A place to work and play

Rockery Pond at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

Today I want to work for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The idea started with my membership renewal coming due and the realization that I had to find at least $50 to pay for it. At least save a stamp I thought, and renew on line. A five minute task done the pen and snail mail way turned into a two hour perusal of their website at http://www.massaudubon.org/ and for the first time I understood its not all for the birds, although they do provide the main theme for conservation and advocacy. Indeed, it was two women, Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway, who founded Mass Audubon in 1896 and did so to stop the large-scale slaughter of herons and egrets in the South. Hunters killed the birds solely to provide feathers for women's hats. Hall and Hemenway successfully pressured their contemporaries to shun feathers, reducing demand, and Mass Audubon later advocated for the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
If not birds then, what is the focus? Well, land (approximately 31,000 acres of it) plays a very large part in what the Audubon Society seeks to protect which in turn conserves the flora and fauna that thrives on it, including the birds.
So what exactly could I do for them? Full time jobs range from Director of Legislative Affairs located on Beacon Hill to Apprentice Livestock Manager (well for a 1-year period). In between are office jobs, educationalist, camp leaders and travel tour planning, with many roles located at Lincoln's lovely Drumlin Farm.
The Audubon Society appears to be the perfect vehicle for a journey back to the land, a stepping off point to conservation and wilderness work. It would be strange to start the journey of protecting goldfinches on the cultured highbrow slopes of Beacon Hill with its gold-domed State House. I'll mull it for a day, which is what I do with most fancies, and then get back to making a living as a writer.