People and Profession
Belonging to Nature
A Biologist's Story
by Stephanie Shepherd
I come from a family of history majors—mother, father, and sister. That is to say, being a scientist was not the most likely path for me to take. At school, I was always better at English and history and hated math. But science, particularly biology, fell in this liminal space between STEM and the humanities, at least in my mind. That straddling of disciplines is what I appreciate about being a biologist the most.
Science really caught my attention in middle school, when we were given a project called SLUDGE. The fact that I remember it is a testament to how much I loved it. We were given a mystery substance and told to figure out what the component parts were using the techniques we had been learning, like distillation, evaporation, etc. That kind of experimentation and mystery-solving was right up my alley, and my love for biology was solidified a couple of years later in high school.
Still, it didn’t occur to me to major in biology in college. I started as an anthropology major, but when that ended up not being a great fit, I found myself flailing. In between semesters, reading a National Geographic article about some biologists studying elephants, it suddenly struck me: THAT was a JOB. And I’ve never looked back.
I grew up in Virginia and found myself in Iowa in my late 20s as a graduate student at Iowa State University in Animal Ecology. Iowa ended up being the perfect place for someone interested in how “good” humans were at building natural ecosystems (otherwise known as restoration ecology). Because so much of Iowa’s natural habitats have been altered, the natural resource professionals here are some of the most expert at restoring or creating prairies, forests, and wetlands.
It was a great place to learn, and over the 2.5 years I was at ISU, I fell in love with Iowa’s grasslands, especially the remnants that have never been plowed. A lot of my classmates were “West-obsessed,” or maybe a better description would be “wilderness-obsessed,” but I always pushed back, saying that Iowa was just as beautiful as the Rocky Mountains; it just wasn’t so ostentatious. You had to slow down and look closely to see the beauty, and that made it more rewarding and astonishing.
I did leave Iowa for a few years after graduate school, but came back to Iowa for good in 2005 to work for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. I specifically work for the Wildlife Diversity Program, which focuses on non-game wildlife from butterflies to bats to bald eagles. And because our program is small, I’ve had the opportunity to work with all of them.
I’ve also had the opportunity and privilege to work with and meet so many Iowa humans! Another happy consequence of having such a small program is that we need to partner with others to achieve conservation.
Iowa is really lucky to have such robust conservation and environmental education at the local level with the County Conservation Boards (CCBs). Other states I’ve lived in did not have this network, and Iowa’s investment in CCBs is a testament to a very real and widespread appreciation for nature in Iowa.
Another place I see this love for nature is through the volunteer community science programs I coordinate for the DNR. We recruit and train volunteers to monitor bald eagle, osprey, and peregrine falcon nests; frogs, toads, and bats by their calls; and most recently, bumble bees. Interacting with all of these Iowans who put their time, energy, and money into helping track these vulnerable species is always inspiring. I have learned so much from them.
I get to work every day with people who are passionate helpers, either through collecting data or creating habitats with native plants in their yards. All these individual efforts add up to make the biggest difference. It’s hard not to be inspired.
A lot of people become wildlife biologists because they want to be out in nature studying wildlife; they don’t think about interacting with others. However, true conservation depends on recognizing that people belong to nature—and must be part of the solutions to its challenges. This is where science and the humanities meet, and I love that I get to live and work in this nexus.
Thank you to all the conservationists in Iowa who make a difference every day with their kindness, generosity, and compassion.
Stephanie Shepherd is a native of Virginia. She received a BS in Biology from the University of Richmond. She landed in Iowa to study prairie reconstruction and butterfly communities, earning a Master’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Iowa State University. Stephanie worked in Missouri and Virginia before becoming an Iowa DNR wildlife biologist for the last 20 years. She is passionate about prairies and the wildlife that depend on them, especially the smaller denizens. She is also an avid gardener and for the last several years she has enjoyed meshing prairie reconstruction, wildlife conservation and gardening in urban and suburban spaces. Her mission is to help people feel a part of the natural world, regardless of their location.