Aster Schaefer, Fall 2024 Desert Wildlife Intern

Pronouns: He, Him, They, Them

In many ways, I am the son of Mercury—or Hermes, as the Greeks know him. My interests and skills cover vast swaths of time and space, ranging in part from the cultural history of the ancient world to landscape illustration & graphic design, and from Sonoran desert natural history & ethnobotany to medieval calligraphy, as well as many other related and unrelated things. In similar fashion, I have for some years held a professional desire to become well-rounded in as many aspects of the environmental field as is possible for one person, and to this end I have already accomplished more than I thought possible. 

I am one of those mythical creatures—often rumored, rarely seen—who was born in Tucson and have spent most of my life in and around the Tucson Basin. I first discovered my deeper connection with the land when I was in the Arizona Conservation Corps, and after a medical scare prompted my early exit from the program, I knew that I would never be at peace with myself unless I continued the work in other ways. To say nothing of positions I have held outside of the Tucson environmental scene, I have since become a Pima County Master Naturalist (Cohort 7), joined Tucson Clean & Beautiful’s flagship ‘Climate Equity Workforce Leadership’ (CEWL) program when it was in its first year, designed & helped paint a mural at my community garden, attended a national conference hosted by Citizens’ Climate Lobby in Washington DC, and have now—with great excitement—joined CSDP for a semester as a Desert Wildlife Intern. I am also crawling my way towards a degree in natural resource management.

The land has embedded many secrets and lifeways in me, just by my being reared in such an adverse climate: always have contingency plans, pay unceasing attention when you are on her ground, step lightly, give generously but keep your thorns. A mother she is, but unyielding, and she will not coddle anyone. With what she provides, desert-dwellers must use strength and cunning to make their habitations. We must each know—or be willing to find out—what it is that she gives us, and how to use it, in order to see her gifts as such. The desert reveals her true beauty only to those who pay attention.