The Brown Treesnake -BTS (Boiga irregularis) was accidently introduced to the island of Guam in the 1940s during post-WWII shipping operations. On Guam, the BTS encountered no native predators and soon started to decimate Guam’s native fauna to extinction or captive breeding programs. The mildly venomous BTS is also responsible for hundreds of snake bites per year and island-wide power outages. Learn interesting facts about the BTS and what makes this snake a dangerous invasive, measures that the conservation community has taken to address the issue, and related reptile invasive species problems being addressed globally.

Nate was born and raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Upon completing his BS in Conservation Biology, Nate served in Suriname, South America as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1996-98). After 2 years of living in the rainforest Nate was hooked on tropic ecology and studied tropical butterfly ecology in Tobago, W.I. for his graduate thesis. In 2001, Nate accepted a position on the island of Saipan as the Brown Treesnake Program Manager/Herpetologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service. After nine years on Saipan, Nate moved to Washington DC to work at the Department of the Interior to help launch Secretary Salazar’s Youth Initiative to engage, educate, and employ young people. In 2011, Nate accepted a position at the National Conservation Training Center where he continues to support youth programming, training, and managing the Creative Resource Division.

Please contact Krista Hawley at AdultPrograms@PotomacAudubon.org or 681-252-1387 with any questions you may have.

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Meeting ID: 815 0713 6927
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Meeting ID: 815 0713 6927
Passcode: 390408