WENDY Lee is a woman called by many names: “the snake woman”, “the parrot lady” and “the bird police”.

She’s earned them through her conservation work both in and outside of her local community in St Ann and makes no apology about it.

“Every little boy from Runaway Bay who I have seen with a slingshot, I stop the vehicle and say, ‘Can I have that?’ and I give a little explanation about why they shouldn’t hurt the birds,” notes the 49-year-old Lee. “When I explain to little boys that if they kill the mommy birds then the babies in the nest will starve (it is clear) they have never had this kind of thing explained to them in their life.”

“We have to explain this to them to get them to think about what they are doing. But at the same time I take away their slingshot and say to them, ‘Don’t make another one’,” she added.

But Lee’s conservation efforts through education began long before she started taking slingshots from little boys.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology at Louisiana State University, she spent a year travelling across Africa. It was a trip that cemented her love for the environment, having been nurtured into a love for animals and nature by her parents – Marjorie, a housewife; and father, Dr James Lee, a geologist and archaeologist – while growing up in Mandeville.

“That (Africa) was one of the life-changing experiences. It (helped) turn me into wanting to educate people about how they could preserve their wonderful environment,” Lee said.

She returned to Jamaica in 1982 where she got involved with the group, Jamaica Junior Naturalists doing conservation education. It was the year she also became an honorary game warden.

“So I began to really enforce the Wildlife Protection Act. I would confiscate parrots from the roadside and see that the laws were enforced,” Lee said.

In 1983, she went away to the University of Florida where she earned her master’s in Latin American Studies, having done museum studies and wildlife conservation.

“My goal was to use those to actually do education – informal public education through museums or zoos,” Lee said.

It was while at the University of Florida that she got a further taste of what that would be like.

“I had taken lots of pictures (in Africa). People wanted to see my slides – first my friends and then others. I was trying to educate (people about the environment) and sharing my experience of my travels in Africa,” Lee told Environment Watch. “I wanted to be able to bring to ordinary people the scenes and sites and inspire them to love their own environment and take care of it.”

She got a job as the resident director of Hofstra University Marine lab in Priory in 1989, having spent a few years in Canada. Once back on the island, she returned to confiscating parrots she saw being sold on the streets or being otherwise ill-treated.

The year 1989 was also significant for Lee as she started work with the Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (then the St Ann Environmental Protection Association) of which she is now president. The association focuses on the conservation of natural and cultural resources in Jamaica through education, advocacy and environmental conservation.

In 1990, she started work as the education officer with the Fisheries Improvement Project based at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab.

“That project was responsible for introducing a concept that had not been done in Jamaica – two-for-one mesh exchange. We gave the fishermen of Discovery Bay enough of the large mesh to make two fish pots for every fish pot that they turned in that was made out of the small, one-inch mesh,” she said.

“We were giving them mesh that would allow the juvenile fish to not be caught out of the fish trap while giving them two fish pots instead of one. The result of this was to allow more fish to reach maturity.”

Later, she started operating the Seven Oaks Sanctuary for Wildlife, which she operates from her 11-acre home built in 1720 with funding support from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. Seven Oaks, where her mother grew up, is currently not only home to Lee and her son, but also to 25 parrots and parakeets, a few Jamaican boas (yellow snakes) and an owl with one wing.

Looking back, Lee notes that her work as a wildlife rescuer, despite the challenges – including the labels – is something she has never regretted.

“I have the best of both worlds. I am doing something about parrot conservation and raising awareness and at the same time I also get to love them and care for them,” Lee said.

She also cannot pass a wounded animal on the road.

“If I see an animal that is injured in the road, I cannot pass it. I will always stop and pick up a dog. I will pick up a dog that is run over and take him to the vet to be euthanised,” said the mother of a 14-year-old son, Simon.

This inability to pass a wounded animal is what has led to her “strange collection” of dogs at her home.

Lee, however, continues to be disappointed by people’s failure to see that environmental lobbyists function in their interest.

“I always see the human side of the environment. I get really fed up when people perceive environmentalists as anti-development or not thinking about people. What do they think we are thinking about? It is about people because what we do to the environment will affect people,” she said. “I feel that it is a false argument that preserving the environment is somehow detrimental to development. It is just not true. We need to protect our natural environment for ourselves as Jamaicans.”

She is also concerned by what she views as the lack of political will to seriously address environmental conservation over the years.

“Having spent many years doing environmental education, I find it frustrating that the final obstacle to conservation is a lack of political will and a failure of governance. Everything points to the fact that an area should be protected and that all of that should be ignored because of an unsustainable development that is owned by someone overseas is a shame.”

But for all her love of the environment, Lee does not have a “green thumb”. It is one of only a few things that Lee – a voracious reader, swimmer and photographer – seems incapable of doing.

“I would plant things but they would have to be on their own after that,” she said. “I plant trees. I have a cotton tree (planted years ago), I have some Mahoe tree, I have beautiful Lignum Vitae. But as far as little flowers and weeding the flowerbeds, that is not for me.”