Women in Landscape-Scale Conservation: Elsa Haubold

Women's History Month

Conservation at landscape scales takes cooperation, patience, and people! In honor of Women's History Month in March, we want to highlight the work of influential women who dedicate their time and energy to protecting our cultural, recreational, and natural resources. 

How did you get started working in landscape-scale conservation?

I started working in seascapes – the first half of my career was spent working on marine mammals (specifically cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins). My research found they were exposed to a range of pollutants such as various plastic debris found in the stomach of some of the stranded dolphins and whales I studied, to toxic chemicals such as organochlorines (e.g., PCBs) and heavy metals that accumulated in their tissues. As I transitioned to working with another marine mammal, Florida manatees, I learned that my traditional scientific educational background (BS, MS, PhD, MBA) was lacking. I should have taken social science classes that involved how to work with and understand people as much as I learned about the wildlife and habitats. The systemic issues affecting manatees across the aquatic-scape have to be solved collaboratively by people working together across different specific interests to help improve the entire aquatic ecosystem. My education did not prepare me for that.

What does the term connected conservation mean to you?

The words “connected conservation” stimulate many thoughts! Humans, wildlife, and habitat are all intertwined, and the health of each is dependent on the others in so many different and amazingly complex ways. An often used, related phrase made popular by Disney is “the circle of life,” but that doesn’t really capture it completely. Drilling down from the big picture – most wildlife is dependent on habitat that is continuous rather than fragmented even though the wildlife may only occupy a fragment of the continuous habitat and for only part of their life cycle – for example, corridors that allow species to move between important sites. The human connection to nature is integral to our well-being and mental health, so considerable effort is being made to ensure that conservation is relevant to humans – that they are connected to nature and its conservation. And one more dive into the human side – when thinking about connected conservation, I think about some of the relatively recent work on “social network analyses” that demonstrate, with complex spaghetti-like diagrams, how important coordinators are in the field of conservation. These coordinators tend to know “everyone” and facilitate conservation by connecting people and encouraging collaboration. One complicating issue related to coordination, as essential as it is, is that it tends to be one of the hardest things for which to secure funding.

Elsa Haubold is Deputy Assistant Director for Science Applications of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tell us about a project that you have worked on that you are especially proud of.

Most recently I’m proud of being a part of the USFWS Workplace Culture Transformation team that developed recommendations now being implemented to make the Service a better place to work. A recent landscape-scale project I had the honor of being a part of with colleagues from state fish and wildlife agencies, other federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations was developing a framework to enhance landscape-scale and cross-boundary conservation through coordinated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs). These SWAPs are foundational to conserving our nation’s fish and wildlife within each state, territory, and the District of Columbia. Our recommendations, adopted by state fish and wildlife agency directors at the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies annual meeting in September 2021, provide a framework for how SWAPs can become even more effective at improving range-wide conservation of species by leading or contributing to not just state, but also regional and national, landscape conservation priorities.

If you could collaborate with anyone or any organization who would it be?

Native American Tribes. We have so much to learn from the traditional knowledges developed and refined by Tribes over thousands of years of interacting with and being part of nature. Yet we people who have not been raised with these knowledges are only now beginning to recognize that they can be even more relevant and important than our “modern” western science. We have to provide capacity for Tribes to conserve fish and wildlife and to engage with us, and we must demonstrate that we are worthy of their trust. Then we can work together to ensure thriving wildlife, humans, and landscapes now and for the future.

Any advice for women wanting to get into the field?

Even if you're an introvert like me or think you have nothing to offer as I did straight out of college (stop thinking that first of all because it is not true!) -- Connect with others, hone your networks and keep in touch, be bold, and don’t be afraid or intimidated by the older or more vocal people in the room --- provide your perspective, we need to hear it! You are the future of conservation, so take charge now and be part of the solution that you want to see.

Women in Landscape Conservation