Beprovided Conservation Radio

  Doug Smith grew up on a farm outside Cleveland, Ohio, which his father purchased, not to farm but to educate youth about nature and outdoors. Like many midwest parents I know that had children during the same time as Doug's youth, they gave him freedom to roam and explore the natural world. His first love were birds but he enjoyed every aspect of the woods from trees to salamanders. Around the age of thirteen, he became interested in wolves and wanted to get more involved with research. At the age of fifteen, he decided to just write a number of wildlife biologists to see if they would let him work with them. Unfortunately, likely due to his young age, he was turned down with many rejection letters. But he persevered and didn't give up. More letters were written and sent again at the age of eighteen. He thought all it would take is just one response that said "yes" to get his foot in the door. Then, it happened, he did get that one response and found himself working with researchers studying a group