From the Field

This section features Postcards from the Field written by this summer's Shell Conservation Interns, and messages from conservation leaders reflecting on what motivated them to get involved in their chosen field.

This summer, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has an enthusiastic team of 31 interns from all over Canada engaged at NCC sites doing such activities as conducting flora and fauna surveys in Nova Scotia, taking photo reference points in Alberta and mapping threatened species in Ontario. The Shell Conservation Interns make a huge contribution to NCC's essential stewardship work and help to monitor and maintain NCC sites. Simply click on the map to the right to meet the 2009 interns.

Getting Started in the Field

John Lounds

John Lounds
President, Nature Conservancy of Canada

As long as I remember, I have loved the outdoors. Growing up in a small town in rural Ontario or visiting the family cottage on the St. Lawrence River, I was fascinated by the world around me. These experiences juxtaposed with what was happening to our environment in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s influenced my career direction.

On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, had so much oil on it that it actually caught on fire! A waterway on fire – surely something that should not happen! I was appalled that we were polluting our world to such an extent.

In the early 1970s, I had a wonderful, demanding, no-nonsense Grade 12 and 13 geography teacher. He inspired me to understand that something could be done, and challenged me to come up with creative ways to address problems of urban decay and environmental degradation. Those were heady years of ideals and ideas, not yet circumscribed by the realities of funding and politics.

I studied urban and regional planning in university and went on to obtain my Masters in Environmental Studies, meeting lots of wonderful and thought-provoking people along the way – many of whom have remained lifelong friends and colleagues.

After several years of working with the government of Ontario, culminating in a two-year assignment with the Ontario Round Table for Environment and the Economy, I got my chance to move to the NGO (non-governmental organization) sector as Executive Director of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. It was a quite a risk for me at the time – lower pay, less job security – but I knew that if I didn't try to realize my dreams, I would never know if I could.

It has worked out well. That experience and my work now at the Nature Conservancy of Canada have been the most professionally rewarding years of my life. To wake up every day and do something on behalf of the natural world is one of the best jobs you can have – I feel very privileged indeed. Hold on to, and take a chance on, your dreams. You may not be successful every time, but you will be enough times to feel proud of yourself and of what you are contributing to ensure that our world is left in better shape than we found it.