restate my call to my fellow conservation planners with a focus on the 2018 Farm Bill. It turns out that 2018 is perfectly positioned to be near the bottom of the trough, most likely--and the innovative farm conservation packages of the 1930's, 1950's, and 1980's came about right at the bottom of the trough.

Stay tuned. I'm sure President Trump will have a chaotic effect on events in the next few months, but I'll predict that political will to support the ag economy may surface, just in time for the mid-term elections! When do those occur? 2018.

Landscape forensics

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:39:00 +0000

It's the end of the holiday break for the University, which means our family has just completed our round trips to southern Iowa for Christmas spent with family. These road trips are a good opportunity for some landscape analysis--to see what's been happening on farms across southeast Nebraska, southern Iowa, and far-northern Missouri.

Christmas Eve found us driving through some unique fog, and my son and I decided it would be nice to get some photos as the day waned and the fog thickened. We found an old homestead--pretty common in the Midwest as farm size has increased and number of farms has decreased since the 1930s, and we stopped for some photos.

A unique farm building in southern Iowa. Photo by Larkin Powell.

Only later did I realize we'd taken a photo of a building that was fairly unique--I didn't know what it's purpose had been. Too many windows to hold grain, and the second story seemed almost useless (no hay storage capacity with so many windows). So, the photo of this building became part of our Christmas dinner table conversations. All discussion ended with uncertainty. My father-in-law called some of his friends. No new ideas, but fun discussion. Later, my parents figured out that they might know someone who had grown up near this farm. I emailed this person, and got a most interesting response that I've posted here. I've removed names, as I didn't ask for permission to post the response--but I really enjoyed the reflections of this farmer from southern Iowa:

That building is just a mile from my folk’s farm and we went by it just about every time we left the farm. It was not particularly new when we moved to the farm in 1950. It is on what was then the [name removed] farm and I remember being told it was originally built as a chicken house. I remember it being used as a hog house and in later years for small bale storage. It has obviously not been used for quite a while. Its function can best be thought of as a predecessor to the modern chicken or hog factory buildings with the pens on the sides, the central driveway for delivery of bulk feeds and overhead storage for supplements. Most of the farms allowed the chickens and hogs free range and the structure would have been a new concept.

The windows were necessary because REA didn’t bring in electricity to our area until the middle of the 1940’s and the building would have preceded that time and chickens would have needed the light. Directly across the road was the very large traditional farm barn with a modern (for the times – there was still and outhouse) home building to the west of the barn. So the smelly chicken/hog building was to the NE, i.e., generally down wind. Like some many of the Iowa family farms, when the children were gone (four daughters- two older and two younger than myself) and the parents retired/passed, the farm passed into other hands who did not live there and you saw what is left.

If you enjoy reading the history of landscapes, this is a great example of finding clues to dynamics that caused landscape change. This building represents a really important transition in farming--it would be similar (I'll not build this up too much, but you get the idea) of a biologist finding evidence of feathers on a dinosaur (which was announced last month). Here, the building represents a first step toward more production and specialization in commodities produced on a single farm.

Happy New Years all--history continues on our landscapes.

Untitled

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 14:57:00 +0000

There is surprise I suppose,

As one sits, satisfied, in the woods

And feels Fall surround you

With color and warm moments in a

Sun-soaked morning.

Surprise for the deer hunter

Or the startled bird watcher

Who thought they had achieved

A moment of high tranquility,

Peace,

Satisfaction, and

Wholeness with the Earth.

But then a tree lets go of its leaves,

And the stillness is shattered.

If you were quiet,

And if the wind was low,

You heard the sound behind you.

A single snap, and then another,

Until a shower of golden

Fineness comes fluttering down

To rest on the forest floor

To leave the tree standing naked

And alone for Winter,

Until Spring.

L. Powell, for Laura, 11/13/2016

How to get a wildlife job in the Trump years

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 14:33:00 +0000

Post-election turmoil has gripped the minds of many, and I've noticed that my students--both undergraduates and graduate students--are more than a little anxious about what a Trump presidency means for their futures. This is not a poor question to be asking. Political climates affect budgets. Budgets affect jobs. Jobs affect you.

So, let me weigh in with some ideas--in an attempt to provide a way forward. Let's look at some trends.

First, I made this graphic for

Created by L. Powell, 2016

my senior fisheries and wildlife students. It's an attempt to provide a big-picture, long-term view of some agencies and NGOs that provide jobs for our students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Point: they've been around for a long time, and will continue to be around for a long time. Even the oft-maligned EPA was created by a Republican (Nixon) and has survived previous attacks on funding levels. The majority (even a larger majority than those who voted for Clinton in '16) of the citizens in the US is concerned about the environment, depends upon the environment, and likes to spend time outdoors on vacations. These agencies and NGO's will remain well past a Trump presidency.

Will jobs be fewer in these agencies? A Republican administration has always created that fear in the

Ironic source: Downsizinggovernment.org

environmental community--it happened when both Bush gentlemen were elected. That fear was present when Reagan was elected. Not all of the representative environmental agencies are in the Department of the Interior, but the ones most susceptible to budget cuts are in that agency (Forest Service is in the USDA, for example). If we look at the budget trends, adjusted for inflation, we see that in the past, there are certainly more dollars for Interior during the Obama administration (in some cases almost 40% more than in the previous administration), but Interior's budget was also prone to lean-year cuts (e.g., 2012). Take-home point: yes, good chance budgets will be smaller and federal jobs may be harder to get.

