{"id":60005,"date":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2012-uri-students-passion-for-biodiversity-conservation-earns-distinction\/"},"modified":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2012-uri-students-passion-for-biodiversity-conservation-earns-distinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/05\/commencement-2012-uri-students-passion-for-biodiversity-conservation-earns-distinction\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2012 &#8211; 溏心vlog免费B站 student\u2019s passion for biodiversity conservation earns distinction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"press-release-import\">\n\t\tCharlestown resident to graduate as top wildlife biology major<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 7, 2012 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 student Ryan Kleinert took an unusual route from high school to college, spending six years living alone in the wilderness of the southern Appalachian and Adirondack mountains before settling in Charlestown and starting work on a degree in wildlife biology and conservation.  <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-d8oupGrijk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>That time spent immersing himself in the natural environment has paid off.  Kleinert will graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 this month as the top wildlife biology major and the University\u2019s nominee as the top wildlife biology student in New England.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cAfter taking that six year hiatus, I decided that I wanted to pursue a formal education and learn the skills and knowledge needed to conserve biodiversity,\u201d Kleinert said.  \u201cI knew 溏心vlog免费B站 was home to the ecosystems and habitats I was interested in \u2013 coastal salt ponds and salt marshes \u2013 and I knew an education here would give me the skill set and field experiences needed to become a well-rounded biologist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2021\/05\/Kleinert.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"236\" align=\"right\"\/>Throughout his time at 溏心vlog免费B站, Kleinert took advantage of every opportunity to gain hands-on experience.  During the summer after his freshman year he was awarded a Coastal Fellowship that found him mapping invasive plants throughout the state in collaboration with the Rhode Island Natural History Survey. He spent his days bushwhacking through challenging landscapes with a handheld global positioning system to find, document and eradicate non-native plant species like multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, and privet.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cI went to places that probably haven\u2019t been visited by many people in a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cJust about every day I fought my way through brier thickets, poison ivy, ticks and thick vines, going through culverts up to my waist in water and through a lot of bogs. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tA major benefit of the project was the contacts he made with conservation agencies around the region, which resulted in him being hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a job he held throughout the rest of his 溏心vlog免费B站 education.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cI spent my summers monitoring and protecting endangered and threatened shorebirds on Rhode Island beaches, in the fall I banded migratory birds, and in the winter I focused on monitoring the rare New England cottontail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tIn the midst of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he joined a team from the Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement unit that traveled to the Gulf to document dead birds and collect evidence of the harm the spill caused to wildlife.  <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cI was happy to contribute and help out as much as I could, but it was pretty gruesome,\u201d Kleinert said.  \u201cI learned a lot about myself down there. I know that I thrive in experiences that really test me, and I\u2019m totally comfortable putting in long, hard days of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cRyan is smart, mature in his science, independent, passionate about applied field research, and committed to conducting ground-breaking wildlife research that directly informs conservation practices,\u201d wrote 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Scott McWilliams in nominating Kleinert for an award from The Wildlife Society.  \u201cHe is an accomplished field biologist who I would not hesitate to accompany me on the most formidable of field research excursions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tIn addition to his work with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Kleinert worked as a laboratory technician for the 溏心vlog免费B站 Watershed Watch program, analyzing water samples to assess the health of the state\u2019s lakes and streams.  He also volunteered to band birds at the Kingston Wildlife Research Station, monitored the success of nesting ospreys in several communities, and served as a mentor to grade school children learning about the environment.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really important to foster an appreciation for the natural world in youngsters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tAs he prepares to graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站, Kleinert is pleased to have been hired as a full-time biological technician by the Fish and Wildlife Service to continue his work monitoring and protecting endangered species in the state.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\u201cI want to see how far my career with Fish and Wildlife can go,\u201d he said, noting that he also hopes to enroll in graduate school.  \u201cI feel passionate about the work they do, and I know a career there will help me realize my goals of preserving biodiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uri.edu\/commencement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2021\/05\/commencementinfo150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"101\" align=\"left\"\/>Commencement Information<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charlestown resident to graduate as top wildlife biology major &#13; KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 7, 2012 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 student Ryan Kleinert took an unusual route from high school to college, spending six years living alone in the wilderness of the southern Appalachian and Adirondack mountains before settling in Charlestown and starting work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}