Rachel Esralew (16938529115)

Rachel Esralew, Hydrologist
Credit: USFWS
Rachel Esralew, Hydrologist, Region 8 Refuges Inventory and Monitoring Program, Sacramento, California, Sacramento, Calif.
Female Conservation Hero or Mentor?
I honestly don't know! Seems like I need to find one, soon. I suppose my answer is any woman who enters a STEM field and seeks to use scientific data and research to advance conservation actions.
Where did you go to school?
B.S. at Rutgers University, M.S. (applied geosciences) at University of Pennsylvania
What did you study?
Natural resources management (Major) and environmental geomatics (Minor) at Rutgers University, hydrogeology at University of Pennsylvania
How did you get interested in conservation?
After several backpacking trips in the Sangre de Christo Mountains in northern New Mexico as a child, I knew that I needed to live and work in the outdoors which led me to study ecology. When I learned how humans have been harming ecosystem function through development, I decided that I wanted to help support conservation. After school and many work experiences (U.S. Geological Survey and then Fish and Wildlife Service), I came to learn that water is a highly limiting factor on both ecosystem health and societal welfare, and that we need to strike a balance to accomplish our goals. No better place to study those challenges but in the arid west!
What’s your favorite species and why?
Devil's Hole pupfish. They are incredibly unique and determined to survive! Hopefully we can help them accomplish their goals.
If you could have one incredible animal adaptation, what would it be?

Gills, so I can stay down longer to explore.