Mason Maron is one of the most interesting people in the Daily Evergreen newsroom. He is graduating Saturday with a major in wildlife ecology and conservation sciences and a minor in forestry. He has been at the Evergreen for five semesters, isn’t a communications major and has been heavily invested.

Maron is the former president of the Wildlife Society Chapter in Pullman and is the current photo editor for the Daily Evergreen.

He is extremely passionate about wildlife photography, so much so that he has put it at the forefront of his life.

“I got into wildlife through wildlife photography. Obviously, I’ve kind of based my life around it, because I’m about to graduate with a degree in wildlife. It’s something that I really enjoy. And I really enjoy nature, so something about capturing it in photos and capturing those moments I find fun. When you get a nice photo it’s very satisfying and very gratifying,” Maron said.

He was originally going to go into mechanical engineering, but around his junior year of high school, he found wildlife photography and did a 180 his senior year, becoming very passionate about wildlife. Maron declined a scholarship from Autodesk, a 3D modeling company in Portland, Oregon to pursue wildlife in college.

Maron is going to take a gap year after graduation, take some time to travel and then work a winter field job, potentially in Hawaii or Antarctica. Then he plans to apply to graduate schools.

A week after he graduates from Pullman, his plan is to do a cross-country road trip. He will leave from Pullman and travel down to the southernmost part of Texas and then to the upper peninsula of Michigan. He will then fly to Rhode Island and spend a week and a half in Rhode Island and Connecticut, then fly back to Washington.

Maron has high goals; his plan is to get his master’s degree and then a Ph.D.

“Cornell would be nice, but it’s pretty competitive especially in that field because they have the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which is like their bird lab. It has a low number of openings. It’s basically the number one place to study that in the world,” Maron said.

He went to WSU because of in-state tuition, scholarships and the fact that his sister went here. He gave credit to his parents for always being supportive of him and his endeavors.

“My parents have been very supportive of what I like to do. Which is good, because you don’t make a ton of money in wildlife,” Maron said. “My parents have worked so hard to get us to live comfortably, but they’re supportive because they can tell that it’s stuff that I like to do. Truthfully, if I decide later in life that I’d rather go do something else, they would be supportive of that as well.”

Maron’s portfolio features a wide degree of things. He also speaks Spanish and studied abroad in southern Chile. In the semester of spring of 2022, he took the opportunity to study abroad. He said that he was rusty when he first got there but eventually was confident enough to speak fluent Spanish to Chileans.

He spoke about birding, explaining how competitive it truly is. People compete in a competition called a “big year,” which people take very competitively, setting aside 10s of $1000s. They fly across the country to see a rare bird, ready to go somewhere at the drop of a hat.

Maron did a “big day” in Washington a couple of years ago. He traveled all over Washington State to see as many species of birds as he could in one day. He set the state record for individuals at 193 bird species in one day.

“I didn’t go to sleep that night. I stayed up the whole night listening for owls to start off, and then at sunrise I was at the Puget Sound and then I drove all throughout Washington, like through the Cascades, and I think the furthest east I got was Othello. The entire day was just driving places to see birds,” Maron said.

Regarding his wildlife photos, Maron has been published in a multitude of different publications, including three or four field guides, in different publications in from around the world, a few research publications, magazines and the Cornell Lab. He has been on the local news and has hopped on different podcasts to talk about wildlife and birds.

Initially, when he started at the Evergreen, he was a photographer and was not interviewed– they just sent him the paperwork and he started taking photos. Then after his study abroad semester, he applied to be the photo editor and got the job. He said it has created some good friendships.

“I think some long nights spent in the newsroom helped form some bonds between the people in there and I hope that I can stay in touch with the people that I’ve worked with,” Maron said. “I think that it was a good experience and there’s definitely some good times and good memories looking back. Everybody kind of sitting and working late hours on a Wednesday.”

Letter from the writer:

When I first got started at the Evergreen it was very unconventional; I randomly took the job as the deputy sports editor and got placed in a desk right next to Mason. Our friendship has grown as the year has gone on, from mainly acquaintances to friends. He has been so kind to me and we have talked hours on hours about a wide-ranging amount of topics.

He is wildly interesting and is such a great person. I am proud to call him my friend and am happy to see him follow his dreams in wildlife.