FWS Scholar: Ethan Mooar
Ethan Mooar was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent a lot of time in the city’s extensive park system playing in the Wissahickon Creek and hiking and biking in the woods. He also developed a deep love for nature and conservation from his grandfather, who worked to reforest his farm in Vermont. He has described himself as a “city kid who grew up watching Captain Planet and wanting to save the rainforest.”
Ethan earned a Bachelor’s of Art in History at Carleton College, where he focused on environmental history and public land management policy. He wrote a junior seminar capstone about the role of railroads in establishing and developing the early national parks and a senior thesis about how science, policy, and popular representation of national park management has changed over the late Twentieth Century. He then went to law school at the University of Colorado where he focused on public land and natural resources law.
Ethan wrote on the potential for using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a tool to address climate change. The basic problem of climate change is proving a causal link between an actor and a specific “harm” as defined in the ESA Section 9 and regulation to a species or member of a species. It would require using the concepts of endangerment, harm, and take in ways that go beyond how they have traditionally been used and applying them in new, creative ways to address new and complicated threats. He published an article titled, “Can Climate Change Constitute a Taking? The Endangered Species Act and Greenhouse Gas Regulation” in the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy.
After a short private sector career, he returned to school at the University of Minnesota for a Master’s degree in GIS and a minor in Natural Resource Science and Management. His research focus area was on using spatial analysis to assist land managers in developing and enforcing environmental and water quality standards. While at Minnesota, he was selected for the Service’s Directorate Fellowship Program (DFP) and spent his project time in the Division of Realty acquiring properties for the Refuge System in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missouri, working on every aspect of the process from initiation to creative problem solving on some long-standing “difficult” cases.
The acquisition process can take a long time because it includes everything from making contact with a landowner, to appraising the land, inspecting it, getting legal review of the title, and managing funding, so it wasn’t possible to work one project start to finish during his Fellowship. Ethan worked on a number of different acquisitions that were in different phases and met with people involved in different aspects of the process, including doing a ride-along with a Wetland District manager as he went to review properties that he had either been approached about or was potentially interested in, and he got to ask him questions about how and why he might prioritize some acquisitions or areas, given limitations on funding, management resources, and realty capacity. Through this experience, Ethan quickly learned that most of the system has lots of room to grow, especially as new refuges are created, and that the Service still acquire thousands of acres of land every year, especially in his region with the focus on protecting waterfowl breeding habitat through the Small Wetlands Acquisition Program and the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture.
After completing his DFP project, he returned as a contractor and then was lucky enough to be converted to the position he is still in, just two cubes away in the Bloomington, Minnesota, Regional Office. He describes his current job as a realty specialist for the Refuge System as a “perfect fit” because it combines his interest in law, policy, history, biology, conservation, and mapping and allows him to make a distinct and measurable impact, even if small, with every acquisition. It also enables him to learn about and visit a wide variety of habitat types and refuges and talk to people from a wide range of backgrounds. In addition, the job requires constant learning because there is always a new twist or unexpected issue that needs to be resolved, managed, or addressed. Just as no two properties are alike, no two purchases are alike, even when they are next door to each other.
“Working with project leaders to expand their conservation footprint (either to conserve what’s there or acquire important restorable tracts) is incredibly rewarding. What’s even better is getting to know some of the private landowners I work with, learning about their lives, building a relationship with them, and often hearing their appreciation that their family history and legacy will now be protected and part of everyone’s heritage as a shared national resource.”
While he doesn’t do a lot of formal research anymore, almost every project requires doing historical, legal, genealogical, or biological detective work and a lot of teamwork from refuge managers, realty staff, and sometimes other agencies and partners to bring it to completion. While that doesn’t result in journal citations, the realty program for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has brought several thousand acres into conservation, worth tens of millions of dollars every year. Every time you visit a refuge or hatchery, you are physically stepping onto the results of many people’s research.
To learn more about Ethan’s research, read his recently published article, “Can Climate Change Constitute a Taking? The Endangered Species Act and Greenhouse Gas Regulation” in the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy. Find out more about Ethan’s job as a Realty Specialist for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Brought to you by the USFWS Conservation Library, #FWSScholar, #WeAreUSFWS.
