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CAREERS IN CONSERVATION by Ada & Frank Graham Graham

CAREERS IN CONSERVATION

By

Pub Date: March 10th, 1980
Publisher: Sierra Club/Scribners

To give an idea of the variety of jobs, the Grahams introduce 13 people who work in the general area of conservation. They range from a birdwatching tour guide and a couple managing a nature preserve/vacation motel to a lawyer-turned-Sierra Club lobbyist and a swamp ecologist who helps the Florida Power and Light Company conform to federal environmental impact standards. Also included are Central Park administrator Betsy Barlow, who ""backed into"" the job by writing a book about the park; Deborah Palman, a woman game warden who sneaks up on people catching fish; and Ira Hutchison, a black deputy director of the National Park Service who talks about ""soul satisfaction in leisure activities."" Though all are presumably committed to wildlife or the environment, no particular battles or issues are aired in these bland profiles. Some of the Grahams' subjects have followed straight-arrow routes to their careers based on early childhood interests; others floundered before finding their fields. The Grahams trace both types of courses in a similar, slack manner, which neither brings the individuals to life nor makes any particular point except that there are different kinds of jobs in conservation and that ""the barriers of sex and race are breaking down."" For those who are interested in conservation jobs, and who harken to the authors' acknowledgment in a foreword that ""there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of applicants for each opening,"" that might be enough.