Heading into the Desert: An Intro

22 May Heading into the Desert: An Intro

Hey y’all!! My name is Alisa Cloutier and I will be the natural resources program assistant at Lava Beds National Monument.

I grew up in a Japanese-American home where my dad was constantly fixing cars, my mother cooking Japanese food, and my brothers being… well, brothers. Our home, although filled with plenty of adventure as a military family, was never outdoorsy. It came as a surprise to everyone when after taking the high school AP environmental science course that I chose to study Natural Resources Conservation and Recreation Management at Virginia Tech.

Now I’m a senior at Virginia Tech, completed two Student Conservation Association internships, and living in a remote park on the other side of the country. Lava Beds National Monument will be filled with new experiences: learning about the Modoc war, Japanese internment camps, migratory birds, geology, and my favorite, bats!

This summer, I’m going to be doing all sorts of natural resource management work and creating programs to communicate to the public about bats and conservation. I’m excited to see how I can practice ecological discourse to the public about bats and inspire curiosity within the visitors. I look forward to sharing my internship experiences with y’all! Stay tuned!

Here I am waiting on the boat to ride to Green River to find a cave at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

Action shot of a 6-hour long caving expedition looking at historical signatures at Mammoth Cave National Park.