BETH FLINT

WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST

- Melissa L. Weber

Beth Flint lives in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii located on the island of Oahu. She is the seabird coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Pacific Islands Refuges and Monuments Office. She keeps track of the millions of seabirds in the U.S. Marine National Monuments and works to ensure their survival. Since 1990, she has designed and run many projects that have helped seabirds.

In 2019, Flint received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group, an organization that studies and protects seabirds and their habitats. This group honored her for her work in habitat restoration and conservation, and for mentoring hundreds of other seabird biologists.

WHAT DO YOU DO AS A WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST?

As a wildlife biologist in the National Refuge System, I count and monitor species and their habitats and keep track of the threats to them. We enhance and restore habitats. I keep up on the scientific literature of species and communicate new information about them to our staff and to the public.

A wildlife biologist often works in the fields of forestry, resource management, zoology, and botany. You're expected to know about organisms and their habitats. I have a degree in wildlife biology. I use things I learned in college every day. My job is perfect for me!

ARE YOU AN EXPERT IN WILDLIFE OR BIOLOGY?

I'm more of a generalist, using what I've learned in different fields to work to protect the National Wildlife Refuge Systems. These are lands and waters set aside for the people of the world. The primary goal is the protection of wildlife and their habitats. The four U.S. Marine National Monuments of the Pacific are among the largest marine protected areas in the world.

WHAT WERE YOU INTERESTED IN AS A KID? DID YOU HAVE ANY INCLINATION THAT YOU WOULD END UP DOING WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING?