Our People
Rachel King – Alumni Spotlight
Where are you now and what are you doing?
I have been working at Ecological Associates, Inc. since 2018 as a Senior Wildlife Specialist, a technical lead role for the company. Ecological Associates, Inc., or EAI, is an environmental consulting firm in Florida that focuses on species and ecosystem management, monitoring, and research. We work with a variety of clients, such as federal, state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, utility providers, engineering firms and even private homeowners. EAI provides environmental services that include coastal species monitoring, environmental resource permitting, water quality monitoring, environmental assessments, and habitat conservation planning, just to name a few.
My role at EAI is primarily wildlife and permitting focused. I am a permitted Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent and Registered Burrowing Owl Agent for the company and I serve as the team leader for the company’s gopher tortoise program. In addition, I manage multiple large-scale wildlife monitoring and management projects, including those for federally listed crested caracaras, Florida scrub-jays, Florida bonneted bats, and Everglade snail kites. I am responsible for final deliverables to our clients which may include extensive technical report writing and utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) to map findings. I am currently training to become a Permitted FWC Imperiled Beach Nesting Bird Monitor as well as studying analysis software used for bat acoustic surveys.
Other non-wildlife duties include conducting environmental assessments, delineating wetlands, obtaining environmental resource permits, and overseeing construction compliance projects. As a senior staff member at EAI, I assist with training junior staff, reviewing final deliverables and act as the primary resource for inquiries related to wildlife, habitats, and permitting.
What is one way your work is having a positive impact on natural resources and conservation?
My job focuses on minimizing or completely avoiding impacts on environmental resources, whether it be wetlands or wildlife. I work for a company that values the environment, and we strive to work with clients that align with our values. Much of my work involves conducting surveys for wetlands, gopher tortoises and other listed species during the design phase of the client’s project. This allows me to coordinate with the client to minimize or avoid environmental impacts.
I am also lucky enough to be able to work on some amazing habitat restoration and management projects, including living shoreline projects, scrub management, and several projects related to Everglades restoration. My favorite project is a long-term Florida scrub-jay monitoring program on private lands that I have been one of the leads on now for almost seven years!
How did your time at Ichauway help prepare you for your current job or career?
Ichauway prepared me for both my current job and my overall career in too many ways to count. I learned a variety of technical skills including but not limited to: conducting gopher tortoise burrow surveys, video scoping tortoise burrows, tracking animals using radio telemetry, capturing wildlife via a wide array of trapping methods, handling, marking, and measuring herpetofauna, and even installing silt fencing, which I do quite a bit of in my current position! I learned how to set up a conduct scientific studies with large field work components and quickly learned the very important lesson that nothing ever goes exactly to plan and that flexibility and back up plans are essential in this line of work.
I also learned many softer skills while working and living at Ichauway, which is one of the few places where you will have such a diverse group of people, from young technicians from Pennsylvania to PhD students from Scotland to operations staff who have lived at Ichauway for the majority of their lives, all living at the same place at the same time chatting over a fire pit or at the deer shed. Being around all these wonderful people and hearing their perspectives on a variety of topics has greatly benefited me in my current position, as I work and communicate with clients, construction crews, members of the public, and agency staff who all have varied backgrounds and levels of understanding of wildlife and ecology.
What is one fond memory you have of your time at Ichauway?
Again, there are too many to count! I was living and working at Ichauway for the summer of 2011 as a field technician and then from May 2012-November 2014, with most of that time working on my Master’s research. I spent much of my free time playing volleyball with colleagues, picking blackberries, swimming in the river and the creek, socializing around campfires, wildlife watching (and occasionally hunting) from my hunting stand, and going herping at night after rain events. One memory that currently stands out to me involved a rather large alligator. I was working on my graduate research on turtles, and I had set a turtle hoop net trap on the Ichawaynochaway Creek behind Bobby Bass’s house. The next day I went to check it and found it almost completely submerged, and when I went to pull it out of the water, I found that a very large alligator was stuck in the trap! I asked Bobby to come help me (I am calling you out, Bobby!) but once he saw it, he said, “no thank you!”. I then called my advisor, Dr. Lora Smith, who is not a very large person, and the two of us dragged the alligator onto the shore, sat on it, and cut it loose, all while Bobby and some other guys watched and provided commentary. Fun times!
