“Just the two of us. We can make it if we try. Just the two of us, you and I” Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.
“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” One of the questions on a Wildlife Biologist’s test depicted on a Gary Larson cartoon!
I wonder whether today’s colleges offering a degree in Wildlife Biology still offer the same classes I took a lifetime ago: Mammalogy, Ornithology, Wildlife Ecology, Fisheries Science, and way too many Statistics courses. While the Statistics classes were never used or needed during my 40 years as a biologist, one might be surprised that knowing about wildlife species and their behaviors also were rarely needed. What was required and sadly never taught was how to deal with landowners, how to deal with conflict, stress, threats, and the art, the true art of building trust and finding solutions to benefit the landowner and wildlife. Where were the psychology, values, and communication classes?
To be effective as a biologist, I discovered quickly, was to spend one on one time with the applicant, the landowner or contractor who was planning to log or develop their property. To initially set up a meeting preferably in their home and then go outside to their site and talk it over became a template for success. I learned to always be on time because being late could mean the meeting had suddenly been cancelled. I learned never to begin the conversation with the issue(s) at hand but to instead talk about home, land, family, pets and show gratitude for their cup of coffee (especially if they had cream)!
We love one on one actions in sports. The move toward the basket, the penalty kick with a goalie on full alert, pitcher and hitter in baseball. We love meeting with a friend or a family member outdoors on a warm day to enjoy a meal and lively conversation. One on one mentoring between a student and teacher is vital for education and children, and is a main reason I support in-school classes.
We have an extraordinary amount of work to do to make our communities, states and countries better, kinder, gentler places in 2022. Some of that effort will come about through larger groups meeting to learn and apply knowledge. Success will come in neighbors shoveling snow, planting trees, putting on street fairs together, and families and friends celebrating birthdays and holidays. Culture and arts will have a major role; we hope science will also have a main role.
I am pleased to report that despite tough natural resource/wildlife issues being discussed and debated around the landowner’s kitchen table, we were able to come to consensus on almost all the proposals being presented during the one-on-one conversations. Learning to listen, finding points of commonality and agreement, all go a long, long way toward moving us forward. ~