It was by chance that I ended up here. I was new in Oregon and was looking for work. I had an interview with the Nature Conservancy, and I didn’t get that job, but I was referred to Xerces Society. My passion for insects had led me to Kenya and England. The connections and overlaps and coincidences from my previous work helped land me the job with Xerces.
I actually celebrated my 21st year with them a few weeks back. When I started there were five people. Two were part time. It was a much smaller organization. We didn’t have the established programs that we have now. It was much more project oriented. It's amazing what we had achieved up to that point. Most other organizations were focusing on macro fauna, and no one was focusing on insects. Now look at the work across the country that we are doing.
The people. The people that I work with are incredible. I'm nerdy about insects. The people I work with are incredibly enthusiastic about insects.
I'm an insect nerd, and because of The Xerces Society I get to spend my time working with insects and it’s incredible. A lot of entomologist are working on pesticides and urban pest control. There aren’t a lot of careers in insect conservation, and Xerces has attracted a lot of great people because of that.
I love the variety of work. From pesticide advocacy to disappearing species protection to habitat creation, and now to communications and community engagement. The work continues to be incredibly varied. Getting to be able to work with many people across the organization and being able to share their knowledge with others is great. I get to continuously learn, which I enjoy.
The organization has transformed through the years. The work that we do has expanded vastly. With the way the organization has grown and changed. At the beginning every project involved everyone. Now there are 55 people with staff in 15 different states. The way we approach projects has changed. Now we have long term consistent conservation programs. Things like the pollinator conservation program and the pesticide reduction program. We are now moving into soil life as well. We work hard to bring the obscure insects into the limelight.
If you want to get involved with Xerces’ work join the community science programs. This varies across the country. In California there are hundreds of monarch sites across the state. There’s a volunteer program to go around the state to count the butterflies there. There are also bumble bee watches. It’s across the US and Canada, where people can take a photo and submit it through an app. This helps them build up a better picture of where bumble bees are at and what their reach is.
If people have a piece of land or a stoop with some planters, plant the right type of flowers for the pollinators in your area. That small step can be a big change. People can have a direct impact in their own life and in their own daily activities. We can be doing things in our backyard and in our own neighborhood to help the pollinators. We need to put the wildlife back into the habitat.
In my own neighborhood. I have seen over 30 species of bees in my own garden. There will occasionally even be a new species that I haven't seen before.
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