Seasoned Conservationist David Krivoshik

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Daniel Chia, Staff Writer

Conservationist David Krivoshik by caxynews

Junior David Krivoshik has been doing conservation work, with a variety of organizations around the area, for many years.

In today‘s world, with the Trump administration effectively disemboweling the EPA, conservation on the nationally organized level seems unlikely.  However, there are people and organizations that are doing conservation locally.  We have one such person today, David Krivoshik, who has worked with both Open Lands organizations around our area, and state conservation efforts.  David is a junior at Lake Forest Academy, and today we will be talking to him about his conservation work.  

Alright so for starters, how’d you get started in conservation work?

Well, I’ve always been interested in the environment and whatnot, so back in my middle school we had a service requirement, so naturally I fell into the conservation work, because that’s what I was interested in. From there, I joined Center for Conservation Leadership, or I applied and got in freshman year, which is a program that builds conservation leaders for the next generation.  Through that program you have your own project, a mentor, and we go on a week long trip, so that was a big influence for me.  

Then after that I enjoy going on work days with Lake Bluff Forest Open Lands, Lake Bluff Open Lands, and Lake county forest preserves, doing a wide variety of work, ranging from cutting buckthorn.

What would you say your main focus in conservation has been in?

I’d say that my main focus has definitely be buckthorn, as that was my project for Center of Conservation Leadership. It was a plot of land along the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff bike path, where I tried to eliminate the buckthorn.  I got a bunch of volunteers and scheduled the Lake Forest Park district to take away the waste, and a year later continued.  So given the choice, I would choose to do buckthorn, however, I’d do anything.  

So obviously you’ve been doing this individually and with varied organizations for many years, so do you feel like you’ve actually made a difference?

I mean, definitely, because buckthorn is a tricky thing, since it’ll always come back if you don’t tend to it.  But I’d say that if you look at the areas we’ve come back to, you can definitely see the difference.  There’s other things too, like the educational aspect.  I taught my volunteers about why it’s important to have biodiversity and things like that.  

So have you been working with multiple organizations, or has there been one you’ve mainly been focused with.  

So Lake Forest Open lands is the one that i’m mainly working with, as CCL is based out of that.  

David’s conservation work, however, is not limited to only buckthorn.

Yeah, I worked at an organic farm, Prairie Crossing, in Greyslake last summer.  It was a development program that taught us basic farming skills and also some professional skills.  It was an excellent experience for me, since usually I’m out there cutting things down and pulling stuff out.  This time i was just planting out stuff that people enjoyed

That was David Krivoshik, a junior at LFA who has been doing conservation work for many years, both with Open Lands and the state for many years.  I’m Daniel Chia with CaxyNews, and thanks for listening.