How can your personal passion power global change?

We sat down with Island Conservation supporter Joe Bouchard to discuss surfing and restoring islands — and how his personal experiences shaped a deep commitment to the planet. The main theme? Education is key, and once you begin to learn more, you can’t unsee it. 

MM: Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about yourself?  

JB: I grew up in the States on the east coast in New Hampshire. I was always an outdoors person and liked going to the mountains and snowboarding. Being in the mountains was really my thing until the last couple of years. I had moved to Colorado for a long time and had gotten into conservation work out there. I ended going to school for ecosystem science and sustainability, and that was more of the research and ecosystem track of the environmental world.  

After school I started working full-time for a nonprofit called Protect Our Winters. It was really small at the time, so I did a little bit of everything – membership work, fundraising, and events stuff. That was kind of more on the advocacy side of conservation and environmentalism, which was great, but I think my interests still really lie in the research and the ecosystem science behind it all. I love reading and learning about that work and, you know, with my work now I help nonprofits with their data – mostly running reports and setting up their systems. So it’s a little bit far from the research and the science side of it, but I still love staying connected to that side as well. That’s why I chose to try to just work with nonprofits and especially work with nonprofits I care about.  

The last couple of years, I traveled to surf a lot and have spent a lot of times on some islands, including smaller islands, in Indonesia, and a lot of coastlines where you can really see the difference firsthand between the places that have conservation efforts versus, you know, you go to Bali, for example, and it’s over-developed and overrun in a lot of places and you can see the reefs dying. Seeing firsthand the differences between when there are some conservation efforts going on versus when there’s not was really impactful, and that’s what led me to you guys. I love what you guys do.  

MM: What stood out to you about Island Conservation and why did you want to support us? 

JB: I like your work first off. The difference you make even just aesthetically – you can see the beauty when an island is restored and it has a healthy ecosystem. You can see the reef is healthy and there’s fish swimming versus other islands where there’s no restoration or conservation efforts with dead or dying reef and there’s not many fish. Visually it makes a big difference and you can see the impact. Having the science background and a little more in-depth understanding of ecosystems and the need for everything to be in balance resonated with me when reading some of the articles you guys have and the different projects you have on your website. It all really resonated with me. 

MM: Yeah, I feel like that tangible impact was definitely so impressive when I first started even interviewing with the organization. I was blown away and just thought wow, this is really crazy and how are more people not talking about this. It’s a whole world I never really dove into and there is so much to learn. Especially coming from the plastic pollution space where you clean a beach and then the next week, more trash is on the beach again, and you’re just like, okay, well…we did our best. 

JB: I liked that tangible impact, as well. I’ve seen nonprofits do amazing, important work, but that work doesn’t always have easily measurable results. Seeing the direct impact of say advocacy work is a bit more difficult than, you know, the restoration work and seeing the ecosystem flourish again. So it’s cool that you guys are able to actually, yes, see that and measure it.  

MM: Yeah, yeah, for sure. It’s definitely like a little dopamine hit every single time we get an email that starts with “success!”.  

JB: Yeah, it’s amazing.  

MM: What initially inspired you to support environmental/sustainability-focused organizations?  

JB: I think the biggest factors have been spending a lot of time outdoors, even from when I was a kid until now, and then traveling and seeing places that haven’t been cared for. And, you know, just having some background education of ecosystems and why it’s so important to have these strong, healthy ecosystems, as well as what islands and coral reefs do for the bigger part of the planet, has inspired me to donate.  

MM: Living in Nicaragua and as a surfer, how has your personal connection with the environment influenced your passion to help protect it?  

JB: I’ve traveled and surfed above coral reefs that are healthy versus ones that are not, and you can see the difference of how many fish are in there and how healthy the coral is. When snowboarding and experiencing a season when there’s not a lot of snowfall, you realize that’s from climate change and with that little snowfall you’re getting less water, which is a huge issue in places like Colorado and California. Being in the mountains is what grew my passion for snowboarding, and then experiencing less snowfall inspired me to act and led me to work for Protect Our Winters and down this path of helping nonprofits. Having an impact on the passions I love to pursue, like snowboarding and surfing, is incredible. 

Once it starts impacting your way of living, your job, how you make money, it’s a huge driver. I’m sure that’s what you see on islands, right? This huge impact it has on these local communities.  

MM: 1000%. Through this work we have started seeing all of these cascading benefits. And for island communities, a lot is riding on the health of the ecosystem. By removing this one primary threat, you can quickly see impacts on improved food security, coral reef health, fish populations, soil health, and the ability for these landmasses to respond to climate impacts It’s one of the many reasons why it’s imperative to listen to island voices and island communities in this fight for the planet – they’re on the frontlines and are experiencing the impacts in real time. 

MM: Why do you think it’s important for other surfers to care about island restoration? 

JB: For surfers specifically, it’s where they play. It’s where they carry out their passion. At a lot of spots you’re surfing on top of reefs which require a healthy ecosystem to survive. And from a surfers perspective, you could lose your surf spots because of dying ecosystems and not restoring these places. I don’t know if that’s the only reason why surfers should care, I feel like they should probably have a better reason to care than like, oh, you might lose your surf spot. Some may be unintentionally missing that education piece and understanding why they should care. But from a surfer’s perspective, it’s where they play, where they surf, so from that perspective you should care at the very least because you’re going to lose your surf spot. I also don’t think a lot of people are going to take action until it directly impacts them and that’s a tough barrier to get past as an org. 

MM: Yeah, those activities and sports that get you outside and really connect with the environment are the things that offer people the most opportunity to reflect and experience something beyond the self and, you know, have experiences that are bit more outward and community-based. There’s so much potential in the surfing community to have that happen. And it’s happening, but it’s not happening at a speed at which you’d expect in that community.  

JB: Yeah, 100%. I think there’d be a lot more people in that community given that they basically live in those environments. 

MM: I want to be respectful of your time. The only other question that I have is what you would say to others looking to make a change? 

JB: First just becoming aware of the issues is the biggest thing you can do. Be aware of the issues where you live and start with small actions and local issues. If you live in California, obviously water is a big issue there. Be aware of that and educate yourself on the effects the lack of this resource can have on the bigger  ecosystem there. Specifically for island conservation I think first you have to educate yourself if you’re just starting out so you can be aware of what the issues are. When you dig into all these issues we are having with the ecosystems or environment, conservation, restoration, then that’s going to be enough to hopefully motivate the person to then take the next step, which is donate to Island Conservation. You can also get involved, like volunteering for a local organization. But the first thing is definitely educate yourself to become more aware. That was the biggest thing for me and one of the biggest motivators is just realizing all these issues that we do have in today’s age and then you figure out your place.  

— 

We are always thrilled to sit down and connect more with the supporters that help make this work happen. It was inspiring to learn what Joe experienced through his passions, and how he used that to fuel his action. 

Are you interested in supporting Island Conservation and the work we do? Sign up to be an Island Conservation donor. All new sustaining monthly donations starting in April will be matched dollar-for-dollar for the remainder of the year (so your $20/month donation = $40/month). All one-time donations will also be matched during the month of April only!