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Brian Winter
While growing up on a farm in the rolling Prairie Coteau area of southwestern Minnesota, I spent many enjoyable hours outdoors with my family. Across the road from our farmyard was some pastureland that had a ravine with a nice native prairie component. I still remember my Mom showing me a blooming flower and calling it "Grandpa's whiskers." Later I learned it is actually called prairie smoke (Geum triflorum). My brother and I spent a lot of time exploring the prairie and its inhabitants. When I graduated from the University of Minnesota Crookston, my parents gave me a new camera. I used the camera to capture the wildlife and flowers of the prairie. Now I spend several hours a year photographing my children enjoying their time on the prairie.
After graduating from University of Minnesota Crookston, I decided I would like to be involved in the management of our natural resources, so I continued my education at South Dakota State University and received a Bachelors of Science Degree in Wildlife Management. However, to get the job I really wanted, I needed even more education so I studied and received a Masters of Science degree in Animal Ecology at Iowa State University. My research for my Master's degree involved the impact of prescribed burning on the feeding habits of two species of sparrows, which got me interested in the use of fire to manage plant communities.
In 1985, after completing my studies, I began working for The Nature Conservancy as the Southern Preserves Manager working out of the Minnesota Field Office in Minneapolis. In the fall of 1987 I was promoted to the Director of Preserve Stewardship and moved with my family to live and work out of the Western Preserves Office, at Bluestem Prairie, the largest of the Chapter's tallgrass prairie preserves, near Moorhead. In my current position as Director of Science & Stewardship for the Northern Tallgrass Prairie Ecoregion, I am responsible for a comprehensive land management program for tallgrass prairie in western Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas. Under my direction preserve management crews conduct land management tasks such as prescribed burning, exotic species control, prairie reconstruction and rare species monitoring on tallgrass prairie preserves.
When not involved in the task of managing Conservancy preserves, I enjoy hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, photography and bird watching. I am also a member and currently volunteer as the President of the Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society.
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Last modified on May 23, 2002.