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How did you start doing conservation work? It’s something I’m really interested in.

There are lots of paths into conservation work, and all of them are good! I personally got my start moonlighting as an NPS volunteer while I worked concessions in Yellowstone National Park, and then as a trail crew lead. If you live in the U.S. and have the option, a position with a conservation corps is an awesome way to get started - you generally don't need any experience starting as a crew member, except for willingness to work hard and some familiarity with hiking and camping. There are conservation corps programs in every state, with a huge variety of project work/living arrangements/term length. The Texas A&M University job board is a great place to look for openings!

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can you talk a bit about what you do as conservation work? i’ve seen a couple of your posts float around (the seasonal worker comic and the one about the remote island) and have looked into conservation stuff a bit myself and it all looks super cool!! i was just looking for a bit of a more personable take that what job sites describe

Of course! :) A lot of the work I've done has been in either trail maintenance, habitat restoration, or biological fieldwork, with a little bit of outdoor recreation stuff mixed in. Pretty much all of those things (barring the outdoor rec) have been in partnership with or working directly for government agencies (DNR, USFS, BLM, NPS, USFWS, etc.)

Trail work is very trades oriented - you are using tools (generally handtools - especially if you are working in designated wilderness, which prohibits any kind of mechanization) and your body to build effective infrastructure that will last a good, long time. Project work covers a huge range - brushing trail, digging tread, building structures, fence repair, rock work/wall building, etc. Often you have to work with natural materials on the project site, because hauling in lumber or stone is not feasible. It's hands-on & technical work, and it needs a lot of creativity! Your end goal is that no one knows you were there at all, because your work blends seamlessly into the landscape. A lot of people who hike or mountain bike don't realize how much effort and complexity it takes to maintain a trail! It's a very secret service, & I think there's something really beautiful in that. It's dirty, hard work, and you'll very likely go long periods without access to service or utilities (lots of treating/filtering your own water, camp-cooking your meals, showering in the creek, and sleeping on the ground).

The habitat restoration I've done has generally involved the removal of invasive plants & the planting/seeding of natives. This is also pretty intense physical work! You might have to get certified/trained in working with herbicides, which are sometimes a necessary tool in fighting invasive plants. Generally hack-splash or drill-fill are the most commonly used herbicide techniques in restoration, because broadcast dispersion is considered a last resort. That involves individually treating each invasive plant with herbicide, using minimal amounts and concentrations to limit the effect on the surrounding ecosystem. The two biggest restoration projects I've worked on are the re-planting of disturbed alpine meadows (50K plants in about six weeks) and the removal of invasive coconut monocultures from native rainforest (hacking down palms with a machete, and spraying/injecting the cut stump with a small amount of herbicide to prevent it from coming back).

My biological fieldwork has been mostly marine-oriented - I've done a lot of work with seabirds, as well as coral reef survey & tagging sharks, mantas, tuna, and dolphins. My seabird work involved monitoring nesting colonies (counting babies, tracking growth) with some tagging, banding, and sample collection as well. The seabirds I worked most with were several different booby species, Greater Frigatebirds, Red & White-tailed Tropicbirds, noddies (both black and brown), & terns (white & sooty). Most of the marine tagging I did was using handline fishing techniques, and required me to have a lot familiarity with/certifications for boat operation & seamanship. Biological fieldwork has definitely been lower labor-intensive than trail work or restoration, but still requires a lot of hiking & hauling gear around remote (& sometimes treacherous) terrain! You will also have really intimate exposure to animal bodies and death, and will probably (definitely) get pooped on/thrown up on/bled on at some point.

