Hello, my name is Kalyn and I will be completing my service year with Big Sky Watershed Corps at GBCA. I arrived in Montana this past week and just started working this week at the office.
I am originally from central Florida, from the little town of Tavares. As many of us do, I changed my major three times before settling on something in natural resources. My whole life I thought that I wanted to become a teacher. I have always loved educating people on subjects that I am truly passionate about, which at the time were biology and environmental science. After taking some education classes I soon found that teaching in a classroom was not for me. So I switched to my other passion: Biology. After hitting a wall with organic chemistry and physics I took some time for myself to figure out what I wanted to do, rather than wasting more credit hours on classes I was not sure about.
During that time I traveled to seven national parks in the US, three national parks in Iceland, and three protected natural areas in France. Through that I realized that my place was in these wild spaces, and I knew that I wanted to protect and manage them so that future generations could enjoy them just as I did.
I completed my Bachelors degree at the University of Florida’s School of Forests, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences. My specialization is in Forest Resource Conservation and Management and I graduated in the spring of 2022. Many of my classmates got jobs as county foresters and timber consultants in Florida, but I knew that was not the path that I wanted to take. Even though I called Florida home since birth, I have always known that my place was somewhere out west.
I have always had a love for mountainous landscapes and all of the wildlife call them home. After graduation I applied to absolutely every job that I qualified for east of the Mississippi. I packed up my husband and dogs in our camper and we embarked on a big bucket list item: driving through the Yukon to spend the summer in Alaska. We worked in the Kenai Peninsula for the summer. When the end of the season rolled around, we got an opportunity to work as a resort in Death Valley National Park and so we headed to the desert.
Meet the Family (left to right): Moose, Chris, Tucker, and Kalyn
This opportunity through Big Sky Watershed Corps was something that presented itself through several random Google searches, and it couldn't have been more perfect. This position is going to allow me to gain priceless job experience that I was not able to obtain through education alone. In addition, I will be able to utilize my love of teaching during my 10 month assignment, where I will be coordinating volunteer trips as well as other community outreach activities.
I was able to attend the Mineral County Resource Coalition with Skye yesterday (2/7/2023), where the group shared relevant updates about ongoing projects. It was very interesting to see all of the different groups involved in the coalition and see how they interact with each other, especially when all groups may not agree on all fronts. I am excited to attend more stakeholder meetings and see how these relationships will pay off when hard decisions are made.
There are a few projects that I will be working on during my term that I am especially excited to start. One of those projects will be in collaboration with GBCA’s Restoration Program Director, Chris Prange, to launch a pilot educational program at Alberton schools. Teaching our youth about all of the amazing nature that surrounds them and fostering an appreciation and respect for those wild spaces is something that is close to my heart.
I hope that my enthusiasm will inspire others to take an interest in the wilderness and become a part of the community that strives to protect it. I cannot wait to start volunteer trips, and I am looking forward to meeting others with a love of wild places and sharing my knowledge on the subject!