Charlie Booher (pictured left) is a senior Honors College student majoring in fisheries and wildlife in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and public policy in the College of Social Science. The following student view is repurposed content.
I grew up harvesting sap to make maple syrup during spring thaws in Michigan and Wisconsin — a memory that fuels my passion and studies. Making maple syrup is a big part of my family’s legacy, as my great-grandpa started this practice in southwest Michigan in the 1950s.
It is a tradition that I am very proud to be able to carry on, which is why one of my favorite MSU memories is making maple syrup on campus with the Forestry Club at the MSU Tree Research Center. For me, making maple syrup is a good reminder of why I pursue what I’m doing. It is really important for me to have a close connection to the land where I live and to share that with others.
Conservation and policy are common themes in many of my academic and professional experiences; I was drawn to MSU because of the opportunities it offers to combine these passions.
In the summer of 2019, I served as an executive wildlife policy and research intern at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department based in Austin, Texas, where I contributed to state and federal policy and planning efforts. My fieldwork included conducting habitat surveys and monitoring bird, reptile and mammal species across the various Texas ecosystems. I surveyed coastal fisheries, tracked alligator snapping turtles and assessed populations of red-crowned parrots.
In 2018, I was part of the MSU Demmer Scholar summer program in Washington, D.C., and interned at Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. I have also worked with the Michigan United Conservation Clubs as a state policy intern and with MSU Research on the Ecology of Carnivores at their prey laboratory on campus.
In these roles, it was interesting for me to see how different states handle conservation policymaking and how these rules impact people in their daily lives.
Through my experience in using historical and political context to inform wildlife and natural resource conservation, I was one of 55 students selected as a 2019 Udall Scholar. As part of the scholarship, I attended the Udall Scholars orientation conference last August, in Tucson, Arizona, where I connected with other scholars in the 2019 cohort, alumni of the program and community environmental leaders.
I am finding that my background in fisheries and wildlife, and public policy is a rare combination, as there aren’t a lot of people who are trained and knowledgeable in both disciplines. I hope that I can play a role in bridging this gap in my future career.