Wood briefed National Press Foundation fellows in October 2021: Biodiversity and Climate Change.

Author, ecologist, and award-winning conservation educator Andy Wood is a fourth-generation biologist and graduate of Texas A&M University where he studied wildlife management, natural resource conservation, and museum science.

Andy literally grew up with a nature center in the coastal Connecticut community where he was raised. After attending the center’s nature camps and weekend programs in his early youth, Andy graduated to junior staff member, and eventually summer caretaker of the nature center’s wildlife collection and 54-acre sanctuary.

A lifelong educator, Andy joined the modern environmental movement with Earth Day 1970, helping organize and conduct stream cleanups, paper drives, and river monitoring. These formative experiences channeled his conservation career, which includes 12 years as Curator of Education for the North Carolina Aquariums, 11 years as a State Education Director for the National Audubon Society, and 28 years as a volunteer nature commentator for public radio station WHQR. A collection of his commentaries was published in his first book, Backyard Carolina (2006).

Today, Andy volunteers as director for COASTAL PLAIN CONSERVATION GROUP (CPCG)—a non-profit environmental organization, based in Pender County, NC, working to protect biodiversity and prevent extinction of rare and imperiled plants and wildlife, with attention to the southeast NC ecoregion. In this role Andy has all but single-handedly prevented extinction of two species of freshwater snails, Magnificent Ramshorn (Planorbella magnifica) and Greenfield Ramshorn (Helisoma eucosmium).

These imperiled species, known only from a handful of freshwater ponds associated with tributary streams connected to the lower Cape Fear River, are now presumed gone from the wild but not yet extinct because the last living members are in Andy’s captive care. Their threat is saltwater intrusion due to river dredging, and CPCG is working to hold responsible agencies accountable for their action that have resulted in the death and decline of Cape Fear River bottomland swamp forest.

Andy is also a consulting conservationist with HABITATS GARDENS, LLC, providing advice and guidance to community members negatively impacted by environmental harms resulting from development and other habitat-altering activities. He also provides habitat monitoring, management, and enhancement services with attention to habitat restoration and biodiversity protection.