Marcus Rosten is the director of Western New York Wildway, an initiative from Western New York Land Conservancy with the mission of connecting conservation land throughout the western part of the state. His passion for communication and a background in environmental education allow him to build partnerships to further this goal, both in his home city of Buffalo and beyond. Outside of work, Marcus enjoys birding, and he performs with the GRAMMY Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus.
Growing up I spent all my time exploring the wild areas in my neighborhood, which to me felt like it was venturing deep into the forest. It was really an overgrown thicket, mostly buckthorn and Japanese knotweed, by the abandoned railroad around the corner. But to me, that was my wilderness. I was a child of a single mother household, and we had a small apartment, so my waking hours were spent roaming, rambling, catching frogs, and coming home when I heard my name screamed through the neighborhood.
We went to Allegany State Park every year, and it was there that an interpreter gave names to things that used to just be “a tree” or “a bird.” It was also my first encounter with wild edibles. Our guide pointed to a plant and said, “This is wild onion, and you can eat it.” My mind was blown. From that point on, I wanted to be able to do that.
I went to college at SUNY-ESF and participated in the Student Conservation Association and their National Park Service Academy program. I got to do a lot of internships and experience things for the first time. I was really thankful for my mentors, especially Eileen Baldassarre, the coordinator of CSTEP at SUNY-ESF, which is a program for increasing access to STEM fields for students from underrepresented groups. The first time I lived outside of New York was when I went to Juneau, Alaska. I worked for the Forest Service at the Mendenhall Glacier, leading a science education camp. At first, I was like, “What are you talking about – I can’t go to Alaska!” But now I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
When I was growing up, I didn’t have anyone that looked like me in this field, and that’s part of my inspiration to be visible as an environmental educator and naturalist. Environmental education is the most important tool we have to face the environmental crisis, and in my opinion it’s a crisis that takes precedence over everything. Along the way, I’ve had to fight so much imposter syndrome and learn to withstand what comes with being usually the only person of color in these spaces. I want to inspire more brown kids to see that this is something they can do, and I also think we need everybody involved to tackle these big problems. Being Black in this field has been important in allowing me to build connections in communities that a lot of environmental organizations have historically not done a good job connecting with and representing. I was the first in my family to go to college and I never had anybody that looked like me in these institutions to look to as a guide, so trying to do that for others as much as I can is really important to me.
After I worked in Alaska, I got other internship opportunities in Grand Canyon National Park and at Minute Man National Historical Park in Boston. I lived in a colonial home there and dressed up as a minute man and did black powder rifle demonstrations and talked about April 18, 1775, when the British stormed Lexington and Concord. Then I came back and worked at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve. It was a full circle moment: I went to the glaciers, to the Grand Canyon, to the start of the American Revolution, and then I came back to Buffalo, to the preserve that’s two miles away from where I grew up. It was cool to come back with this formal science education and build on that knowledge and ground it in these informal experiences I had had in the woods here.
I started birding at the Reinstein Nature Preserve because the preserve participated in Project FeederWatch. My task was to write down all the birds that came to the feeder. I started in January, and I began being able to identify species, one by one. After a couple weeks I knew every bird that came, which was only about 12 species at that point. I felt like, “Oh this is mastery.” Then spring came, and it all changed so quickly. It was a slippery slope into birding because then I wanted to know everything.
Being a birder has shaped how I think about the landscape, because birds force you to take the wider view. This area is a globally significant Important Bird Area; the Niagara River corridor connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, and it has one of the most significant congregations of waterfowl in the entire world. In spring we get the neotropical migrants, and in winter we get the arctic birds coming down. It’s amazing to be at this crossroads; it really illuminates the interconnectivity of places. But when you think about all the wildlife that doesn’t have wings, you start to realize how disconnected the terrestrial landscape is.
Connecting the landscape is a big part of the work we are leading with the Western New York Wildway, which is an initiative of Western New York Land Conservancy. Our plan is to protect and connect Western New York’s largest tracts of wildlife habitat. It began with mapping our protected areas, our most climate resilient areas, and areas that are important for wildlife connectivity. Now we have the plan, and we’re putting it into action by protecting our core areas, the most intact and ecologically significant wildlife habitat, and linkages, the areas that connect those places and allow wildlife to safely travel. Everyone is connected to this challenge, because we’ve all seen an animal that’s been hit by a car. That’s what I really like about this work: there’s this universal problem, and we have identified solutions – creating linkages, putting in wildlife crossings – that can be really successful.
Western New York Land Conservancy is a land trust, so permanent land protection through conservation easements and acquisitions are our bread and butter. We are a team of only 11 people, and we’ve identified over a million and a half acres of prioritized areas for conservation. Of course, we can’t do that ourselves. We also don’t own any roadways, so we can’t directly build any wildlife crossings. A lot of our work is building partnerships. We have a network with 70 representatives from state and municipal folks to Native groups to the county and state highway people to landowners. It’s good to get together and catalyze energy and ideas around the Western New York Wildway regionally.
I hope to help people realize that they are a part of a landscape. For us, roads increase access, but for all other creatures, they fragment access. I like to tell people, “Put yourself in the paws of a black bear.” Their range can be up to 50 miles, and with that in mind, imagine how often you would need to navigate across a road or development. Last year I implemented a wildlife study throughout Western New York to collect data on where black bear, bobcat, and fisher are found. These are inner-forest carnivores, so we’re using them as umbrella species – if we can protect the acreages that they need, then it’ll help many of these other animals with smaller ranges, and even plants and fungi. I want a black bear to be able to walk from the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, south to the Allegany State Park, and to be able to do so safely across protected land, unencumbered by roadways.
It’s not just about protecting land and helping wildlife thrive and move, but also helping keep Buffalo climate resilient and plan for the future. Western New York is one of the most climate resilient regions in the country and will be one of the last places to run out of fresh water. If we take a really long view, people will come to the Great Lakes as other places become more arid. We want to welcome people in a way that maintains resiliency. Right now, we have this unfettered sprawl escaping the city and impacting our wetlands and natural areas. The Western New York Wildway gives us a way to help strategize what spaces are good for welcoming people, and where we need to conserve land and protect water sources.
New York state has a lot of momentum right now. We have the 30 by 30 initiative to protect 30 percent of New York’s land and waters by 2030, and state legislators recently passed the environmental bond act, which has around $300 million going to land protection. There used to be federal support through the Federal Highway Administration with the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, where there was a pool of money to support these large-scale wildlife crossing projects. A lot may change, but thankfully New York state remains committed. I think everyone is waking up and realizing just how connected we are and that you can’t have healthy communities without healthy environments. Protecting habitat is good not just for wildlife, but for us too.