We're partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to solve a major conservation challenge: locating orphaned and idle oil and gas wells from decades past so they can be prioritized for remediation to protect the environment and ensure public safety.
Step 1: Build the Team
We're on the search for a Project Manager with outdoor skills, experience managing large groups of people, a scientific background, and the ability to travel. If the right person isn't reading this email already, there's a good chance someone who is reading it knows who that right person will be. Help us spread the word through your own network, using the link below!
| Job Description: Public Lands Remediation Project Manager |
Step 2: Recruit Volunteers
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In the coming months, we'll be recruiting, training, and managing volunteers to survey orphaned and idle oil and gas wells within the Boone and Wayne National Forests of Kentucky and Ohio.
The goal of these efforts is to supply forest managers with extensive inventories of orphaned and idle wells in order to prioritize remediation and restoration. The first two years of this project will be focused on refining our methodology for surveying oil and gas wells on public lands, with a goal of scaling this project nationwide. |
Bigleaf maple stand, PC: Anya Tyson
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What We're Doing About It
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In partnership with the World Resources Institute, Adventure Scientists is headed into the field to gather tree tissue samples which geneticists from DNA4 Technologies and New Mexico State University will use to develop the genetic reference libraries.
The first phase of this project will focus on the bigleaf maple, a towering hardwood that grows along the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada. Because about one in 20 bigleaf maples possesses an incredibly beautiful wood pattern, these trees are targeted by timber thieves for their high value in the guitar and furniture trade. In spring of 2018, we will be calling hikers, backpackers, and sea kayakers to action. After training, volunteers will collect bigleaf maple samples such as leaves, seeds, or tree cores from select sites in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. After establishing the reference library for bigleaf maple, we will then expand to other species around the world. |
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The Lay of the Land
PC: Don Dolde (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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PC: WRI Staff in the Central African Republic
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