Michelle Vedder
Position Title:
Environmental Educator
Field Site Name:
Hudson River Park, NYC
Hometown:
Alplaus, NY
School:
State University of New York: College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill
Major:
Wildlife Management
Dream Job:
College Professor/Entomologist
If I could pass a law:
Environmental education and stewardship would be a required part of school curriculum. Fostering relationships with the environment at a young age may be what makes the difference between a healthy planet and a ruined planet.
Current Favorite Song:
Awake My Soul: Mumford and Sons
The person who inspires me most is…:
Harriet Tubman, continually facing probable death in order to save others is a quality to be admired.
If I was a shape-shifter, I’d turn into:
A dolphin, swimming through the blue ocean sounds like the perfect life.
My Motto:
“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught”-Baba Dioum Most memorable outdoor moment:
By far my most memorable moment was howling and experiencing wolves at Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Minnesota. I arrived on a Friday had been looking forward to exploring the wildlife in the area since I had arrived in the state for my Internship.
When I was told that I had to opportunity to call wolves in their core territory I could not have been any happier. When we left at dusk with our howler (a megaphone attached to a tape deck of wolf calls) we traveled about the refuge for a time with no luck. However, when we arrived at an open field, we began to hear little yips from the woods. There were pups! Quite soon after, we saw a streak of brown race into the field. The male popped his head up to inspect our group, curious of the intrusion. A few moments later we began to see more streaks of fur flying from the woods. They began to respond until to us until they sang in unison. Not long after, I put down the howler and began calling to them myself. I had inspired an even greater response! We went back in forth for what seemed like a countless amount of time, even though it could not have been for more than ten minutes.
If you have ever heard the howl of a wolf, you can share in my experience when I say I felt the mix of longing and fear down to my very core. Eventually they came into the open curiosity getting the best of them; and continued to lift their heads towards the heavens. We finally decided to leave when it was too dark to see our hands in front of our faces. I’m going to go back one day, there is nothing quite like a timber wolf.
“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf”-Aldo Leopold “Thinking Like a Mountain”
