Conrad Ely

Graduate Research Assistant
The Evergreen State College

Conrad was born and raised in Spokane, WA where he developed an affinity for the outdoors. Upon graduation, he moved to Seattle and pursued a roundabout education from creative writing to anthropology and finally settled on ecology. During that time he attended Seattle Central Community College and Seattle University.

As part of his undergraduate work, Conrad travelled abroad to Central America to study sustainability and conservation biology in the tropics. In Costa Rica he interned on a project aiming to combat forest fragmentation. He developed a number of prototype arboreal rope ladders that could be used by mammals as wildlife passages between forest fragments. He graduated in 2014 with a BA in Environmental Studies with a focus on Ecological Systems.

In spring of 2014, Conrad moved to Olympia to pursue his MES at Evergreen. He joined SPP as a conservation nursery coordinator, and brought to the table experience in both wholesale commercial nurseries and community-supported agriculture. His goals for his time at Evergreen and with SPP are to acquire valuable restoration ecology skills in order to fight anthropogenic changes in Pacific Northwest ecosystems.