ABOUT ME

At a very young age my mom instilled in me a love of all creatures. She'd take me to the park and tell me stories about the Native Americans foraging for food and how they respected nature enough to never take it for granted. She taught me to value all life no matter how small. In the summers we'd play in the fallen leaves and look for mushrooms. In the winter we'd watch the deer in our backyard hunt for leaves and grass beneath the snow. In the spring we'd catch frogs and toads in the rain and watched as the forest came back to life and seemed to breath again. 
As a toddler I was obsessed with animals. When I wasn't outside playing, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel could be heard throughout the house. Fast forward to my teenage years, I applied to and was accepted by the Animal and Botanical Science Academy program for my high school years. It was because of this specialized high school curriculum that I was exposed to the environmental community. I took classes in Environmental Biology, Landscape/Floral Design, Agricultural Business and Animal Science. I was also apart of Future Farmers of America where I learned about Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Living and various agricultural practices. 
In college I studied environmental science and philosophy. Most people believed this to be an odd pairing but it brought me closer to my passion; environmental ethics. Unlike biology and ecology, I have found that looking at environmental issues through an ethical lens, in my opinion, brings forth a more meaningful and obligatory call to service. Instead of looking at how nature works the way it does, like in biology or ecology, environmental ethics looks at why nature now works the way it does in relation to humankinds interaction to it. 
I am currently a Naturalist at my local park system where I teach people of all kinds that humans' drive to progress does not need to mean the destruction of the natural world around us. This leads me to why I decided to write this blog. I wanted to further my reach to people who misguidedly believe that being environmentally conscious strictly means being a crunchy, vegan hippy instead of a forward thinking, innovative and socially conscious individual.
Thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you like it and learn something new from it!
-Nikki