Rhino Skin

You need rhino skin
If you're gonna begin
To walk
Through this world
You need elephant balls
If you don't want to crawl
On your hands
Through this world

-Tom Petty

In my last post I bashed environmental consultants that like to claim the title "biologist".  I stand by my opinion that most consultants are clueless to what it takes to be a good biologist and I have another example from the same project I wrote about in my last blog post.  However, this time I am going to bash my own company.

 

Last year the consulting firm that I work for was sold to another larger consulting firm.  The original plan was to keep my company as a separate business unit in an attempt to maintain our culture and profitability.  We had an incredible culture that is being destroyed by the anti-social capitol and greed inducing culture of profit centers that the new company has currently.  Wow - I could write for days about the importance of social capitol in the workplace because my old company's value of creating a workplace and work relationships that are positive is the #1 reason I am still a consultant - in short, I enjoy the people I work with and my place of work despite permitting projects that completely go against my moral person.

 

Texas Tortoise Selfie taken in the thick scrub in south Texas

As a part of the new and forced integration, we have been directed to share work with people in the company that now owns us.  In part, this directive comes from the new company's greed (we are more profitable than them) and secondly that they are not nearly as busy as we are (I understand the second part).  So, in our generous and cooperative nature, we have given the drafting of the Biological Assessment (BA) for our project in south Texas to staff in our new company.  The trouble is that the staff we assigned the BA to are from Massachusetts and Maryland with no experience in Texas or even the southern half of the United States.  Does this stop consultants?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  We can work anywhere.  This just makes me chuckle to think about and when I met these folks in the field for an afternoon, I laughed even harder.

 

The first negative I had with my new co-workers is that they were over 5 hours late meeting me in the field for their site tour.  We planned to meet them at 10:00am but they didn't arrive until after 3:00pm.  REALLY?  Who shows up that late???  This immediately started things off on the wrong foot.

 

The second negative was that they had no idea or even a clue about the biological significance and uniqueness of a loma.  They thought that the entire site was dredge spoil and human-made.  It was clear that they had not done any homework before getting on a plane and traveling a full day to the field in south Texas.  They hadn't even read any of the previous reports we had sent them nor did they have a map of the site.  I spent the first hour of their field visit getting them up to speed on the ecology of the area.

 

Then it was time for the Otto and Cameron show.  As I mentioned in my last post, Otto is a true biologist with an insatiable appetite to learn everything he can about the ecology and biodiversity of his current location.  This could be a vacant lot in the middle of New York City but Otto would still be looking for plants and critters.  He and I share a lot in common and our passion for the field was a great synergy for this project.  I should mention here that another employee from my current company was with us in the field but she was very green to field work.  That said, she was eager to learn and had done her homework before coming to Texas.  Her role on the project was that of data collection and GPS monkey and therefore not responsible for understanding the biological complexities of the site. In fact, all the homework she did prior to coming to the field was a great introduction for her and she was able to help both Otto and myself immensely. 

 

So what is the Otto and Cameron show?  Well, it is where we take inexperienced people and test their abilities in the field.  I have been known to take people far from the car and then quietly and quickly disappear into the woods just to double back and watch my field partner's response.  If they continue their work without me present, they pass.  If they stop work and begin to look for me with a panic look, they fail.  I prefer to work with people who are comfortable in the field and don't need me to show them the way back to the car. 

 

After the hour-long introduction to the ecology of the site, Otto and I headed off into the shrubland in search of rare plants and animals.  At first, I stuck to one of the trails that had been bushwhacked through the thick scrub so the archaeological crews could complete their transects.  Once sufficiently deep into the scrub, I left the trail and never saw my two new coworkers again until it was time to wrap up surveys in that area and move to another.  I found them waiting at the car for me so at least they could get back to the car.  Otto and I both laughed that night and for the rest of our trip about how we both knew that neither of my new coworkers would follow us into the scrub.  Erin sat quietly during these discussions but she had already passed with flying colors.

 

Why?  Because it is hard and it hurts.  Almost every shrub in south Texas has thorns and lots of them.  Here is Erin (the GPS monkey) busting through the scrub as she followed me soon after we left our visitors on one of the archaeology transects.  The scrub will hurt you and scar you. 

Erin bravely fighting the scrub

This next set of photos, like yesterday's post, could get me fired.  They are in direct violation of my company's health and safety plan.  They show examples of the thorns we pulled out of our arms, legs, and hands each evening before our showers (we did, however, record and report all the ticks on our bodies to meet my company's new tick safety "near-miss" recording policy).  Technically, I should have not gone into the field without personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the thorns from ever touching my skin.  This means I would have had to wear body armor, gloves, and safety glasses - all of these greatly hinder biological surveys especially the safety glasses.  No way will I wear glasses of any sort in the field as they change my vision reducing my ability to detect critters.  Even clear safety glasses mess with my vision and body armor would have been way too hot causing us to take more breaks than work.  If any of my company's health and safety officers ever saw these photos, I would be answering a lot of questions.  Erin even had the spine of a Spanish Dagger plant pierce her thick rubber boot and stab her in her shin.

This thorn was discovered just before my shower on the second day in the field - it had penetrated and broken off in my skin through the heavy canvas pants I was wearing.

Example of the many thorns we removed from our hands

Does having rhino skin make me a good biologist?  Absolutely not!  However, my willingness to get stabbed repeatedly and sweat through my clothes to ensure I visited every part of the project site in the little time that I had there does.  My 34 hours on the site were spent exploring as many square feet and acres possible in hopes of finding something new or even one of the federally and state listed species I was tasked to find.  What did my colleagues that only had 4 hours on the site do?  They stuck to the trails just as expected of a stereotypical environmental consultant.  They failed my "are you a biologist test" in every manner possible and these are the people responsible for writing the Biological Assessment. 

 

Tom Petty sings about the need to have rhino skin to survive the "needles and pins, the arrows of sin, the evils of men" and I couldn't agree more.  I have kept my mouth shut about the sins of my profession but it may be time for me to start screaming.  I am tired of writing subpar impact assessments.  I am tired of permitting projects without science.  I am tired of pretending to be a biologist at work.  In addition, the drastic 180 degree change from a company focused on building social capitol among its staff to a company that is only focused on profit as really sent me into a frenzy.  I don't want to have rhino skin anymore.  It is time to grow elephant balls and forge my own path through the thornscrub of humans plundering our planet.

Rhino Skin - Tom Petty

You need rhino skin
If you're gonna begin
To walk
Through this world
You need elephant balls
If you don't want to crawl
On your hands
Through this world

Oh my love if I reveal
Every secret I've concealed
How many thoughts would you steal
How much of my pain would you feel

You need eagles wings
To get over things
That make no sense
In this world

You need rhino skin
If you're gonna pretend
You're not hurt by this world

If you listen long enough
You can hear my skin grow tough
Love is painful to the touch
Must be made of stronger stuff

You need rhino skin
To get to the end
Of the maze through this world

You need rhino skin
Or you're gonna give in
To the needles and pins
The arrows of sin
The evils of men
You need rhino skin