My Conservation Story: Erin Wheat
I had a… unique upbringing…
As the only child of two National Park Service (NPS) biologists, I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine, and my parents’ careers and dedication to wild places were instilled in me before I was walking. I may not have fully understood in those years what those memories would mean to me or place in my own values, but within a few years that became clear.
My pops was the head wildlife biologist with a background and heart in range biology, and my mom was a botanist, invasives specialist, and wrote environmental compliance for the National Park Service.
A lot of my favorite childhood memories are in the field with my dad, trapping beavers or banding falcon chicks or eaglets. We had late nights studying bats, looking at White-Nose Syndrome primarily and tracking its impact. His seasonal crews and his right-hand man and one year-round employee became my family. Our house was jokingly “the biologists’ hostel” and on more than one occasion we had some sort of strange animal living at our house for some period of time.
Every time we’d get a call on something wounded, he or my mom would bring me along to help. If it was a sample to study, it often first came to our kitchen floor for me to measure an eagle’s wingspan or look at feather patterns on loons. To this day, my grandma refuses to open our freezers when she visits, after one too many times finding a large collection of species being saved for future studies alongside the frozen peas…which was a little too far for her.
To me, it was just a part of being their kid. And, maybe it was a little odd, but not really that unique. As I’ve gotten older I have become increasingly grateful to have had such a unique childhood and one that gave me first-hand knowledge of the immense necessity and reasons to value wild places and coexisting with them in harmony.
When my life came to a crossroads in my late teens, I realized how much their values and dedication to protecting wild places had become something I too valued. I am now an artist, but very quickly that became a stronger reason for me to find a way to unite these values with my own work.
I launched my photography company when I was 19 and started donating back 1% of my income to conservation groups because I wanted to make a small impact. I wasn’t making a ton (and by that, I mean barely making it), so my contribution was small.
When I moved to the Jackson, WY area a couple of years later, I started to pursue increasing my involvement and stumbled across 2%, a few years fresh. Finding a community of people with united values, and as willing and hopeful to see more businesses find a place in the conservation community was so refreshing. Being a part of and serving on the board of directors encourages me to push a little harder and be diligent about making sure I am prioritizing those values in my own life and work.
Through that, it’s allowed me to connect with a ton of my clients on a deeper level, knowing that their own investments are supporting things they value as well. At other times, it’s surprised some and offered an incredible opportunity to chat person to person. There are so many misconceptions about what it means to be a conservationist, and “who” is one. When we have these conversations and realize we have the same goals regardless of what background we may enter the conversation from, that’s the best reward of it all.
I hope that my small mark will encourage my own community of friends, family, and businesses to look at how they can donate a small amount of money, time, or both to serve the places they love too. If many take small steps, the impact has the potential to be endless.