Founder of Adirondack loon conservation nonprofit departs to launch new wildlife initiative

Dr. Nina Schoch plans to expand wildlife health research, training opportunities in the Adirondacks

By Mike Lynch

The founder of the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation has left the nonprofit and is now planning to pursue a new project related to wildlife health. 

Dr. Nina Schoch founded the Saranac Lake-based center in 2017 after working in the field since the late 1990s. She had transitioned from executive director to the director of conservation and science earlier this year. 

“As a veterinarian and wildlife rehabilitator with decades of experience, I will now be pursuing my long-term passion and dream of expanding wildlife health and conservation opportunities in the Adirondacks,” Schoch wrote in a letter to the Explorer. “In collaboration with others, this idea will lead to ongoing wildlife health research, training opportunities for wildlife professionals and students (including undergraduate, graduate, veterinary…), and diagnostic and treatment resources for wildlife rehabilitators in and around the Adirondacks.”

She told the Explorer the project details aren’t finalized but she’s had the idea for it since 2015. She emphasized the project being a collaboration of organizations that eventually will have a facility in the Adirondacks.  

Susan Semegram has been involved with the loon center since its inception and was part of a small group of advisers that Schoch sought help from when creating the nonprofit.  She was founding board treasurer and then a few years later served as the board chairman until earlier this year. 

“She has some great plans, and I’m sure she’ll accomplish over the next 10 years what she wants,” Semegram said. “She’s very driven in that sense.” 

Semegram also applauded the work Schoch has accomplished with loons. 

“She’s advanced the knowledge that we have of how loons live, reproduce, what harms them, and there’s a good crew at the loon center now that can continue that research,” Semegram said. 

A wildlife photographer, Schoch will also be working with friends on a website “to discuss the ecology of Adirondack nature and wildlife, and link to organizations who are conducting research and working to protect the environment and wildlife.”

Field research contributes to environmental policy changes

Schoch started her loon research in the Adirondacks in 1998 as a volunteer, when she helped the Gorham, Maine-based Biodiversity Research Institute with a study of mercury contamination of loons. She coordinated the Adirondack program the next two years. 

When the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program started in 2001, Schoch took a leading role as a scientist and coordinator. The program was a joint effort between BRI, the Wild Center, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Audubon International and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Saranac Lake, which eventually ran the program and employed Schoch until 2006. She worked for WCS for the next three years, then took over BRI’s Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation in 2009 until she started the nonprofit in Saranac Lake. 

“I have greatly enjoyed working in loon conservation over the years, from the late nights of rescuing and banding loons to educating people about conservation concerns affecting loons and the aquatic ecosystems where they live,” Schoch wrote the Explorer. “…The staff now working at the Adirondack Loon Center are highly dedicated and will be continuing our groundwork long into the future.”

Schoch’s scientific work has included looking at the impact climate change is having on the birds,  documenting mercury contamination, studying reproductive success, and performing various population reports, among other things.  

“The (mercury) samples we’ve collected have been used to implement policy for helping prevent our mercury pollution and acid rain pollution,” Schoch told the Explorer. “Our data has contributed to understanding about the impact of PFAs in loons and aquatic ecosystems. Our work has informed thousands of people about conservation concerns affecting wildlife and the ecosystems they live in, using loons as a charismatic species to talk to them about conservation concerns.”

Educational programs target fishing community

Over the years, she worked closely with anglers on a number of programs, including replacing toxic lead sinkers with non-toxic ones and recycling fishing line. Her educational programs made the public area aware that discarded fishing gear, including line and hooks, posed a threat to loons and other birds such as bald eagles. 

Conservation efforts earn statewide recognition 

She has been honored numerous times for her efforts. In 2011, the New York State Outdoor Writers Association gave her the M. Paul Keesler NYS Outdoor Citizen Award. She was inducted into the New York Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame in Vernon Center in 2014, and she earned the 2018 Adirondack Research Consortium’s Elizabeth Thorndike Adirondack Achievement Award.

Schoch said she still has some research projects to finish and plans to contribute to loon center research when possible.  

“I greatly appreciated working with the staff of the loon center and the board over the years, and the staff now are some of the best people I’ve ever worked with, and I’m so grateful to all the donors and in-kind supporters that have helped make all this possible over the years,” she said.