Tag Archives: JBLM Fish & Wildlife

Interview with Mikala Waldrup, SPP’s Ecological Program Coordinator

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in Conservation Programs Partners

We sat down with Mikala to learn more about her role at SPP, as well as her SPP supported thesis work. 

Mikala Waldrup with a Western Pond turtle. Photo by Xitlali Herrera.

Could you tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to Evergreen and SPP?  

After undergrad I joined a Conservation Corps, which was an AmeriCorps program that mainly focused on conservation, disaster relief, and wildland firefighting and fire mitigation. I spent three years with that program, mostly doing conservation, stewardship, and learning about management practices and restoration ecology through hands-on practice. But I didn’t feel like I had the science background, or the educational background, and I felt like to be more marketable to potential employers I wanted to pursue a master’s degree. 

 I also love learning, and I felt ready and excited to go back to school. I wanted to move the Pacific Northwest and Evergreen just spoke the most to me. My aunt used to live out here in Washington, and I would visit in the summers in high school. I fell in love with the flora and landscapes that are out here, and it felt right. I really love the Evergreen model in terms of not having grades or tests, and the learning community that it can create.  

I was looking for a new job in the transition and the SPP position that I’m currently in was open. I love doing environmental interpretation and education, and I also love doing hands-on conservation work. Getting to work with the western pond turtles and also getting to lead educational modules, seminars, and workshops has just been a dream come true for me.  

Could you expand a little bit on your program and the work you do with SPP?  

As the Ecological Program Coordinator, I facilitate the Western Pond turtle recovery program and coordinate the ecological programs at Cedar Creek Corrections Center.  

The western pond turtle is one of two native turtles in Washington, and it is afflicted by a shell disease. It’s caused by a fungus (Emydomyces) that eats away at the keratin in the shells. It creates pits and lesions, and when that happens, it can create a fluid sack underneath the turtle’s shell. This can press against the lungs or the spinal cord as the turtle is trying to heal itself. If it’s left untreated it can kill the turtles. Wildlife biologists with Fish and Wildlife go out and catch the turtles in the wild, assess them in the field for shell disease, and then bring them to vet partners where they undergo CT scans. Infected turtles go through surgical debridement during which affected parts of the shell are removed. They then fill it with bone cement similar to how a filling is done in dental work. After they’ve been in care at the zoo and the vets for a period of time, they come to Cedar Creek for longer-term care. The technicians feed them daily, clean their enclosures, monitor health, and maintain environmental conditions. 

My piece of the puzzle is coordinating that effort between all the partners (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, PAWS, The Oregon Zoo, and Cedar Creek Corrections Center) and the technicians. Each week I go into the facility and lead education, and we talk about the turtle’s recovery. We note if there’s any health concerns, take pictures, and weigh the turtles. I also bring in outside partners to give the technicians a more well-rounded picture of the full recovery and the broader partnership.  

Western Pond turtle exhibiting signs of shell disease. Photo by Xitlali Herrera.

You also are doing an SPP supported thesis in restoration work. We’d love to hear more about that.  

Yeah, so I am doing a thesis on Oregon White Oaks (Quercus garryana), which is the only native oak species here in Washington, and their relationship to prescribed fire. Oregon white oaks are a transition species, meaning that they typically inhabit areas between open prairies to a more closed canopy forest. Conifer encroachment and fire suppression have really put the species at risk. I’m studying the effects of prescribed fire on both mature and immature (seedlings and saplings) white oaks.  

SPP grows this species in conservation nurseries at Stafford Creek (SCCC), Washington Corrections Center (WCC), and Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). I think there’s several thousand that have been sowed within the last year, and they will be grown and planted back out into the prairies in oak savannah and oak woodlands here in Western Washington. My thesis is related to prairie oak restoration work. 

Mikala doing thesis field work at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM). Photo by JBLM staff.

What are you hoping to do with your degree after Evergreen? 

Get a job (laughs). I would love to go into something related to restoration ecology or fire ecology. Ideally, I would be able to do some hands-on work, and my most ideal position would look something like half field/half office. I’d like to be involved in decision-making regarding restoration practices happening in the field. I also really love the work that SPP does and would love to continue incorporating ecological restoration with the human side of it—the human restoration and healing that can happen through nature. So, if there’s a way to marry all of those things that’s really a dream for me.  

What is your favorite reptile or amphibian?  

