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Matthew Kirby’s experience with wildlife conservation began not with a campaign but with direct hands-on research and advocacy. In the summer of 2005, Matt received a fellowship from Carleton College in Minnesota to travel to Costa Rica and work with Green Sea Turtles to quantify the poaching rate on an unprotected stretch of beach as well as working with the local community to devise ways to decrease poaching.
Soon thereafter, Matthew was selected as an Apprentice with the Sierra Club. It was this intensive, professional development experience that propelled him into the world of organizing and advocacy. Matthew lobbied against offshore drilling, worked to organize coastal businesses, blogged, organized our opposition to Bush’s alteration of the Endangered Species Act, and launched the beginnings of a corporate campaign against Royal Dutch Shell over leases they hold in the Polar Bear Seas.
Matthew is currently the Lands Conservation Organizer with the Sierra Club where he leads the effort on onshore and offshore oil and gas development, acting as the liaison between field organizers and respective public lands legislative campaigns, all the while ensuring that Sierra Club field offices are working in ways that enhance and support conservation priorities in Congress.