A big common theme throughout these kinds of jobs is the ability to work in small groups, in isolated places, for long periods at a time. I hope this was the kind of information you were looking for in terms of what the actual work is! Feel free to reach out/message me if this didn't actually answer your questions <3

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Tips for Reading with ADHD

(or without ADHD, if they help regardless)

Physical print:

cover the page with a piece of paper and reveal lines/paragraphs as you read them

use a highlighter to emphasize important/interesting parts

take notes as you go to be physically engaged with the material

Digital media:

copy and paste the text into a doc/word processor

change the font size/style/colour to something more legible

make your own paragraphs and spacing

copy and paste one paragraph at a time to isolate them from the distraction of the rest of the text

install a browser extension like BeeLine Reader or Mercury Reader

zoom in on the page and scroll slowly so you’re revealing lines as you read them

physically cover the screen and reveal lines as you read them

if you do better with physical media, print it out or find a physical copy

Both:

read out loud

pace, move around, or use a fidget while reading

set a timer for 5 minutes and read in small chunks with breaks in between

divide the material into sections and read one section at a time with breaks in between

have another person, audio book, or text-to-speech program read it aloud as you follow along

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✨Just some of my unconscious faves ✨

Banana Fish, Parasyte, Erased, Free!, A Silent Voice, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Exorcist, Run with the Wind, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Haikyuu

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whats wrong with me. what did i do what did i just tell me and ill change i promise ill try my best just tell me what u want from me please please please

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fuck, im so unwell. im so lonely. im so fucking lonely. 

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nothing like ur roommate being someone elses suicide crisis management person and bringing a bunch of pills and sharps into the room when youv e been fantasizing about offing urself all week. only theoretically of course but now imlike well fuck, ive got the shit i need right here, and i know when my roommates ot of the room. so like,, yikes 

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is he,

you know,

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OG Lillium: only uses his powers in a desperate situation to save Iris's life

Reboot Lillium: uses his powers like a pair of light up sketchers when walking through a sewer

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obsessed with the fact that everyone in las nevadas is non-human.

like, you go to this new country to escape the gloom of the main server area. you go to a casino and boom the ceo has golden wings. you thought the only person on this server with wings was philza, but whatever, sure, quackity has wings too now i guess.

you go to the bar to order a drink. boom the bartender is a ghost. and on top of that he's a ram ghost. the only dead ram in this server is former president jschlatt. slightly worrying, but whatever, you don't question it.

as you go to play on a slot machine, quackity stops you. "not that one," he says, "slimecicle likes to stay in that one." there is a slime in the slot machine. okay. that's fine. that's cool.

you turn around. there is an alien kid wearing heelies giving people drinks. that's fine. normal.

you pass by a window. you catch a glance at the 23 foot tall totem god, casually doing building repairs. okay. okay.

you pass by a broom closet. you hear sniffles from the inside. you open the door. there is a fox having a meltdown inside. you're pretty sure that fox is wilbur soot's son. okay. nice. you shut the door.

you go back. you're pretty sure you just saw the warden get up on a stripper pole.

you go home.

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im gonna get a fucking infection, and then what. thne im gonna have to go to the fucking doctors and admit that i fucking cut myself. what the ufck 

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fucking. did not mean to go that deep, this is gonna scar so fucking ugly and now my entire arm fucking hurts. im so fuckign mad. wh y didi i dot that

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the two genders are “i no longer wish to be perceived” and “i have to be the most fuckable person at the grocery store”

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concept: manhunt Dream swaps places with SMP Dream

a Dream who’s been on the run his entire life, who has no friends, no home, nothing but the clothes on his back and a stubborn refusal to die

who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a very confusing war plot, with the very people who’s been hunting him for who knows how long acting like his friends, with people he don’t know acting like he should, in fact, know them

just give me skittish loner Dream, who’s never known peace in his life, forcefully dragged into the SMP, wherein everyone seems to know everyone, and said everyone is very deeply embroiled in this close-knit conflict he would really rather have nothing to do with

(and well, what’s stopping him from running away, really?

so also give me Dream who is confused, who doesn’t want what’s being handed to him, who doesn’t want to watch people die and be killed-

so give me Dream who runs away, who doesn’t even hesitate- who finds his way right to the very people SMP Dream has been messing with

who finds his way to Tommy)

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𝖎 𝖐𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖒𝖊 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝖎 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝕴𝖙 𝖎𝖘 𝖉𝖊𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕴 𝖋𝖊𝖑𝖙 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖊𝖑𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝕾𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖉𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖞𝖔𝖚🖤. `𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅_𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒈 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆.