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| Kevin Zippel shares a moment with
a boa in the Panamanian rainforest. |
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Kevin Zippel is a conservation biologist working for the IUCN/SSC
Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (http://www.cbsg.org)
and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (http://www.waza.org),
specializing in addressing the amphibian extinction crisis. He works
from home helping to coordinate amphibian ex situ conservation programs
around the world and travels extensively.
Kevin was born and raised in the Cayuga Lake watershed, specifically
in Union Springs on the northeast side of Cayuga Lake. Always attracted
to aquatic ecosystems, he was disappointed as a boy not to have
natural water features on his parents’ property, but got into
local creeks and the lake whenever he could. Kevin received his
B.S. in 1994 in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University,
where he was a co-founder of the Cornell Herpetological Society
(www.cuherp.com). He received his Ph.D. in 2000 in Zoology from
the University of Florida. Kevin worked for one year (1999) as a
curatorial intern in the Department of Herpetology at the Wildlife
Conservation Society/Bronx Zoo while he finished his doctorate.
There he was also a founding member of Project Golden Frog (http://www.projectgoldenfrog.org),
a conservation organization he continues to serve as coordinator.
Kevin then went on to work five years as Curator of Amphibians at
the Detroit Zoo. With Herp Curator Andy Snider, Kevin oversaw the
construction and initial years of operation of the National Amphibian
Conservation Center, which won the 2002 American Zoo & Aquarium
Association's Exhibit of the Year Award. During his years in Detroit,
he developed adjunct associate professor status at Michigan State
University and George Mason University.
In 2005, Kevin moved back to the Cayuga Lake Watershed, where he
now lives near Montezuma Wildlife Refuge. Together, with his wife
Lynn, they manage “Huellita Farms,” their 45-acre homestead
with a meandering stream, a swamp, and thanks to the USFWS Partners
for Fish & Wildlife program (http://ecos.fws.gov/partners/viewContent.do?viewPage=home),
a series of prairie potholes to support greater biodiversity. Their
personal philosophy is to “live wisely and leave a small footprint.”
Kevin is battling the introduced flora on his property and head-starting
native plants to reforest most of his old farm fields. He also had
3 ponds installed on his parents’ property back in Union Springs,
where he wished they had been when he was a boy. Now he can take
his nephews there and show them the amphibians and other wildlife
that have colonized the ponds within a year.
Although lacking specific experience with watershed concerns per
se, Kevin has a fair bit of experience with water quality testing
and maintenance for ex situ systems and hopes to bring this to the
CLWN along with his passion for helping others understand and soften
their impact on the environment.
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it
from our children. - Native American proverb
We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident
called intelligence, the stewards of life’s continuity on
Earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We
may not be suited for it, but here we are. - biologist Stephen
Jay Gould
We must be the change we wish to see in the world. - Pacifist
Mahatma Gandhi
In the end we will conserve only what we love and respect.
We will love and respect only that which we understand. We will
understand only what we are taught or allowed to experience.
- Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum
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