Have you ever wondered how conservationists spend their days or what keeps them optimistic about the future of nature? Do they always spend their time in the distant wild, or might they be hidden all around us? Do their roles encompass aspects we never thought of?
“Meet The Optimists” is a monthly blog series by Conservation Optimism which introduces conservationists working in different fields and contexts to our readers. We discuss their journeys into conservation, typical daily activities and reasons for hope.
Read on for the inside story on different careers and fresh approaches to conservation!
In the February 2025 blog of Conservation Optimism’s “Meet The Optimists” series, Professor Laura J. Martin comes up with her story of optimism, as a historian, ecologist and writer!
Dr. Laura J. Martin is an environmental historian and ecologist who studies how people create habitat for other species. She is the author of Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration, and numerous articles on just solutions to the global biodiversity crisis. Her research and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and other major media outlets. She is an environmental studies professor at Williams College and a former fellow of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Can you trace the origins of your interest in conservation and what led to your current work?
As a child, I was fascinated by plants and animals, but unlike many environmentalists, I didn’t grow up hiking or camping. My family disliked the outdoors, and so I learned about nature through books and television. As a first-generation college student, I initially planned to pursue medical school—until a plant taxonomy course introduced me to the world of ecology. My interest blossomed when I studied abroad with the Organización para Estudios Tropicales, where I discovered that conservation could be more than just a passion—it could be a career. It was a life changing experience.
When I returned to college, I worked in a plant ecology lab and loved being outside and working hands-on with plants. This led me to a Ph.D. program focused on environment-society interactions, and I joined an invasion ecology lab. However, midway through my P.D., I found myself questioning many of the core assumptions behind invasion biology and its management strategies. I wanted to dig deeper, to understand not just the science but the broader societal and political contexts shaping these ideas. That curiosity led me to courses in History and Science & Technology Studies, and I fell in love with a new way of thinking. Today I work to bring together the sciences and the humanities, because conservation needs both.
What does a typical day of work look like for you?
As a writer and a professor, each day looks very different. When I am teaching, a day includes reading books, preparing lectures, meeting with college students, and commenting on student writing. When I am working on a book, a day could include researching in an archive in Philadelphia, or London, or New York City, or Seattle — lots of skimming old government documents for information, connections, and stories. Lots of time in cafes writing notes and first drafts.
What is your favourite and least favourite aspect about your role?
My favorite work is editing my own writing or that of others. There’s a moment in between drafts when an idea really crystallizes, and it feels like magic. Conservation requires reading broadly, and writing and reading are the same craft. My least favorite aspect of writing is that I’m no longer outside as often as I was when I did ecological fieldwork. I still make it outside for hiking, skiing, birdwatching, and teaching, but it’s not the same level of intensity as a summer planting and measuring plants.
As a conservationist, what makes you hopeful about the future?
History makes me hopeful. This often surprises students; if you look at the rate of increase in, say, plastic production, or fossil fuel burning, it looks terrifying. But it is also recent history, and there is hope in that fact. My grandmother lived in a world without plastic. Such a world could exist again. The present was not inevitable, and in every generation, there are people working to make the world healthier and happier.
What helps you stay positive day-to-day?
The work of environmental justice organizations, restorationists, and my students helps me to stay positive. Hope, to me, is not passive optimism; it is an active commitment to loving the world and its challenges. In their best forms, conservation and restoration are means of collaborating both with other people and with other species. Collaboration, like care, gives me hope.
Could you share a story about a formative moment in your conservation career?
As a graduate student I grappled deeply with the question of whether to dedicate myself to fieldwork or archival work. Both felt essential – one grounded in direct engagement with the living world, the other shaping how we understand and respond to environmental challenges. During my oral exams, one of my Ph.D. committee members, the herpetologist Harry Greene, posed a question that stopped me in my tracks: Did I really want to spend my time in archives when I could be working directly with and helping particular species? His question forced me to confront the pull between tangible ecological restoration and the power of storytelling in shaping our relationships. That moment clarified something fundamental for me: environmental repair is not only about hands-on conservation; it is also about the narratives we create, the histories we uncover, and the ways we challenge the status quo. The stories we tell about environmental harm and recovery shape policy, public action, and the very doing of conservation itself. I realized that my contribution would be through writing – through investigating the ways we define nature and ecological responsibility. By examining how environmental knowledge is produced and applied, I aim to foster deeper, more just approaches to conservation. Stories are not secondary to action; they are action. They influence the decisions we make, the futures we imagine, and ultimately, the world we build.
Any advice for someone interested in pursuing your field of work?
Read widely and don’t let yourself get boxed into a narrow discipline or rigid way of thinking. Conservation is a science and an art, it requires deep knowledge of nature and deep knowledge of societies.
- her website: http://www.
ljanemartin.com/ - twitter: @Laura_J_Martin