You know I wasn’t really into them before this position! I think turtles are pretty cool and yeah, I guess I would say the Western Pond turtle because it’s the species that I have worked most closely with and they’re just really cute. The corners of their mouths are turned up, so they always look like they’re smiling. They’re very photogenic whether or not they are smiling, maybe that’s anthropomorphizing them, but they’re a really docile, calm species. They have a lot to teach us in terms of the pace at which they move, as they are a slow growing species. They move slowly; they live long lives. They do everything really slowly. The shell disease comes on slowly. The treatment of it is slow. The recovery is slow. They have something to teach us in terms of moving slowly through our days and in our society. 

What kind of things do you like to do in your free time? 

I love to garden, do yoga, and watercolor. I also love exploring trails and our natural areas here. Grad school doesn’t provide a lot of time for extracurriculars or hobbies, but it is really nice to have a few things that bring me a lot of joy and stress relief. I also love making lots of vegan recipes.  

Anything else you’d like the readers to know?  

I think I just really want to emphasize the SPP model and how transformative it is—the partnership between biologists, veterinary partners, incarcerated technicians, our DOC partners, the coordinators, and SPP staff. The way the SPP model is built everyone should be benefiting if it’s working correctly, and if anyone within the partnership is not benefiting there’s something going wrong. And I just think that that model where the partnership is the project is so cool. Getting to work with such a diverse group of people with different backgrounds is something that I’m so grateful for, and I’m very grateful for the support that SPP has given me throughout my grad school career. I’m grateful for the gift of presence from the technicians I work with. I just want to express my gratitude for SPP and all that it does for so many people.  

A day for pollinators in prisons

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in Community Contributions Community Organizations Conservation Programs Ecological Restoration Education Environmental Justice Gardens Inmate Voices Nature inside Outreach Partners Prison Life Reentry Science

Text by Dr. Jody Becker Green, Acting Secretary, Washington State Department of Corrections, and Joslyn Rose Trivett, SPP Education and Outreach Manager
Photos by Ricky Osborne

Between sessions, Bee Summit participants posed for a group photo.

Superintendent Dona Zavislan welcomed the summit guests to Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW).

On Friday March 3, SPP partners filled the gymnasium at Washington Corrections Center for Women for a summit on beekeeping programs in prisons. About 125 expert, apprentice, and novice beekeepers spent the day sharing best practices for rebuilding pollinator populations. We also shared the delights of working with honeybees and other pollinators; these social insects and plant-pollinator relationships served as lovely metaphors for productivity and mutual support.

During the summit, eight beekeeping students received their apprentice-level certification. The host prison offers beekeeping education within the Horticulture program taught by Ed Tharp (pictured with microphone), and as a complementary program instructed by Carrie Little, the founder of Mother Earth Farm. The apprentice beekeeper shown is Candace Ralston.

The agenda was packed, and covered everything from equipment safety to food justice to native pollinator habitat needs. Other highlights are described in photos throughout this article.

Lonniesha Veasey, an incarcerated beekeeper and Horticulture Teaching Assistant, shares her thoughts and questions during the summit.

The day ended with spring rain pounding on the gymnasium roof, and generous outpourings from incarcerated beekeepers, expert beekeepers, and leadership from the Washington State’s Department of Corrections (WA Corrections). Anticipating release in just a few days, an incarcerated woman reflected on her years in prison: she said that horticulture programs had become her reason to get up in the morning, and meant that she now has plans for her future. SPP’s co-director Steve Sinclair praised the event, and said, “We invited magical people here, so let’s go make magic!” A Massachusetts beekeeper, Susan Goldwitz, told the group that we are like bees, turning dust into sweet, liquid gold.

Staff came from all 12 WA Corrections’ prisons, and were joined by experienced beekeepers from across the state, incarcerated beekeepers, SPP-Evergreen staff and students, biologists, and other community partners and topic experts.

The current head of WA Corrections, Jody Becker-Green, gave final remarks. She thanked everyone in the room for the part they played in the summit, and in developing and offering pollinator programs in prisons. She described her own love of beekeeping, and the feeling in the room while she spoke was transcendent. An excerpt is offered here.

I am probably the last person you want up here doing closing remarks for this summit because I could talk about bees and beekeeping for hours!

I offer my deepest gratitude and appreciation to all of you, for the travel and schedule coordination it took to give a day to this event. Your generosity of time and spirit is remarkable. The only way programs like these are possible is through the many contributions each of you is willing to make. The fact that you keep showing up with your ideas, optimism, and creativity is an incredible gift to the prison community, and to the communities beyond the fence as well.

