Nathaniel Gillespie (MS ’04)

Assistant National Fish Program Leader, USDA Forest Service

Biological & Physical Resources

Washington, D.C.

What did it mean to you to be named a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow? What were some of the activities and opportunities that held the greatest impact for you?

Being named a Doris Duke Fellow was a real honor for me personally, knowing the caliber of the students in the SEAS program and being named as a conservation leader within such a storied natural resources program at the University of Michigan. Financially the fellowship had a significant impact on me, allowing me to graduate the program with less debt, which meant that after graduation, it felt safer to pursue my next job in the nonprofit arena where pay is generally less than the private sector. As a Doris Duke Fellow, we participated in several activities with my colleagues, including a trip to the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which was so inspiring and energizing. I really valued spending some quality time with fellows from the University of Michigan, who were so impressive, as well as students from other Universities around the country. I’d say the greatest impact for me has been the network of other fellows who I’ve interacted with over the years since graduation. I would love the opportunity to work more with them in the future!

Can you tell us about your SEAS experience? How did it help you advance in the conservation field?

Where do I start in describing how much my time at SEAS meant to me for my conservation career? I chose the University of Michigan because I wanted to work with a number of specific professors that I had researched and heard about so I could grow my knowledge and expertise in conservation policy and aquatic sciences, and they exceeded my expectations. Steve Yaffee, Julia Wondolleck, Mike Wiley, David Allan, Robert Abrams—all were such wonderful teachers and influenced me significantly. The pace of work was constant, taking a range of policy and technical classes both in and out of my comfort zone, serving as a Graduate Student Instructor, and working for the Town of Ann Arbor and a local nonprofit for spending money.

The University of Michigan itself was a positive force for me as well: a Big Ten school with unlimited opportunities to take classes at the law, public policy and business schools to augment my natural resources experience, incredible sports teams to watch and cheer for, and a wonderful introduction for me to the Great Lakes, the Upper Peninsula, and glaciated hills of nearby Superior township. I chose to write a thesis as opposed to a group project, and that sustained investment in the process was a new challenge for me, and was very rewarding. The entire experience broadened my familiarity with conservation issues than I had before I entered graduate school, and armed with the confidence that I could tackle a range of policy and technical issues in my next career move. I tell people that my SEAS experience was a great fit for what I needed to advance in my career, and that I feel so fortunate that I was able to spend two and a half years in Ann Arbor in the SEAS program. And I met my wife in Ann Arbor, who was attending the School of Public Health, which was a big part of the entire University of Michigan experience!

What kind of changes have you observed in land conservation in the U.S. over the course of your career?

To me, one of the changes I’ve observed in land conservation possibilities in the U.S. over the past several decades is the trend of moving away from land preservation born under the Wilderness ethic, and instead embracing land protection coupled with a variety of conservation activities to restore ecological processes, species, ecosystems and in some cases related human communities. I think this is a good change because so many ecosystems are severely altered by past and current human activities, and of course, climate change is now hitting us across the forehead figuratively. 

A second major difference is that the reality of a changing climate and its myriad impacts on land, water and ecosystems is now driving the land conservation movement. Issues like climate resilience, changing patterns of precipitation, wildfire, species movement and survival, and the impacts of invasive species are all highly relevant aspects of land conservation planning that did not exist in such high contrast several decades ago. The real impacts we are experiencing now are scary and they are heavy, but the fact that we are finally addressing climate change in the context of land conservation is a good thing.

Finally, I would say that the land conservation movement has more recently begun to address environmental justice, diversity, equity and inclusion forces to guide its efforts. Better late than never, and there is so much more work to go in this area, but it’s a positive sign. In particular, I’m seeing the land conservation movement, as well as public land management, value Native American communities and their perspectives, and there are beginnings of some experimentation in co-stewardship and co-management of land and natural/cultural resources which is long overdue. The beginnings of what I see as a growing public interest in addressing so many injustices and inequities of our country’s history in land management is heartening to me, but again, there has been so much disenfranchisement of so many marginalized communities, the efforts to include many nontraditional voices and communities must be increased manifold.  Whether our society truly can make the bold decisions to conserve adequate landscapes and help mitigate and adapt to a rapidly changing climate remains to be seen, but the pace of change in the right direction has increased dramatically in the past few years, so let’s keep that accelerating! It’s now or never it seems like.

Note: Prior to 2017, the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) was known as the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE). References to “SNRE” have been updated to “SEAS” to reflect the name change.