A Young Wolf Joins the Pack

Greetings! My name is Dana Ista Noble and I am the newest Resource Intern. 

I graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science specializing in Ecology.

I had found my passion in Conservation Ecology back when I was in elementary school where I won a poster that says Keep The Wild Alive and illustrates some of the well known endangered species. 

To this day I still have that poster framed in great condition hanging on my wall motivating me to keep moving forward towards my passion.

I had followed the efforts of the World Wildlife Foundation as a little girl dreaming of working for them as an ecologist and actually making a positive impact in the world. Every birthday I had all I asked for of my parents was a donation to be made to the World Wildlife Fund and I am proud to call myself a member of their organization.

In middle school another building block was placed on me when my science teacher gave me a newspaper article headlined Lessons From The Wolf. This article illustrated how the reintroduction of the wolves at Yellowstone National Forest restored the trophic structure of the land and allowed new flora to be able to grow again. This set my passion on fire and I want nothing more than to be an ecologist specializing in apex predators; specifically wolves and large cats.

While in college I volunteered with the Ridge Rangers of Florida Fish and Wildlife and did restoration work. I was also part of the Conservation Ecology club where we did volunteer projects for wildlife rehabilitation sanctuaries and other field work. I also worked with a graduate student conducting water tests from the Florida Aquifer. My ecology professors also allowed me to be part of their field research and restoration efforts of mangroves and oysters beds at Mosquito Lagoon.

After I graduated I spent 6 months working for Americorp where I worked for the National Park Service along the southeastern coast of the United States. The majority of my work was done in the Great Smoky Mountains where I did vegetation work similar to my current position here at Corkscrew. 

My last project working at the Smoky Mountains, the NPS manager who was my boss gave me a magazine that is all about the Yellowstone Wolf project and I nearly cried. I hope I'll reach my dream some day.

In the near future I want to be able to go to Nepal in order to join the conservation ecology team in their research on the Snow Leopard. With that experience in research I can get closer to my dream of being a conservation ecologist that makes a positive impact for those species.

For now I am learning land management strategies because without a healthy land the other species would vanish and die out.

"Everything has a Spirit - Honor that"