Today we arrived at Las Cruces Biological Station, and tomorrow we will begin collecting data for the research projects we designed last week at the Soltis Center. Because of my interest in Indigenous Peoples and the human dimension of conservation, I decided to study the ‘social’ side of things. With my partner, our research will aim to examine the values of the staff at Las Cruces, across all departments. Through surveys and interviews, we seek to know: what motivated their decision to work for LCBS, their perceptions of the benefits of working here, any effects on the surrounding community they may have noticed, and their observations of how biodiversity has changed in the area over time, among some additional questions. This information would provide insight into the multifaceted impacts of the research station, and I hope could serve as a starting point to similar research in the neighboring communities in the future. There, we could assess how these stakeholders are interacting across a wider landscape and see how else relations and values are affecting not only people but the environment as well. To loosely quote our director Dr. Beck, you can research the life cycle of a snake, but that alone won’t save it from harm: the human element of conservation is key to its success.