PEOPLE 



& PLACES 



The snail is just one of Wood's 

 proteges. 



A self-described "bleeding heart 

 environmentalist," he has a tendency to 

 apologize for sermonizing and then get 

 right to it. He believes man's self-centered, 

 myopic attitudes are destroying wildlife 

 while blinding us to the ways that animals 

 recharge the environment. Beaver dams, 

 while they flood farmlands, also create 

 some of the most fertile soils, he explains. 



His untiring voice is one reason the 

 National Marine Educators Association 

 gave him the James Centorino Award for 

 distinguished performance in marine 

 education last year. 



"I talk a lot to anyone who will listen. 

 I preach," he says. "What literally 

 motivates me is the thought of this planet 

 20 years from now, and the children — 

 including my 9- and 1 1 -year-old sons — 

 and what they will have. This planet is our 

 only home ... and so long as we continue to 

 abuse it, we are making our bed that we 

 will have to sleep in." 



For as long as he can remember, 

 Wood wanted to be a naturalist like his 

 father and two generations who preceded 

 him. Bom in Washington, D.C., Wood 

 grew up in Weston, Conn., close to a 

 nature center where he spent every 

 moment of his free time — he hitchhiked 

 to get there when he couldn't drive. As a 

 child, he took part in the center's programs. 

 As a teen, he was summer manager of the 

 animals in the 54-acre sanctuary. 



In 1970, at age 15, he was involved in 

 the first Earth Day celebration. He also was 

 one of Ralph Nader's Raiders, a group of 

 teens old enough to testify in court but 

 young enough not to go to jail for trespass- 

 ing as they gathered evidence of environ- 

 mental misdeeds. Working with a college 

 student, Wood sneaked onto the grounds of 

 a paint factory to take pictures of paint 

 being discharged into the Housatonic River 

 in Connecticut. 



"There was some clandestine activity 

 involved here, which made it all the more 

 romantic for a 15-year-old," he recalls. 

 "Eight years later, the court case finally 



was settled, and if I recall correctly, it was 

 about a $ 1 2 million settlement. But the 

 pipe had been closed off years before 

 that." 



In 1 974, Wood entered Texas A&M 

 University, where he had thought he 

 would follow his childhood dream of 

 studying herpetology. When he learned 

 the university didn't offer the degree, he 

 began to explore other avenues, discover- 

 ing new interests from animal anatomy to 

 geology and botany. Meanwhile, his job 

 caring for rattlesnakes and other reptiles at 

 a university research center kept him in 

 touch with his past. 



By the time he graduated in 1981 

 with a bachelor of science degree in 

 wildlife and fishery science and conserva- 

 tion, he had a well-rounded education, 

 which prepared him for the diverse routes 

 he would follow. He worked free-lance as 

 a natural science instructor and sought to 

 protect birds of prey through another job in 

 San Antonio, Texas. Soon afterward, he 

 met his wife, Sandy, in New Mexico, 

 where she was on an exchange program 

 from North Carolina State University. 



It was love at first sight, he recalls. A 

 year later, he followed her back to Raleigh, 

 where he was summer camp director at the 

 N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Later 

 he worked with the Raleigh Parks and 

 Recreation Department and then for the 

 NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, 

 reconstructing skeletons that ranged from 

 a mouse to a giraffe for anatomy classes. 



The couple married in 1984, and a 

 year later, Wood was connected with the 

 Fort Fisher aquarium through a job as 

 director of a summer science camp for 

 UNC- Wilmington. Since becoming the 

 aquarium's education curator in 1987, he 

 and his staff have broadened the scope of 

 programs offered to the public. 



The aquarium now teaches surfing. 

 He figures it is the only public aquarium in 

 the United States to do so. "We do it 

 because surfing appeals to a group of 

 people who might not otherwise partici- 

 pate in our conservation/education-based 

 programs," he says. 



The programs, which range from 

 crabbing to "scaly stories" for children, are 

 just one avenue to get the message out. 

 For Wood, most days are frenetic because 

 he puts himself at the disposal of the 

 public, and his hands are in so many pots. 



Good days are when he can get 

 outside to lead a field trip on the neighbor- 

 ing beach or salt marsh. A lot of the time, 

 he's fielding calls on environmental issues 

 from the media, homeowners and city or 

 county planners. Following his cause often 

 takes him beyond regular work hours. 



As a regional coordinator, he helped 

 North Carolina Sea Grant launch the first 

 Beach Sweep cleanup. And for more than 

 a decade, he's been a weekly natural 

 history commentator on WHQR, 

 Wilmington's National Public Radio 

 affiliate. 



In 1990, to mark the 20th anniversary 

 of Earth Day, he founded the Earth Day 

 Alliance of the Lower Cape Fear, bringing 

 together environmental groups, business 

 leaders and concerned citizens to speak 

 more cohesively on environmental issues. 



In the past two years, he's worked to 

 amend a plan to convert a sandhills 

 longleaf pine habitat owned by the city of 

 Wilmington into ball fields. 



"The perception right now is the only 

 valuable land in North Carolina is 

 wedand, and that's just not true," Wood 

 says. "We have to be as diligent about 

 protecting our dry land because that's 

 where much of our rain falls. And if we 

 cover over our dry lands with impervious 

 asphalt and concrete, that water just runs 

 off and doesn't recharge aquifers, and it 

 pollutes our streams and lakes and then 

 our salt marshes and ocean, and ulti- 

 mately, us." 



Wood's dedication overrides 

 everything, says Corps of Engineers 

 biologist Adams, who has known him for 

 10 years. 



"I think he would take vows of 

 celibacy and poverty if he thought it could 

 protect the environment better," he says, 

 laughing. "That's one of the things that 

 makes Andy unique." □ 



COASTWATCH 31 



