Conservation - Forests Tue October 25, 2011 Why live indoors? A
conversation with naturalist Michael Fay Naturalist Michael Fay
spent part of his early career in St. Louis, going to graduate
school at Washington University and working with the Missouri
Botanical Garden’s Peter Raven. Since then, Fay has worked for
the Wildlife Conservation Society and National Geographic. He’s
probably best known for his large-scale surveys of plants and
wildlife. In 1997, he set out on the MegaTransect, a survey that
would take him more than 2,000 miles on foot across the forests
of the Congo Basin in Central Africa. Fay is back in St. Louis
this week for some speaking engagements. St. Louis Public
Radio’s Véronique LaCapra talked with him about his African
journey, and what it did for international conservation efforts.
FAY: It was a real expedition, because we were 13 people, most
of them pygmies, one white man, myself. You know, we were like
an epic voyage out there. Every day you have to find food for 13
people, you have