The work-around for current students: take advantage of any chance to get into federal employment. Pathways Program. Take a non-biologist job to get into the federal system. I know many current federal employees who tell stories of taking jobs as office assistants or maintenance workers just to get federal status. They bided their time until a position was open and their federal status gave them a leg up. Do what is needed. Be geographically flexible--yes, you may have to spend time away from your boyfriend or girlfriend or fiancé. You may have to move away from family for a few years. How badly do you want to work in the field (and this has been true even when jobs were a little more plentiful at the federal level)?

How about research careers? You want to get into graduate school

Source: New York Times

for that MS or PhD? What's going to happen to research funding? One type of funding that won't change too dramatically is the funding for wildlife research based on Pittman-Robertson funds--the funds that are derived from gun sales and ammunition. These funds have been at high levels, as the figure here shows, during the Obama administration because people thought gun regulations were going to limit the types of firearms and ammunition they could own. So, ironically, every time Obama was elected and every time there was a school shooting, gun and ammunition sales would dramatically increase--and the 11% tax would come back to states for research on game species.

That point is important--game species. If you are a student with dreams of doing conservation on bobolinks, consider getting a summer job working with pheasant research (funded by the PR funds). If you want to have a research career with focus on reptiles, consider a summer job on a white-tailed deer research project. Learn how to conduct research. Use the game species funds to your advantage. Come back to non-game species when opportunity provides--don't sit around waiting for a bobolink project to magically appear. You'll waste some of the most critical years of your career.

And finally--what about those students who are looking at jobs funded by state government? Academic positions or jobs in state wildlife agencies? Both types of jobs are supported by state-level budgets. Although a Trump presidency has potential to affect the economy, there are also longer-term economic trends that are coinciding with the new Trump administration. Students should be looking at those as they plan where they might work and target their job applications.

Take a look at this figure of 2015 budgets by region,

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

and you'll see that the agricultural states in the Midwest are slumping as ag commodities struggle. Yup--there is a connection to how many of these states voted in the election as well. But, to the point of students looking for jobs--my suggestion is to not hang all of your hopes on states that are struggling. Look at states where budgets seem to be doing better and don't leave those off your job searches. Sure, there will continue to be jobs in states like Nebraska, but if I were looking for state-supported jobs, I'd be looking at the Blue States in this figure...states with increasing GDP. The point--pay attention to budgets. People aren't just waiting to hire you because you are an excellent prospect. They have to have funds to hire you.

Academic work-around: look at smaller state schools and private colleges. This was my career track during the late 90's when academic positions were also in short supply. I worked for three years at a private college--it gave me teaching experience and the start to a research career, and I worked what was left of my nights to get manuscripts published from my postdoc and PhD. After three years, I was more competitive for a large-University position. Do what it takes. Students will always go to smaller schools, and there will always be positions there. Smaller salary. Yup--my family was $2500 away from food stamp level the first year of my first academic job. I did what I could to start my career, and we made it.

Another work-around: look to NGOs. Non-governmental sources of employment. Audubon, TNC, zoos, Pheasants Forever, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory--and other similar folks. Especially in states where economy is going well, these groups may have funding for positions in conservation and research that are not dependent (as least as much) on federal dollars. Their members or supporters provide funds--these donations are dependent on the economy (people donate when they have extra money to donate), so keep your eye on the economy as you look at these organizations.

Last work-around: look to environmental or ecological consulting firms. These jobs are sky-rocketing, to be honest. In times of state and federal budget shortages, agencies may have money to do a project but no money to hire the workers to do it. The solution is to contract the wetland restoration or forest management planning process to an environmental consulting firm. Start looking at job ads with those firms and see what they require of their employees. Plan your courses and training appropriately, or spend a summer working for them rather than working on a graduate student research project (as much as that pains me to write it...).

It's your future--society needs you more than ever. Our environment needs you more than ever!

Don't panic at the change occurring, politically. I'm not addressing any human rights concerns of a Trump presidency here--my goal is to specifically work with students on their career options. I hope these thoughts are helpful. If you have other ideas, feel free to post a comment!

Lessons from Japanese samurai generals--in haiku

noreply@blogger.com (Larkin Powell) — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 00:28:00 +0000

Our family recently visited the Samurai Museum in Tokyo (it's worth the visit iif you are in town!). I was inspired by one of their exhibits that features three aspiring samurai generals who competed to take power in Japan. It is said that they each had a different personality and those have been set into verse in a famous set of haiku:

The haiku starts the same but has three different last lines, one corresponding to each general. Note that in translation to English the 5-7-5 pattern of the haiku is lost.

If you don't sing

Little cuckoo

...I'll kill you.

...I'll make you sing.

...I'll wait for you to sing.

So one general was an angry man and quick to violence. The second was strong and quick to impose his way on the world, and the third was patient.

The haiku is used as a metaphorical lesson by the Japanese, as you can probably guess which general's troops won the long lasting war? The patient one, of course, and under the family of the general Japan had over 200 years of peace during the Edo period.

This all made me think about my approach to environmental stewardship and frustrations about the forces aligned against a sustainable landscape for the future in our production areas of the world. Certainly, a little patience might be useful as we work to find solutions to our society's needs and our ecosystem's challenges.