My name’s Gary Conley, and I work with the Voinovich school at Ohio University in Athens Ohio, and I am the ecological and environmental research supervisor. I oversee and develop environmental and ecological projects to mostly do restoration and reclamation projects to improve the ecosystem services in the environments that we have here in Southeast Ohio. My first field guide was a Golden Guide Tree Identification book that my uncle had given me when I was about 10 years old. It just turned me on to exploring the environment and realizing the diversity of one trees that we have and upon realizing the diversity of trees the diversity of plants, the diversity of wildlife, and through that continuous study and interest in our natural world I’ve gained a great understanding of the complexity of our ecosystems here in Southeast Ohio. I’m interested in how our ecosystems respond to disturbances and pollutants, and how we can best to overcome some of the barriers that prevent our natural systems from reaching their full potential of delivering ecological services. It’s very important for us to keep monitoring because the systems are changing constantly. First of all we have what I like to describe as a legacy with the ecosystem, we’re dealing with events and conditions that have happened over the last decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years. Those legacies are still imprinted on the landscape now, and our ecosystems are still recovering from those changes, and we have our own changes going on as we speak. This is a great place to study how those ecosystems change and adapt over time and in the face of global warming and climate change I think it’s really important for us to note even the subtle changes. So that we can begin to plan into the future how best to manage our ecosystems so that we continue to support the ecosystem services that we’re so dependent upon. I really enjoy watching those changes that happen in nature over time. Nature always impresses me with her resilience and her ability to overcome these disturbances and to adapt to changes so I know that the right answers are out there for us to find and we’ve all got to keep exploring for those. Math and Science of course! Our stem curriculum is very important for us to engage in even if you don’t get one of those ST E or M then you could find your part to fill in that whole effort. Our future depends on it, and I’m quite certain of that