Rachel King
Where are you now and what are you doing?
I have been working at Ecological Associates, Inc. since 2018 as a Senior Wildlife Specialist, a technical lead role for the company. Ecological Associates, Inc., or EAI, is an environmental consulting firm in Florida that focuses on species and ecosystem management, monitoring, and research. We work with a variety of clients, such as federal, state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, utility providers, engineering firms and even private homeowners. EAI provides environmental services that include coastal species monitoring, environmental resource permitting, water quality monitoring, environmental assessments, and habitat conservation planning, just to name a few.
My role at EAI is primarily wildlife and permitting focused. I am a permitted Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent and Registered Burrowing Owl Agent for the company and I serve as the team leader for the company’s gopher tortoise program. In addition, I manage multiple large-scale wildlife monitoring and management projects, including those for federally listed crested caracaras, Florida scrub-jays, Florida bonneted bats, and Everglade snail kites. I am responsible for final deliverables to our clients which may include extensive technical report writing and utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) to map findings. I am currently training to become a Permitted FWC Imperiled Beach Nesting Bird Monitor as well as studying analysis software used for bat acoustic surveys.
Other non-wildlife duties include conducting environmental assessments, delineating wetlands, obtaining environmental resource permits, and overseeing construction compliance projects. As a senior staff member at EAI, I assist with training junior staff, reviewing final deliverables and act as the primary resource for inquiries related to wildlife, habitats, and permitting.
What is one way your work is having a positive impact on natural resources and conservation?
My job focuses on minimizing or completely avoiding impacts on environmental resources, whether it be wetlands or wildlife. I work for a company that values the environment, and we strive to work with clients that align with our values. Much of my work involves conducting surveys for wetlands, gopher tortoises and other listed species during the design phase of the client’s project. This allows me to coordinate with the client to minimize or avoid environmental impacts.
I am also lucky enough to be able to work on some amazing habitat restoration and management projects, including living shoreline projects, scrub management, and several projects related to Everglades restoration. My favorite project is a long-term Florida scrub-jay monitoring program on private lands that I have been one of the leads on now for almost seven years!
How did your time at Ichauway help prepare you for your current job or career?
Ichauway prepared me for both my current job and my overall career in too many ways to count. I learned a variety of technical skills including but not limited to: conducting gopher tortoise burrow surveys, video scoping tortoise burrows, tracking animals using radio telemetry, capturing wildlife via a wide array of trapping methods, handling, marking, and measuring herpetofauna, and even installing silt fencing, which I do quite a bit of in my current position! I learned how to set up a conduct scientific studies with large field work components and quickly learned the very important lesson that nothing ever goes exactly to plan and that flexibility and back up plans are essential in this line of work.
I also learned many softer skills while working and living at Ichauway, which is one of the few places where you will have such a diverse group of people, from young technicians from Pennsylvania to PhD students from Scotland to operations staff who have lived at Ichauway for the majority of their lives, all living at the same place at the same time chatting over a fire pit or at the deer shed. Being around all these wonderful people and hearing their perspectives on a variety of topics has greatly benefited me in my current position, as I work and communicate with clients, construction crews, members of the public, and agency staff who all have varied backgrounds and levels of understanding of wildlife and ecology.
What is one fond memory you have of your time at Ichauway?
Again, there are too many to count! I was living and working at Ichauway for the summer of 2011 as a field technician and then from May 2012-November 2014, with most of that time working on my Master’s research. I spent much of my free time playing volleyball with colleagues, picking blackberries, swimming in the river and the creek, socializing around campfires, wildlife watching (and occasionally hunting) from my hunting stand, and going herping at night after rain events. One memory that currently stands out to me involved a rather large alligator. I was working on my graduate research on turtles, and I had set a turtle hoop net trap on the Ichawaynochaway Creek behind Bobby Bass’s house. The next day I went to check it and found it almost completely submerged, and when I went to pull it out of the water, I found that a very large alligator was stuck in the trap! I asked Bobby to come help me (I am calling you out, Bobby!) but once he saw it, he said, “no thank you!”. I then called my advisor, Dr. Lora Smith, who is not a very large person, and the two of us dragged the alligator onto the shore, sat on it, and cut it loose, all while Bobby and some other guys watched and provided commentary. Fun times!
