About this page

Who am I?

Greetings, I am J, a field biologist working in the Northen Great Plains(NGP) of North America. I originate from the east coast of the US and moved into the NGP over a decade ago. I have a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Science and slowly working on one in Rangeland Science.

I have worked in conservation across the Great Plains working with Monarch Butterflies, Bison, and now birds.

I have been a zookeeper and a naturalist/outdoor educator.

My career working in relation to wildlife has spanned over 30 years (started doing animal husbandry in 1993, as a volunteer).

Avid supporter of public lands. Many of my photos are from publics lands.

My goal is to share information about conservation in the Great Plains and what it is like working in conservation as a field biologist.

Why?

I have a few reasons for putting this page together.

I can't escape the educator background no matter how hard I try.

Grasslands are one of the fastest disappearing ecosystems in the world.

I have heard many times I have an interesting job so figured it might be fun to share.

It is not as glamourous as people think, either. I am willing to share the good and the bad.

Working on this site helps keep me from the doomscroll and helps me maintain a tiny bit of hope on our pale blue dot.

I feel like creating a space on the tiny web that is free from the throes of AI generated content and riddled with misinformation.

I will add some disclaimers, as with all science, information can and will change and will do my best to be as accurate and up to date as I can be with the information I share

I will be sharing plenty of my personal opinions as well and these do not reflect the opinions of my employer.

This is a personal page just talking about and documenting my work.

What are the Northern Great Plains(NGP)?

This is an area of North America that includes the grassland habitats in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and stretches into Canada. My work is mostly in the US but wouldn't pass on an opportunity to do work in Canada's grasslands either.

Per the figure below, I work predominantly in the G and F regions. G is going to be more where the sage steppe and mixed grass prairies are. The F region is predominantly what is called the Prairie Potholes region. A big designation between the two is F is glaciated plains while G is not glaciated plains. I'll fill in more details in blog posts and across the site.

What is a field biologist?

A Field biologist does most of their work in field doing surveys, assessments, and collecting various forms of data. My primary foci are botanical and avian field work. I collect plant data to asess rangeland health and avian habitat. I collect avian data through visual and sound based surveys.