{"id":46760,"date":"2020-08-17T15:54:18","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T19:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=46760"},"modified":"2020-08-24T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:11:16","slug":"katrina-alger-08-wrestles-with-the-human-component-of-wildlife-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/katrina-alger-08-wrestles-with-the-human-component-of-wildlife-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Katrina Alger \u201808 wrestles with the human component of wildlife conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I love listening to the \u2018story\u2019 of the problem, sifting through the complexity to figure out what is important and what information or voice is missing, asking the right questions to help them see the problem from a new perspective, and helping them work all of the \u201cmessiness\u201d into a clear, identifiable problem that can be formally analyzed<\/strong>. <\/p>Katrina Alger ’08<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Managing coral disease, conserving salt marsh sparrows, and testing for white-nose syndrome in bats \u2013 what do all these projects all have in common? They\u2019re all examples of natural resource management decisions made by people, with all their particular values and foibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as Katrina Alger \u201808<\/strong> knows all too well, getting people to the same table and on the same page is much harder than actually implementing solutions. She\u2019s an ecologist and decision analyst-in-training for the United States Geological Survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKatrina Alger ’08 planned on pursuing a nursing degree, but ended up double majoring in applied sociology and history, with a minor in biology. She had a wide range of passions and interests \u2013 from medicine to literature to social and environmental justice.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs scientists, we often fall into the trap of believing that as long as you have good science, you have everything you need to make a good management decision, which is just not true,\u201d Alger said. \u201cDecision analysis provides an alternative way of thinking by acknowledging that science doesn\u2019t make decisions \u2013 people do. And people have values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of her current projects is with white-nose syndrome in bats, a fungus that grows on the skin of hibernating bats and has killed millions of them in North America in the last 10 years. Alger explained that, with wildlife diseases that don\u2019t directly impact human lives, there\u2019s no governing body like the CDC that regulates testing metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat means any standardization has to occur through consensus building,\u201d Alger said. Her role in combating the syndrome is to help create a consensus between different laboratories in how <\/em>they test for the fungus. Different labs have had different thresholds for positive and negative results, so they\u2019ve sent inconsistent readings to the National White Nose Response Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKatrina Alger loves the problem-framing part of her job \u2013 talking with key stakeholders to determine their interests, concerns, priorities, the scale and scope of the problem, and the tipping point that led them to reach out.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Why does bat health matter to people, outside of conservation and enthusiast groups? That\u2019s one of the questions Alger has to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was a cool study a few years ago that estimated bats contribute approximately $3.7 billion worth of insect control to farmers in the United States,\u201d said Alger. \u201cThere are also fruit-eating and nectar-feeding species of bats that serve critical ecosystem functions as seed dispersers and pollinators. So they play critically important roles in both natural and manmade systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alger loves the problem-framing part of her job \u2013 talking with key stakeholders to determine their interests, concerns, priorities, the scale and scope of the problem, and the tipping point that led them to reach out. She said that we tend to overestimate someone else\u2019s understanding of their own needs and wants. But articulating those is the most important step to making a good natural resource management decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, if there\u2019s tension between stakeholder groups, negotiation or conflict transformation become a step in that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love listening to the \u2018story\u2019 of the problem, sifting through the complexity to figure out what is important and what information or voice is missing, asking the right questions to help them see the problem from a new perspective, and helping them work all of the \u201cmessiness\u201d into a clear, identifiable problem that can be formally analyzed,\u201d Alger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alger said there\u2019s currently a movement in the field of wildlife health toward looking at problems through a holistic lens. Alger worked in the healthcare sector for six years before finishing her undergraduate degree, so applying holistic health concepts to ecosystems comes naturally to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis kind of thinking is much more in line with preventive and community medicine in humans and acknowledges the fact that health is both a biological and social construct, so in some ways I feel like I\u2019m coming back to my sociology and human health roots,\u201d Alger said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Alger came to EMU, she planned on pursuing a nursing degree, but ended up double majoring in applied sociology and history, with a minor in biology. She had a wide range of passions and interests \u2013 from medicine to literature to social and environmental justice. But after she encountered the philosophy of \u201cOne Health \u2013 the idea that the health of people, animals, and the environment are all interdependent,\u201d she found herself most interested in wildlife health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through a bit of a winding journey, Alger went on to earn a Master of Science in conservation biology from the State University of New York, and then joined the United States Geological Survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNone of my previous work experience was environmental or conservation related,\u201d Alger said. But \u201cluckily, soft skills like communication, time management, teamwork, and working with the public are all highly transferable!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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