JOHN J. MORIARTY
Natural Resource Specialist
Ramsey County, Parks and Recreation Department

I have always been interested in wildlife and their environment. Growing up in Connecticut, I was always bringing home snakes, turtles, opossums, and other animals. This was not always appreciated by the rest of my family. I spent a most of my school years outside in the woods and wetlands. I did my first wetland restoration when I was in Junior High even though we did not know that was what we were doing at the time. We thought we were just having fun catching crayfish, frogs and turtles, and putting them into a recently created pond.

I went to college to study wildlife and forestry. I then went to graduate school in Kentucky to study wildlife use of dead trees or unofficially "what lived in the holes in the trees in the woods." There I looked at a wide variety of plants, trees and animals. The group of animals I liked best was the reptiles and amphibians.

I started my career in Minnesota as a herpetologist (someone who studies amphibians and reptiles) for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. I still study amphibians and reptiles, but not as an official part of my current job. I am a natural resources specialist for Ramsey County Parks and Recreation Department. My job is to protect and restore natural habitats and the animals that live in them. I may be involved in a controlled prairie burn one day, to figuring out how to reduce the deer herd the next, to removing buckthorn the third. I also work on plant and animal surveys and invasive plant control. My job also involves working with park users and volunteers to help improve the habitats.

I take my job home where I have been working on removing buckthorn from the woods behind my house while planting native trees. I also keep a number of amphibian and reptiles, especially turtles, as pets and for educational use.