
Idk there’s pros and cons. I work in surveying a rapidly declining endangered fish species, so it’s kind of depressing because we’re basically just going “yup, they’re doing really really bad.” But it does help. For me, having my work actually doing something good, even if it’s small, is essential. Local conservation can make a visible direct impact. Ex longleaf pine replanting, shoreline restoration, and especially environmental education.
Like sure, big stuff is scary and bad. Climate change and federal government cuts are out of our individual control. But at the small scale, only a couple of people can do a lot of change. In so many places, that little patch of meadow is the last refuge for some endangered plant or insect in your whole state or even the world. There’s a guy on YouTube called NativeHabitatProject who shows a lot of that. A single person can make the change there, and for that species it means everything.
So when you really zero it down on your local community or ecosystem, it’s a lot easier to see the impact of your work. Raising awareness for that one local butterfly, educating children on native species and their importance, helping restore that dune ecosystem, planting those rare milkweed.
Yeah I was getting into climate policy but the curriculum is basically just “we’ve been screaming the same thing at these idiots for decades and it gets more horrifying every day but they still refuse to listen” 😭 Lots of likeminded people and at least some direct ability to do good in the limited experience I do have with conservation though, so maybe I will give that side more of a serious shot