Acting Secretary Dr. Jody Becker-Green shared love for honeybees—their many impressive and amazing attributes—and brought a beautiful closing to the day’s events.

As we have learned today, bees are quite simply amazing creatures, whether they are the little solitary bees, living their relatively simple lives, or honeybees, thriving in incredibly complex, interwoven and democratic societal structures.

Next to humans, honeybees are perhaps the most widely studied creatures in nature. Throughout the years, research has demonstrated that a honeybee colony is instinctively able to organize itself into a super-efficient society. Honeybee colonies provide profound lessons in democracy, communication, teamwork, and decision-making that we may all be wise to learn from. I know that I have learned a lot from watching and studying the bees that make their home on my property and try to apply those lessons to leading a complex agency.

One of my favorite books, Honeybee Democracy, written by Thomas D. Seeley, describes how honeybee colonies make decisions both collectively and democratically. Seeley says that every year, faced with the life or death problems of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate and consensus building. The level of sophistication, communication, trust and connection that occurs within a hive is almost hard to comprehend.

Fruit trays spelled out SPP appreciation and, so fittingly, displayed fruits that rely on pollinators for reproduction. The summit was well supported by WCCWs event crew and staff members who provided a delicious and gorgeous spread of snacks, and decorated the gymnasium with flowers and banners.

My love for bees began about eight years ago after making a visit to Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC). At the time, I was working for the Department of Social and Health Services and was interested in learning more about the sustainability efforts underway within the Department of Corrections. After spending a great deal of time with the beekeepers at CCCC, I was hooked. It was only a matter of months before I become a beekeeper and achieved my certification.

Throughout the years, bees have become highly symbolic for me. I have found a much deeper meaning in the art of beekeeping beyond the ecological value they have in sustaining our ecosystems. Let me share just a few examples of this meaning with you.

Bees enter the world with distinct roles and commitment to the greater good. The spirit of the bee has a strong work ethic as they literally will work themselves to death, however, they also know the importance of stopping to smell and enjoy the flowers —they are able to find the delicate balance between the two. With competing demands and priorities balance between work and life, balance is not always easy to attain and maintain. I constantly remind myself and others of the importance of balance for overall personal and professional health and well-being in order to be the best version of self in all that we do.

Bees play a very specific role in nature pollinating other plants. This is necessary to the on-going life cycle of many crops. An end result of pollination is the provision of honey and wax that is enjoyed by many, thus adding to their value. Einstein believed so deeply in the importance of bees to the ecosystem that he predicted if bees disappeared humans would not survive more than four years afterward.

The pollination process also symbolizes our social nature of interdependency and mutual benefit. Bees live and work as a community. As they go from flower to flower, that progression enriches the world.

SPP Co-Director Steve Sinclair acknowledges the composting crew at Washington State Reformatory as an example of the creativity and excellence achievable in a program.

Bees work with a spirit of cooperation, working cohesively for the good of their community. They show us the importance of both teamwork and communication in their day-to-day lives.

Bees are also strong protectors and defenders of that which is important to them. They are willing to give their life in defense of whatever mission prevails. As humans, we are anchored in core values and beliefs and will also defend that which we hold to be true in our words, actions and deeds.

Finally, while bees struggle with daunting environmental challenges, they show us about perseverance and resiliency. They support each other to overcome adversities, and it is that bravery, trust, and effort, that makes us—and much of the life on earth—able to depend on them.

 

Most of the funding for the event came from a generous donation from the Seattle Foundation to partners at The Evergreen State College. The Seattle Foundation has supported SPP annually for multiple years, and their support has made a real difference in what programs are able to achieve.

Thank you to Mann Lake, Betterbee, and Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, beekeeping suppliers who donated gifts for summit attendees.

Numerous partners helped make the event a success. From left to right: Evergreen graduate students covered presentation IT and note taking; WCCW’s event crew (red t-shirts) were our logistical hosts, ran the sound system, and made the space beautiful and functional; Felice Davis and Joslyn Rose Trivett MC’ed and coordinated the program, and Jeremy Barclay worked with KOMO 4 to produce a video about the summit.

More coverage of the summit and beekeeping in prisons programs:

Three expert and influential beekeepers share a moment at the conference. Beekeeping associations have given essential support to prison programs, and tell us that incarcerated beekeepers are invaluable to pollinator recovery in the state. From left to right: Gary Clueit, President of Washington State Beekeepers Assocation (WASBA); Laurie Pyne, Master Beekeeper and President of Olympia Beekeepers Association; and Ellen Miller, Vice President of WASBA.