#24 Natalie Dawson

Natalie Dawson is the executive director of Audubon Alaska, a conservation organization dedicated to protecting habitat for Alaska’s birds and wildlife.

Before joining Audubon in 2019, Natalie was the director of the Wilderness Institute and a professor of Wilderness Studies at the University of Montana. Prior to that, she worked as a research biologist with the US Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, a wildlife biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska, and a public policy fellow with the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Washington, D.C. She received her PhD from the University of New Mexico while studying the impacts of forestry practices on endemic mammals in the Tongass National Forest.

I reached out to Natalie after her appearance in the film Understory, which features her two friends as they seek to encounter and understand the destructive logging practices that have long taken place in the old growth temperate rainforest of the Tongass.

We talked about Natalie’s experience in Alaska, her role in the aforementioned expedition, the importance and distinction of old growth forests, the political and economic situation surrounding Tongass national forest, the impact of other extractive industries across Alaska, and the work that Natalie does with Audubon.

For more information on these topics, check out Audubon Alaska's work and watch the short film Understory.