December 13, 2017 The Skanner Portland Page 9
News
Seeing the Big Picture as a Wildlife Ecologist
Barbara Garcia refl ects on a near-20-year-career in the US Forest Service
“
trees. I spend a lot of time
in front of my computer,
sadly, anymore, review-
ing manuscripts and
models. My brain and my
eyes are pretty fried at
the end of the day.”
Garcia
recommends
young people who are
considering a career in
wildlife
management
seek out opportunities
for fi nancial aid, but also
seek out mentors and net-
working opportunities
What you take, you stew-
ard -- and you don’t harvest
something without recogni-
tion of what that means
decision-making relative
to public lands in the US.”
Garcia is now a region-
al wildlife ecologist for
the U.S. Forest Service,
and has been working
out of Portland since
February of this year, af-
ter jobs in the Northern
Rockies, the Great Basin
and a short detail job in
the Southeast right aft er
Hurricane Katrina. She’s
worked for the agency
since 1999. Her current
position involves work-
ing with partnering
agencies and academic
institutions on research
and making recommen-
dations to either main-
tain or rehabilitate eco-
systems throughout the
region. She likes the com-
plexity and biological di-
versity of the Northwest.
“I think the constit-
uents of Oregon and
Washington really ex-
pect a high level of sci-
ence for managing these
places that they value
so much,” Garcia said. “I
spend a lot of time in the
through groups like the
Wildlife Society, which
holds an annual confer-
ence in February and has
some campus chapters.
She also said she recog-
nizes volunteering isn’t
an option for everybody,
but is something to con-
sider.
Being willing to move
around can be key to
building a career in the
Forest Service, Garcia
said, and that can be
challenging. Her family
moved every few years
when she was growing
up, and were sometimes
the only Hispanic family
in their community. In
addition, being constant-
ly mobile as an adult has
sometimes made it diffi -
cult to maintain family
ties as an adult.
Garcia also stressed the
signifi cance of prioritiz-
ing education above ev-
erything else – and not
worrying about gradu-
ate work until bachelor’s
coursework is complete.
One
potential
door-opener, said Forest
Service
spokesperson
Shandra Terry, is schol-
arships off ered through a
partnership between the
Forest Service and The
Skanner Foundation.
“One of the main focus
areas where The Skan-
ner Foundation and the
US Forest Service really
connect was at the inter-
section of ensuring that
we are supporting our
young people in this com-
munity, and really en-
couraging and inspiring
them to further their ed-
ucation and to consider
natural re-
sources as a
potential ca-
reer choice,”
Terry said.
“ W e ’ r e
talking for-
estry, fi re,
wildlife
b i o l o g y,
comput-
er science,
hydrolog y,
those types Barbara Garcia, a wildlife ecologist for the U.S.
of
disci- Forest Service, grew up loving the outdoors and
plines. That had a father who worked for the Forest Service,
was one of but didn’t consider a career in natural resources
the reasons management until college.
that
in-
such a very deep way
spired this partnership of wanting to create the
because The Skanner next generation of natu-
Foundation and the US ral resources land stew-
Forest Service share in ards.”
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
B
arbara Garcia’s fa-
ther was a wildlife
biologist for the
U.S. Forest Service,
but she didn’t envision
herself following in his
footsteps.
Fascinated
by
sci-
ence, Garcia originally
planned to pursue a ca-
reer in medicine – pedi-
atric psychology to be
specifi c. In college at the
University of New Mexi-
co, she majored in biolo-
gy with a pre-med track
and started working in
the medical fi eld. Aft er
a particularly stressful
job at a psychiatric clin-
ic “that dealt with some
really ugly, ugly things,”
Garcia began to consider
other options.
She’d grown up loving
the outdoors, and her
father advised her to
seek seasonal work in
the Forest Service before
settling on a defi nitive
career path. She took a
summer job as a fi sheries
technician in northern
Idaho, assisting with hy-
drological surveys and
fi sh surveys – and later
went to graduate school
at the University of Ida-
ho’s wildlife program.
Garcia said her par-
ents were initially dis-
appointed when she an-
nounced she didn’t want
to go to medical school,
but ultimately support-
ive of her decision to
transition to a career in
wildlife management. In
many ways, she said, it
was a continuation of the
values and lifestyle she
was raised with.
“The culture in New
Mexico, especially with
the Native American in-
fl uence -- I do have a little
bit of that in my family
heritage -- is a very spir-
itual connection to the
ground. What you take,
you steward -- and you
don’t harvest something
without recognition of
what that means,” Garcia
said. “I think growing up
with those sorts of values
led me to wanting to be a
part of management and
Who Will Become the Next
President of South Africa?
By Stacy M. Brown
(NNPA Newswire Con-
tributor)
T
he African Nation-
al Congress (ANC),
South
Africa’s
governing
social
democratic political par-
ty once led by the late
Nelson Mandela, faces
perhaps its most conten-
tious and controversial
election yet.
On Dec. 18, the par- Lindiwe Sisulu, the nation’s minister of Defense and Military
ty will vote for its next Veterans, is among the candidates for the ANC’s next president.
president, a contest that In this photo, Lindiwe Sisulu, participates in a ceremony, during
puts former health min- a visit to Brazil.
ister Nkosazana Clarice
Lindiwe Sisulu, the nation’s minister
Dlamini-Zuma against
Deputy Prime Minister Cyril Rama- of Defense and Military Veterans.
phosa and three others including
See SOUTH AFRICA on page 11
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