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Job Title: Naturalist
Type of Company: I work for a nature center in Wisconsin. Our first and foremost responsibility is to teach environmental education to adults and children alike, but we supplement our income by offering public programs on a variety of topics to a variety of different age groups.
Education: Associates Degree in "Natural Resources"
Previous Experience: I had an internship at a local nature center and did volunteer work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Forest Service.
Job Tasks: My primary responsibility is to teach environmental education to school-aged children who visit the nature center. Our curriculum is based on statewide standards and allows us to teach K-12 and college students as well.
In addition to working with school groups, I am responsible for maintaining our 12,000 square foot interpretive building and the 430 acre piece of property where the nature center resides. Building hands-on displays, making building repairs, landscaping, removing invasive or exotic species, answering the public's questions and more are part of my daily routine. That said, each day is vastly different depending on the season and the needs of the building and grounds.
To generate revenue, I am responsible for teaching a variety of public programs with topics such as "Monarch Butterflies", "Natural Dyes," "Birding for Beginners" and many, many more. On average, I teach four public programs a month. We also derive revenue from donations, renting the facility for meetings, selling merchandise in our bookstore and timber sales.
Recently added to my list of responsibilities is "Citizen-Based Monitoring" (CBM) programs. These research projects rely on volunteers and nature center staff for data collection. At the moment, we are involved in the following: a Monarch (butterfly) larva monitoring project, the Midwest sandhill crane count, a Christmas bird count, mosquito research, bluebird and wood duck nesting box data collection, the purple loosestrife project, a frog and toad survey, salamander survey... and that's not all.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is working with the public, working outside, getting to teach what I love to do.
The worst parts are the crazy hours (long days), the crazy busy schedule (no time to relax), feeling overwhelmed with too many things to do (due to the small size of our staff) and working outside when the weather is inclement.
Job Tips:
1. Volunteer! Anywhere, anytime, for anyone! If you do not have experience in this field, even if you have a masters degree, you won't get hired. Hands on experience outweighs the degree!
2. Network with people in the natural resource field. Sometimes what's just as important as knowing "stuff" is who you know.
3. Read and spend time outside, not just hunting and fishing but really spending time outside. Learn your local flora and fauna.
Additional Thoughts: I didn't realize when I became a naturalist that I would be doing the variety of jobs that I am: web design, writing newsletter articles, working offsite doing programs in remote locations, shoveling the snow off the roof in winter, plunging toilets, cutting down trees, interviewing and hiring summer staff. It's been a wild ride and all of my past experiences (in life) have helped me through my current job.
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