For Angela Anderson, conserving nature is almost as natural as breathing.
Anderson, outreach coordinator at the David Traylor Zoo of Emporia, will receive the Kansas Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Educator of the Year Award on March 7 during a ceremony in Manhattan.
“Dad is a wildlife biologist, and now national habitat director for Quail Unlimited,” Anderson said. “So I’ve always grown up with the conservation mindset.”
Anderson, who was hired for the zoo job in 2002, has a bachelor’s degree in animal science and industry from the college of agriculture at Kansas State University.
Since then, she has been busy training and supervising docents, giving educational presentations to any group that requests them, and starting programs that introduce the importance of wildlife conservation to youngsters at an early age.
Anderson, who lives at Allen, has organized Safari Day for children in grades one through four. The annual activity focuses on science, nature, culture and environment, and draws youngsters from Lyon and surrounding counties. Safari Day includes a series of eight 20-minute workshops presented by members of the community, she said.
“A lot of it is conservation-focused,” Anderson said.
The new “Kidzoocation” program is geared to pre-school level and combines education with entertainment, a package that Anderson often employs to make the zoo experience a special one for those involved.
Volunteers from the community also help with a relatively new way of celebrating Earth Day, “Party for the Planet.”
The party promotes conservation, recycling, and better ways to preserve the planet.
“Then last year, we started our (American Zoological Society) ‘Year of the Frog’ and this year, it’s ‘Spring Forward for Amphibian Conservation,’” Anderson said. “A third of the amphibian species are threatened with extinction because of the Chytrid fungus that is wiping them out.”
In Kansas, the fungus affects frogs, toads and salamanders that have important roles to play in the balance of the state’s ecological structure.
“We do our normal outreaches to classes and service groups, promoting even just your own backyard habitats and habitat conservation for your backyard animals,” she said.
She has been involved in numerous projects with other organizations, including Farm Bureau’s Day at the Farm, the Morris County Conservation District’s Twin Lakes Water Festival and Emporia State University’s “Expanding Your Horizons.”
Anderson also started the Butterfly Garden at the zoo as a habitat lesson during one of her first zoo camps, according to Ken Brunson, coordinator for KWF.
Anderson said she has begun her own business promoting conservation of Greater Prairie Chickens. People interested in observing and learning more about them may call her for an appointment to see them in their lek.
“That’s their booming grounds, where their mating rituals take place,” she said.
Anderson has a fondness for the unique species which are losing ground to expansion and predators.
“They can’t live in areas where there’s any tall structures because that’s where hawks roost,” Anderson said.
An article she wrote about the prairie chickens was published in the November issue of “Quail Unlimited.”