Jaeden Carrasquillo has spent his summer avoiding snake poop and wild parsnip sap.

“It hurts so bad, but the flowers are so pretty,” said Carrasquillo, a sophomore at UW-Milwaukee majoring in environmental science. “I know they’re invasive, but they’re kind of cute.”

Under the sun, wild parsnip sap can cause severe rashes and blisters. Armed with gloves and long sleeves and pants, Carrasquillo battled the invasive plant as an urban conservation and storytelling intern with the Nature Conservancy’s Milwaukee program. (As for the snake poop, he has participated in snake surveys at Hopkin’s Hollow, where the garter snake population is a useful indicator of ecological restoration progress there.)

A program of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, the Diversity in Conservation Internship is fostering diversity in the next generation of conservationists, like Carrasquillo, a native Milwaukeean who wants to pursue work in habitat restoration after he graduates. While environmental issues affect everyone, they don’t affect everyone equally. People of color and Indigenous communities are hit especially hard by climate change, but the environmental movement lacks diversity....

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