Environmental officer jokes she grew up more normal in the forest than others among people

Environmental protection officer Erika Tribulaitė-Junevičienė, who works in the Pakruojis district, spent much of her childhood in the forest with her grandparents, a experience that shaped her love for nature and her career choice.

“Sometimes I even joke that I grew up more normal in the forest than you did among people,” she told LRT RADIO’s show “Už Vilniaus”.

As the chief specialist of the Šiauliai Living Nature Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Department, Erika’s daily work involves protecting wild animals and penalising those who harm them. She attributes her career path to the close connection with nature she developed in childhood.

“I grew up in the forest, and I’m proud of it. It was a different time, my parents’ choice, and my grandparents’ care for a small child. My parents had to work, and they didn’t want to send me to kindergarten. So where else could I grow up if not with my grandfather, the forester?” she said.

Erika describes her life in the forest as the best experience of her life. “If I could, I would go back and relive it, because it was unlimited freedom, which we often lack these days. It was a chance to dream, to improve, to explore and to understand the world. As a small child, I had more impressions than an adult. Everyone thought I could read because I could name plant species. But it was just knowledge, intuition, maybe something I picked up from the elders,” she said.

She believes that people who grow up in rural areas develop values that often get lost in the hustle and bustle of the city, such as empathy, humanity, and the willingness to help others. “I don’t think I would have grown up to be the person I am today if I had grown up in the city,” she added.

Erika sees her upbringing surrounded by forest and nature as a gift that gave her a different perspective on life. Inspired by her grandfather, who worked as a forester, and her childhood spent in the forest, she initially wanted to become a forester but eventually found her way into environmental protection.

Although she had planned to stay close to home and study in Šiauliai, she was encouraged by her chemistry teacher to apply to Vilnius University, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. However, she never intended to stay in the capital and always knew she would return to her homeland.

“While I was studying, there wasn’t a single weekend I spent in Vilnius. I would return home on Friday, and life would begin: Saturday in the forest, hunting, meeting friends, Sunday preparing to go back to Vilnius. On Monday morning, I would leave straight for lectures. Yes, I learned how to live in a big city, it was a very good experience, a city of youth, but I really wanted to return to my region. And I did,” she said.

According to Erika, the situation regarding poaching in Lithuania is gradually improving. Both hunters and ordinary citizens are becoming less indifferent to offences and are actively reporting illegal hunting or fishing to environmental officers. However, despite increasing awareness, there are still those who break the rules.

“People take risks because they think: ‘Why can’t I take advantage of what I can easily get?’ Or ‘Why buy in a store if I can catch a fish myself?’ Others would just buy the fish. But some people still have this old way of thinking passed down from ancient times. But just because it was like that before doesn’t mean it can be like that now,” she emphasised.