A Nature Lover's Career--A Decade Long Journey!
Part III of IV
By the summer of ’96, I had built quite and extensive resume of my job experiences. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside my control I wasn’t able to score one of the highly coveted full time positions at “The Dunes”. However, fortunately for me, I interviewed for a state of Indian DNC full time position with benefits at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. I was offered a job and gratefully accepted.
During the short time I worked for the DNR, I was able to contribute many of my work skills but more importantly I was able to gain other skills that would help catapult me to the next step in my career. Those skills included heavy equipment training & use plus extensive prescribed fire training and field experience. During my tenure there, I was bless with the opportunity of being a member of an Indiana DNR Wildland Fire Team.
We were deployed to California for 14 days to fight forest fires near Yosemite National Park. This was some of the hottest, dirtiest, most physically demanding work I’d ever done but, again, I loved it. Saving our forests, the surrounding homes and towns, and possibly human lives from death and devastation, an absolute no brainer for me!
My ambitious nature and willingness to pursue the next stage in my career led me to another opportunity in the spring of 1997. This time my journey took me across the state of Indiana to the little town of Avilla, just North of Ft. Wayne where I accepted a position working as a Project Foreman for a small private contracting company called Heartland Restoration, and ecological restoration co. specializing in prairie, wetland, woodland, and stream restoration.
Over the next 2 years, ’97-’99, I virtually lived and breathed the demands of my job. It was a huge time commitment because of the requirements of traveling to all the different job sites through out the state of IN and the amount of physical work that goes into restoring degraded natural landscapes.
The way that I would rationalize the work I did back then can be described in the following terms: God designed, built, and perfected these natural areas, man messed them up via development, agriculture, and industrialization, and now it’s our job and responsibility to repair and restore them. It’s impossible to duplicate God’s perfection but at least we can try and help mitigate the damage.
During this time in my life, I was very blessed to work with a gentleman who happened to be my boss, Nate Simons. He taught me so many things about the ecological restoration profession, from native & invasive plant identification to seeding, planting, and construction techniques that are time tested and proven.
However, the most important thing Nate taught me above all was that the profession we chose had a higher calling than just the obvious love of being out in mother nature. By committing ourselves to our work, the restoration of earth’s natural ecosystems (i.e. wetlands, prairies, woodlands, and streams). we were in fact doing a biblical related work by honoring God and being stewards of His Creation. His perspective was enlightening and brought a deeper spiritual meaning and understanding to our work.
The joy that Nate carried with him everyday during some of the most difficult work conditions and most challenging job sites was infectious. Nate’s faith as a Christian, his consistent positivity, and his professional work ethic were all on full display every day I worked with him. What an amazing role model Nate was for me and continues to be for his family, his professions, and his community. Thanks to Nate for helping to make me a better person and introducing me to a faith based reason for loving my career even more.
That reason so deeply resonated with me that it’s acts as an ongoing inspiration for me everyday in my profession. It’s awesome knowing that the important work I do on an earthly level has a higher purpose and pleases God.
To be continued…..Part IV next month!
Submitted by: Scott Rebholz
