Marc Albert, director of natural resource partnerships for the National Parks of Boston, spoke to the Tufts community on Oct. 31 as part of the Environmental Studies Program’s weekly Hoch Cunningham lecture series. Albert is a Tufts alumnus, holding degrees in American studies and in environmental studies.
Albert described Tufts’s American studies program as the impetus for his activism-based work. In particular, he credited the activist renaissance of the 1990s and a class with Fletcher Professor of English Emeritus Jesper Rosenmeir.
“I was just like, wow, the world is so big and connected. It’s so exciting and I’m going to change it — we’re gonna change it,” Albert said. “The American studies department was an amazing place to connect, to be an intellectual, while also feeling like I was building myself up as an activist.”
Albert was able to travel often as a Tufts student, completing a semester abroad in London where he interned with environmental advocacy group Greenpeace and partook in multiple research projects around the U.S., many of which had an environmental focus. It was during his internship with Greenpeace that Albert began to realize his true passion was working in the field rather than in policy.
“I don’t want to be grinding on policy papers only to have [my work] taken away at the last second by some … weird congressional backroom deal,” Albert said.
Colin Orians, the director of Tufts’ Environmental Studies Program, noted Albert’s early abilities in the field while a student at Tufts. The two, along with other researchers, traveled to the Bahamian island of Hummingbird Key to study invasive pines, along with other species. According to Orians, Albert discovered how to kill the invasive plant, and by the next year, the pine was gone from the island.
According to Albert, the trip was a revelation.
“It … changed my course entirely. I’m like, okay, I’m going to do plant science, and maybe there will be some way to again connect [plant science] to my desire to change the world,” Albert said.
Attending the University of California, Berkeley after Tufts for graduate school, Albert switched away from his lab-based Ph.D. for a similar reason: He wanted to be out in the world doing his work instead of office work.
“I like people,” Albert added. “I like to be in the mix.”
Albert’s first job out of graduate school was with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy at the Presidio of San Francisco. The Presidio, recently transferred from the military, needed a few repair projects, primarily protecting endangered animal and plant species and reshaping the local biome. The Presidio is recognized nationwide as a prime example of biodiversity conservation, and it is easily accessible to the public. Albert also mentioned the incredible community he found at the Presidio’s crew, including his future wife.
After his time at the Presidio, Albert returned to the Boston area to relocate closer to family. Here, he worked an office job at the Northeast Regional Office of the National Park Service. Still, Albert was unsatisfied in an office job and waited eagerly to return to the field. He soon got a job doing restoration work on a historic site along the Saugus River. Working with a diverse team of academics and military engineers, Albert assisted in restoring biodiversity and the waterfront structures that became dilapidated in years prior.
“Up to this point in my career, I had mostly worked with either community volunteers or my own colleagues. This was the time I realized that these bigger things that the Park Service and other land management agencies do really require not just sign-offs on permits and compliance, but relationships that lead to the sign-offs,” Albert said.
Albert’s current job managing the department’s operations in the Harbor Islands is multifaceted. The 34 islands and peninsulas serve as important ecological biomes and are steeped in history as sites of lighthouses, coastal defense units and even brothels. Albert described much of his role as managerial, working to balance the interests of private owners and environmental groups.
Albert also devotes a great deal of effort to environmental stewardship and community involvement. Such efforts look like coordinating volunteer efforts or encouraging involvement in the Climate Conservation Corps.
“Our first question is always how can we involve the community?” Albert said. “We have the challenge of being a national park in an urban setting, meaning our ecosystems are not extensive and pristine, … but we have the benefit of a lot of people being around.”
Albert ended his talk by explaining his self-given label as a professional idealist. He thanked Tufts for providing academic, presentational and oral skills necessary in the professional world, while giving him the platform to explore and protest environmental issues. Albert also touched on the up-and-down nature of his story, which continues today because of the red tape around much government work. Nonetheless, Albert seemed to be targeting Tufts students who may be worried about job insecurity and unfulfillment after graduation, arguing that they can still make careers out of activism.
“A lived experience is not like a list on a resume, and none of yours [are] either,” Albert said.
