Signal resident named Conservation Educator of the Year

Tish Gailmard holds Ember, a female red-shouldered hawk, at Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center, where she serves as wildlife director. Gailmard was recently named Conservation Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. (Staff file photo)
Tish Gailmard holds Ember, a female red-shouldered hawk, at Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center, where she serves as wildlife director. Gailmard was recently named Conservation Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. (Staff file photo)
photo Tish Gailmard shows a male red wolf pup to media at Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center, where she is the wildlife director. Gailmard helped facilitate Reflection Riding's participation in the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan. (Staff photo by Doug Strickland)

Signal Mountain resident Tish Gailmard, wildlife director at Reflection Riding Nature Center & Arboretum, is the Tennessee Wildlife Federation's Conservation Educator of the Year. She is among 17 recipients of the TWF's Conservation Achievement Awards across the state.

"Tennessee Wildlife Federation started these awards more than a half-century ago because we recognized that conserving our state's wildlife and natural places is the work of every Tennessean," said CEO Michael Butler. "No one organization or person, no matter how big or influential, can do it own their own. We are proud to hold up the meaningful work of our award winners as inspiration and examples for others to follow."

Gailmard has been with Reflection Riding, previously known as the Chattanooga Nature Center, for the past 17 years. Her role at the organization involves caring for about 40 animals of a variety of species native to East Tennessee.

Among those species is the endangered red wolf, which was at one point declared extinct. Gailmard has helped facilitate Reflection Riding's participation in the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan as one of 216 captive breeding facilities in the U.S.

But Gailmard's most valuable asset as the center's wildlife director, according to her award nomination, is her ability to share her passion for wildlife conservation with thousands of the center's visitors each year, as well as with community members through her outreach efforts.

Many of Reflection Riding's visitors are students from local schools, and Gailmard said she feels it is especially important to instill in them an appreciation for wildlife. With all the focus in school being put on screens and technology, students are becoming less aware of all that goes on outside and its significance, she said.

"They have no concept of how animals fit into ecology and the food chain," Gailmard said. "[Animals] do so much for us that we don't even think about."

For example, she said most don't comprehend how raptors, such as owls and hawks, keep down the population of rodents - which helped carry the plague that nearly wiped out the human race - and that rodents help keep the tick population under control.

Gailmard said one easy way for locals to get involved with wildlife conservation is to make a donation to the Red Wolf Project at Reflection Riding through the fundraising page established at generosity.com. All money raised goes directly toward the red wolves at Reflection Riding, she said.

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