Round River Costa Rica ’16

Kenna recently wrapped up a stint with Healthy Environment Alliance (HEAL) of Utah, a Salt Lake City-based non-profit where she assisted with lobbying for environmental legislation. She is currently a Field Botanist for SWCA Environmental Consultants working on sensitive and rare plant species in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah. Kenna also serves as one of the first members of a newly-formed community committee focused on natural resources and sustainability in Salt Lake City. Kenna’s experience with RRCS in Costa Rica left a lasting impact on her life, educationally, emotionally, and intellectually. Everyday during her program was filled with growth and inspiration as she learned to connect with and appreciate nature from Costa Rican locals, her instructors, and partner organizations like Osa Conservation. Kenna used her RR program experience to go on to develop an undergraduate senior thesis on Costa Rican environmental policy. While she had chosen a path in environmental conservation before studying abroad, coming back she became obsessed with conservation.

Kenna tells the story of the first night of Sea Turtle Surveys “We left our base camp late in the evening to drive out to our survey location. We had a relatively short hike through the jungle to the beach. Along the way we saw many nocturnal species including a kinkajou and some ocelots. It was a completely clear night, which isn’t all that common in this area and it was a New Moon making it really dark out. Once the jungle parted and we stepped out onto the beach, we all looked up in amazement as the Milky Way was ‘clear as day’ – big, bright and beautiful in our faces. As we walked along the beach we also realized we were walking through bioluminescent sand. We walked along further and found turtle tracks in the sand. We followed the tracks up the beach and there she was in all her glory. In a dream or trance-like state we saw her lay and bury her eggs. We stayed with her in quiet support and as she made her way back to the ocean, this giant turtle on the beach became so small compared to the oceans’ vastness. By the end of the survey, we were all in awe at what we had experienced as we sat on the beach soaking it in and admired the stars.”

Kenna believes we have become disconnected from nature, and that that disconnect has perpetuated a lot of the issues we face in conservation. “Conservation is more than just the preservation of wildness, it’s the preservation of ourselves, it is caring for and respecting the land and it is social justice. As we move along in the 21st century, we are getting closer and closer to the ‘tipping point’, making conservation more important now than it has ever been. As the Chinese Proverb goes, ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.’”