Hi! My name is Sage Kruleski and I am one of the Spring 2021 interns at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. I am a born-and-raised Nevadan, growing up in a small town just outside of Las Vegas, nestled at the base of Red Rock National Conservation area. With stellar sandstone canyons and an endless expanse of Mojave Desert in my backyard, my love for nature and wildlife was formed. From an early age I sought to explain the natural world and its phenomena, and felt an obligation to preserve the creatures I encountered. 

Driven by this passion, I decided to pursue a degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Nevada, Reno.  During the summers, while I wasn’t in school, I further explored the conservation career path by pursuing different internships. I discovered my love for field work during my first two summers, working as an Americorps trail crew member and then as conservation intern for a nonprofit agency whose goal was to restore a local lake’s ecosystem. As a budding conservationist, these positions taught me how to work as a crew and use field methods for data collecting and vegetation monitoring. However, through my studies I found that I loved learning the science behind the restoration methods, so I turned my efforts towards finding a summer research job. 

I had the pleasure of working in a pollinator ecology lab where I assisted a PhD student on his project that sought to understand how the community structure of flowers in the meadows of Sierra Nevada influence native bumble bee foraging behavior. I helped collect pollen and nectar samples and identified the pollen under a microscope. While all of these experiences were valuable in shaping me as a biologist today, they were lacking in the wildlife focus that I cared most about, so I began looking towards other labs. While volunteering in a herpetology lab, I was given the opportunity to develop an undergraduate research project.  Being interested in animal signaling, I studied the relationship between skin color and toxicity of the Rough-skinned newt and in doing so I discovered a love for amphibians. While conducting the research in a lab setting, I decided my new goal moving forward was to get outside and find a way to help conserve salamanders in their natural habitat. That’s why I was so thrilled when I found this position!

After graduating in May of 2020, I craved a new experience, especially one related to wildlife conservation. I had always wanted to leave Nevada after graduation, so when I saw the posting for salamander conservation at St. Mark’s, I knew the stars had aligned! I am so excited to get hands on field work with the amphibians in Florida, and to be working in a program that is conservation focused. Thank you for this opportunity!