CWC: Comms for Conservation

THE WHO:

Taylor Pool is an experienced environmental and external affairs leader with a demonstrated history of working in government relations and communications. He is currently the acting Assistant Regional Director, Office of Communications at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. ??

THE Q&A:

How’d you get your start in comms?

I landed in this comms shop doing work around the World Trade Organization to try and end subsidies that enhanced overfishing, or increased overfishing. It was writing press releases and pitching stories to some local outlets in Louisiana for a couple of different things and I really enjoyed it. And that was my very first foray into comms and then I kind of took a detour for a while on the legislative route.

?

I spent time on the hill in the marble congressional hallways and it drew me in. I oriented myself toward the Congressional Affairs side of things for a good 7 years or so. I also thought I was going to get a formal law degree with the intention of coming back to DC and working on the hill as an attorney. Then I went to Vermont Law School for a Master of Environmental Law and went to Duke University for a second master's more of a policy sciency thing, and enjoyed that but still found my way back to the DC area and did some government relations, Congressional Affairs stuff for Chesapeake Bay Foundation and for American Fisheries Society.

Ultimately, there was an opening down here in our Southeast Regional for the Fish and Wildlife Service to get back into the public affairs, and storytelling comms side of things. So, I came back down here and jumped at that opportunity. And now I lead a team of those people.

?

There’s a common interest that drove these jobs focused on environmentalism and fisheries – tell me more about that.?

Ever since I was a kid growing up in Northern Virginia, there was this park close to our house Hemlock Overlook Park and there's this trail and it has this really great canopy of kind of overlapping beech trees and oak trees and my favorite thing to do is just to kind of lay down in the understory and just look through as the sun was coming and see all the different shades of green. I always had an orientation towards the outdoors and towards conservation.

When I was in 10th grade my English teacher, Mrs. Andrews, told me, “Oh, you should be an environmental attorney.” I didn’t know what that was, and so she told me to read One L, which is all about your first year in law school. I think I read half of it, and I was like, yeah, seems like a great track for me.

?

?What do you like about public affairs? And what do you find most challenging about it?

I think I will start with what I enjoy, which is that we get to kind of dive into dense technical issues and pull out their most salient and simplistic points to make it approachable to everyone. We make it something that you can talk about with uninformed relatives at a dinner table and that's kind of our barometer, we call it the glaze over and if you can talk about something without having somebody's eyes glaze over then you’re doing something right.

I guess that's also on the flip side of that coin. It's also the challenge, right? It's what's difficult because there are stakeholders or participants or partners who have a vested interest in what you're discussing, and they can get perturbed if you're not speaking in its technical accuracy. And so there can be that sort of fine line ensuring that it's approachable to everybody, but also ensuring that it's as accurate and precise as possible, so that's a big challenge.

And then in public affairs, our challenge is also to be as transparent as possible with everything that is going on. There are things that go on within a government agency, things that are under litigation or things that are under investigation, that we're not going to be able to share because it could compromise either avenue of that, but also ensuring that we're as transparent as possible. This way we don't have the appearance that we're hiding anything or that we're making any sort of decision that's not in the interest of our communities because that is one thing that we are trying to do in the southeast is ensure that folks know that we're not this large overwhelming piece of the community but we're really just one fabric within the overarching community. We're just one piece and we want to be sure that they know that they're included in our decision-making, they're aware and informed, and are being brought in and a part of our decision-making.

??

What’s your approach to stakeholder management given the differing opinions or needs you mentioned?

We are constantly working to refine and innovate around because for a large species announcement, for example, has a considerable amount of attention paid towards it. You’re going to have anybody from the NGOs to the potential petitioners, to our state and local government partners who are impacted by whatever decision is made, and then the members of the community who are interested in it. ?Our goal is to bring them along. So, there are times when our audience list is broad, and we try to ensure that we're not just hitting it at one point, but we do other storytelling that might bring a subset of those people along.

We deploy a variety of tactics to do this whether it’s an event or press release announcing the decision we're making. Given the broad audience we use tactics to narrow down that audience focus so that we aren't missing a piece and just shotgunning things out.

?

With your position, where are you on the optimism scale right now, in terms of conservation, and climate change?

I consider myself to be a pretty optimistic person. There are moments where you can find yourself weighted down by the breadth of the issues that we're facing within the conservation community. Climate change is a lofty issue that touches on literally everything. If I let that big, broad perspective from public health, from international implications, from sea level rise to species migration it can start to weigh you down. I guess I try to orient myself by looking at the successes and looking at the smaller pieces and kind of my world of influence. I guess that's one of the benefits of working within a regional office is our view is focusing on the southeast with the bigger national impacts. There are just so many passionate people who are trying to find new, innovative, and different ways to tackle challenging problems from species migrations, an increase of invasive species due to weather, sea level rise implications, and salt marsh restoration. There are so many passionate people that are doing cool things within each sphere of that and so if you look at that, and you see these people who are dedicated and just passionate about whatever sphere of influence that they can exert around the issue, it's hard not to be optimistic. Everybody's putting in great work and we'll continue to make progress and move in the right direction.

?

Are there any efforts that you've made that you're proud of?

I'd say from a broad base perspective, for us, I think it's how we and the Southeast region are handling some pretty hot-button issues and the relationships that we continue to build. It’s not necessarily from a singularly comms focus perspective, but it's the service across the board, that we're building the relationships. We're ensuring that people feel like they have a vested interest in participating in what we're doing. I think we're making a lot of inroads around Red Wolves in eastern North Carolina. I think we're showcasing the beauty and importance of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and getting folks interested and paying attention to what's going on in South Georgia. I think we've got a lot of great work going on for manatees.

?

How are you as a leader?

I have a central tenet of servant leadership, and it's a core philosophy of mine. I try to emulate a lot of what the folks that I've looked up to throughout my career and what they have done. It's about your people and focusing in on finding ways to support them in their day-to-day lives, while also providing the broad strategy, framework, and goal that we'll head towards and ensuring that people feel bought into that goal.

I just try to be somebody that people want to work with. I feel like I've seen a couple of different memes where it says being easy to work with is a very undervalued skill, and I think that's very true. You know, when I call you up on Teams, I hope they’re not like “Oh, here we go.”

Then, you know, the other thing that I tried to do is provide air cover for my folks and my staff. That way when decisions are being made that are outside of our control, that may not necessarily be in the best interest of the work that we're doing, I'm providing them coverage and trying to make sure that they feel the impact to the least degree possible

?

What advice would you give someone considering entering your field?

One piece of advice that I give to folks when I talk to them about starting their career is just to be open and always be willing to learn something new.

But also, just keeping that passion in the back of your mind. Mine is outdoor recreation. I love doing all things outdoors so anytime I get an opportunity with my day job to talk about outdoor recreation that's provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I can feel like a little jolt.

????Quickfire????

Coffee, cocktail, or mocktail?

I'm a coffee person as well. I love a good Nitro Cold Brew.

Print or online for reading your news?

There’s something so nice about feeling paper in my fingers and flipping through magazines. I love the Bitter Southerner. It’s got such beautiful feature narratives with incredible pictures, and just being able to kind of flip through.?

Are you an Oxford comma fan, or no?

I got taught at Oxford comma, with emphasis, and it just stuck.

What’s your favorite animal?

Sea otters

Do you think AI will take your job someday?

No, no, I think it's a useful tool. It’s a useful tool that if used appropriately can kind of help us all.

Do you have a guilty pleasure?

Binge-watching Netflix.

How would your friends and family describe you?

?Funny, and kind.

?

?