Ayla Ryan Email & Phone Number

One of my earliest memories is being in my mothers arms as we talked lovingly to a tree. Yes, a tree. She took my hand and pressed it against the bark. “This is the trunk of the tree, and this is the bark covering it.” The exact words escape me, but they went something like this. We touched the leaves and she explained why they were green and that they gave us oxygen. My mother said things like “Hello tree. Thank you tree.” I remember being amazed and bewildered that we were talking to and loving on this common thing. I believe this experience is the reason for my innate love of nature and I fully credit my mother for my early love of all things wild. As someone who often enjoys the pleasures of the great wild lands of Texas, I feel obligated to do everything I can to conserve these spaces. I was born and raised in Lubbock Texas, and have travelled and camped all over the state. I’ve fallen in love with the sandhills in Monahans as I conduct vegetation surveys for my graduate project, kayaked and got bit by a diamond-back water snake in Junction in a field herpetology class. I’ve rock climbed in Big Bend, explored the sand dunes on South Padre Island, and hiked and camped in Caprock and Palo Duro Canyon. Fortuitously, I have even alligator hunted in Beaumont, Texas. All of these experiences, combined with the fondness for nature that my mother instilled in me, have caused me to fall madly in love with wild places. My career goal is to continue finding effective ways to use education, conservation, restoration and other methods for the betterment of wild spaces. While working on my graduate project on habitat of dunes sagebrush lizards, I have learned that restoring a wild area is not always as simple as planting seeds or removing invasive plants. Much research is put into understanding the ecosystem and forces behind the change before one can understand how to mitigate the problem. A personal goal of mine is also related to the conservation and protection of Texas landscapes. By endowing an appreciation of nature to our youth, just as my mother did for me, I believe I am helping to passively conserve the environment. I have two daughters, 12 and 8, that I hope will grow up as enamored with nature and wild lands as I am. Youth education on environments and land stewardship is something I would love to be apart of and implement in any position I am apart of.