Forest Canopy Ecology
is Her Passion and Her Career
Exclusive TreeTop Barbie Interview

Olympia , Washington

The Environmental Career Center (ECC) had the privilege of interviewing TreeTop Barbie (TTB) on her exciting career in forest canopy ecology. TreeTop Barbie takes time out from her busy schedule to help guide aspiring ecologists on what it’s like to be a forest canopy ecologist, and what it takes to prepare for this high-level career. We are grateful for Dr. Nalini Nadkarni’s valuable assistance in this interview. Dr. Nadkarni is a professor at The Evergreen State College who studies forest canopies, teaches forest ecology, and inspired TreeTop Barbie.

ECC:Why should a young girl consider a career in field ecology?

TTB : I can’t think of a better way to earn a living and have fun at the same time than working in field ecology! I am so glad I decided to help solve the ecological problems with our Earth in these times. I worry so much about air pollution, global warming, and plants and animals going extinct. By helping to learn more about plants and animals and their environment, I can help out everyone on our planet get closer to solving environmental problems in our neighborhoods, our countries, and around the world. Doing field ecology involves going outside in the forest, or on the ocean, or in any habitat - including cities! If you like to travel and to be outside working with wildlife, soils, and plants like I do, it is the best profession there is!

ECC : How did you get interested the treetop ecology field? 

TTB : When I was a little girl, I loved being in the woods around my house. It was quiet but exciting, and just as much fun as going to parties and shopping for my clothes and make-up. I loved to climb trees. I liked watching birds and squirrels, and being in my own little world that grownups never came to. When I got older, I decided I want to work outside and help trees. I started studying about trees and forests. I soon found out that hardly anybody had studied the plants and animals that live in the treetops. I learned how to use mountain-climbing equipment to get up into trees, and kept finding new and amazing things around me when I climbed. I taught some of my friends – including Ken – how to climb, and we all had a great time being in the forest together. So I decided to spend my life climbing trees, learning about what I see up there, and telling other people about them.

ECC : What is your professional concern or interest over forest ecology?

TTB : My major interest is pretty simple. Each day, I ask the question: What is going on in the treetops??? I am curious about new things, just like all scientists are. I want to discover new things that will help me solve the complicated jigsaw puzzle that nature is to me. By climbing into trees, and collecting and measuring and understanding the plants and animals that live up there, I’m helping to gather all the pieces to solve the beautifully complicated puzzle that forests are. But also, I want to do stuff that is really important; I want to help solve "real life" problems. For example, I've been working to collect canopy plants that can be made into medicines that could cure cancer or AIDS. So my professional concerns range from pure curiosity to saving the world!

ECC: What is your typical work day like?

TTB:When I am in the field in Costa Rica, I get up early and have breakfast with my family. Then I get dressed in my field clothes and pack up my notebook, camera, and lunch. My field assistant, Rigo Solano, comes by on his motorcycle and we drive up to my study site in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, a protected park.

We gather our ropes and harnesses in a heavy pack, and walk out along the Research Trail to our site. We have about 50 trees that are permanently rigged with lines. We pull up our climbing rope, and put on our harnesses, and climb up to the canopy of that tree. Sometimes we take notes on wildlife, sometimes we collect plant samples, sometimes we measure the trees themselves. We have lunch up there, enjoying the good views, and sometimes we get visits from troops of howler monkeys. That's fun! We keep working till the early afternoon. Usually it starts raining, so we head back to the lab, enter our data into a computer, and plan out our next day. We get tired and dirty from the climbing and walking, so I have to wash and style my hair every day! But it is always a good feeling to be out in the forest.