Marylou believes that educating youth about conservation begins with
spending time outdoors. “Children have to first be made aware of something.
Then you can teach them about its importance," she said.
from UGA with a degree in Wildlife Biology. But finding
full-time work in her field of study was more difficult than
she had imagined.
Marylou’s first job was seasonal work with the National
Park Service. “Basically, I was doing amphibian and reptile
surveys. For example, we could determine that a particular
frog was declining. I went out and looked for them under
logs and debris. It was a lot of fun, but it made me realize
that I wanted to do more than document species. I wanted
to do something with that information that would make a
difference. I wanted to know why that frog was declining
and what we could do about it. And for that, I was going to
need a higher degree.”
58 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
In 2014, Marylou graduated with a master’s degree in
Integrative Biology from Kennesaw State University. But
even with a higher degree, she could only find seasonal
work. The job was with the US Geological Survey in
Maryland. “They have a program called the Amphibian
Research Monitoring Initiative,” said Marylou. “My job
was to go out and look for rare amphibians in Maryland,
Virginia, and DC, which provided me with more experience
working in different habitats.”
After a season of work in the Northeast, Marylou
was ready to come back to Georgia. “I found work doing
controlled burns with a prescribed fire crew in southeast
Georgia. I had to take a week long course that involved