{"id":5156,"date":"2016-07-09T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T22:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=5156"},"modified":"2016-07-09T15:04:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T22:04:27","slug":"medeiros-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/07\/medeiros-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Medeiros"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.<\/em>
\nPosition<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Research Biologist
\n\"amedeiros_profile\"Art Medeiros is a reluctant expert. He came to ecology gradually, first as a non-scientific plant enthusiast, interested only in local Hawaiian flora, wanting to know only the Hawaiian names of the plants around him. As he learned more and more about the islands\u2019 natural history, he grew worried about the spread of weeds through his favorite places. \u201cI saw things going extinct, which triggered my interest in finding out why that was happening. I wanted to know what was going on, and that was the beginning of the journey.\u201d
\nArt began with a volunteer project, putting up fencing to keep non-native animals out of Haleakala National Park, one of the premier rain forest areas in the Hawaiian Islands. He established a reputation among the local park rangers as someone knowledgeable about the area and eventually was offered a job working for the park\u2019s research biologist. First, Art declined\u00a0\u00a0the offer. \u201cI had always considered botany my hobby. I was skeptical about taking it on as my job. Could doing something I love be a valid career option?\u201d
\nThe park biologist told him that based on what people had said about Art, he would not regret taking the job. \u201cSo, I said okay, there\u2019s a time in life when you need to try something. It\u2019s time to take a chance. And I took it.\u201d
\nAlthough Art didn\u2019t have a degree in science, he became friends with an eminent professor who became his mentor. \u201cHe reminded me that many of the great biologists didn\u2019t have degrees. Many had gifts, and he thought I did too. It was through conversations with him about Hawaiian plants that my confidence grew. He let me know that I was on course and that I was challenging the limits of what was known. Most biologists can point to a handful of people who profoundly influenced them, who gave them the feeling that they could do it.\u201d
\nFrom there, Art worked on a tremendous variety of projects for the Biological Resources Division of the US Geological Survey in Hawaii. He is currently program field leader at Haleakala National Park Field Station and is also a graduate student working on his doctoral degree in botany. He studies the mechanisms of weed invasions, the role of disturbances on natural ecosystems, and investigates how fruit-eating birds aid in the spread of non-native plants throughout the islands.
\nArt thrives on applying ecological knowledge to local-level management concerns. His day-to-day work ranges from rain forest field trips to \u201cboring, but ultimately constructive meetings,\u201d and he is particularly pleased to be involved with community education projects designed to bring scientific understanding and information to local Hawaiians. \u201cEmpowering Hawaiians with science is going to be very good. I am extremely pleased that I can play a role in that.\u201d
\nWhen advising students interested in biology, Art says, \u201cIf your heart is really in it, if you\u2019re really committed, if you really feel strongly, try it. You have to love what you do if you want to be among the best in a growing field.\u201d
\n\u201cI get to work every day in the kinds of places people spend thousands of dollars to see on \u2018ecovacations.\u2019 This is worth zillions of dollars to me. For me, there would be no other way to live.\u201d
\n\u201cUltimately, I\u2019m proud of what we\u2019re doing. I wonder how future generations will judge the quality of\u00a0\u00a0our stewardship. I hope they think we did our best. I know I\u2019m going to look back when I retire and say, \u2018Well, we worked hard.\u2019 It\u2019s better to try something, because we know what\u2019s going to happen if we do nothing.\u201d
\nSave<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004. Position\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Research Biologist Art Medeiros is a reluctant expert. He came to ecology gradually, first as a non-scientific plant enthusiast, interested only in local Hawaiian flora, wanting to know only the Hawaiian names of the plants around him. As he learned more and more about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,155,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biographies","category-ecologist-directory","category-personal-accounts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}