ACE Member Julia Izzo holds two largemouth bass caught during electrofishing surveys. Photo credit: Eddie Perri/USFWS
From Everglades Airboats to Alaskan Adventures: An ACE Member’s Journey
What’s it really like to work protecting our natural world? In our latest blogpost, we sit down with an amazing ACE member who shares their incredible journey. From navigating vast Everglades wetlands by airboat to their beginnings with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Alaska and Oregon, you’ll get a fascinating glimpse into their daily life.
Discover how their current role as an Invasive Plant Control Project Manager is not only challenging but also deeply rewarding, and how these experiences are perfectly aligning with their career aspirations within the Service. Plus, they share a fun story about a very memorable road trip playlist!
What’s your background coming into your role initially? Can you explain your start at ACE?
After graduating in 2022 with a degree in biology, I worked two seasons with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) as a bio tech, one in Alaska and one in Oregon, and one season as an intern with the National Park Service in Mississippi. When I was looking for my next seasonal job, one of my friends who was an ACE member at the time recommended I look into ACE.
What is your agency role and where do you serve?
My first ACE position was as a Refuge Support Member at the Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge in South Florida. As I was finishing my 6-month term there, another ACE position opened up at our sister refuge about an hour away. I had already gotten to know the staff there from helping them with some projects and the timing was perfect, so it seemed meant to be! Since early 2024, I have been working as the Invasive Plant Control Project Manager at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
ACE Members Casey Bradley, Jared Stroman, and Julia Izzo pose with the National Wildlife Refuge System mascot, Puddles (ACE Member Ian Jin). Photo Credit: USFWS
What are some of your key responsibilities?
The main focus of my position is managing invasive plant control projects on the refuge. ARM Loxahatchee NWR is approximately 150,000 acres of wetland located in the northernmost Everglades. The year-round warm temperature makes South Florida the ideal climate for a wide variety of invasive species, and it means that managing them is also a year-round task. What that looks like varies from day to day – sometimes I’m pulling invasive plants by hand, sometimes I’m coordinating with contractors and checking on the results of herbicide treatments, sometimes I’m doing native vegetation surveys to track habitat restoration after invasive plants are removed. There’s a decent amount of deskwork involved, too, but my favorite days are when I’m out in the field. A lot of my work sites are located miles into the Refuge’s interior marsh, and the only way to get out to them is by airboat. Driving airboats through the Everglades is by far the coolest part of my job!
In addition to managing the Refuge’s invasive plant control work, there are plenty of other projects around the refuge that I get to lend a hand to. One of my favorite things about working at National Wildlife Refuges is the variety of work I get to be involved in – one day I’m going out with one of the other interns on callback surveys for threatened marsh birds, the next I’m working with the fire team to make GIS maps for prescribed burns, and a few days after that I’m helping visiting biologists with electrofishing surveys. There are always new things to try and new skills to learn.
Do you feel this experience will help you with your career goals/plans? If yes, in what ways? What are some of the key things you are learning through this experience?
My career goal is to become a biologist or refuge manager for the Service. I have learned so much in my almost 2 years as an ACE member that have helped to prepare me for those positions. It’s hard to single out just one or two things, because pretty much every aspect of my role involves working alongside Refuge staff and learning how the Refuge System functions. Even though we aren’t technically Refuge employees, everyone has always treated the other ACE interns and I as members of the team.
ACE Member Julia Izzo drives an airboat through the marsh. Photo credit: Ian Jin/USFWS
I’ve been lucky in both of my ACE positions to work alongside some great coworkers, both other ACE members and FWS staff, who have become my friends and mentors. Everyone at the Refuge is so dedicated to the mission of conservation. Working in this field can be physically and mentally exhausting sometimes, but I do think that if you are doing what you are passionate about and are surrounded by people who share that passion, it makes even the worst days a lot better. Getting drenched in a pop-up thunderstorm on a boat is no fun, but laughing with your coworkers afterwards as you all dump water out of your boots and pass around snacks isn’t too bad.
ACE Member Julia Izzo stands in the cypress swamp. Photo credit: Ian Jin/USFWS
Share a book or music/podcast rec for long work days or remote work locations!
This reminds me of a funny story from when I was working at remote field sites in Alaska. Most of our work involved going out on weeklong trips where we didn’t have cell service or internet. The other bio tech and I would alternate who was going to be in charge of music for the trip, and this particular time it was my turn. I had tried to download a couple playlists before we left, but about a half hour into the trip we left cell service and quickly discovered that none of them had actually saved to my phone. The only music I had downloaded was two albums by my favorite band, Caamp. It was an 8 hour drive each way, and I think by the end of the trip we had probably listened to both albums about 10 times each. I still love their music, though, and would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t listened!