Siouxland Public Media helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center with a live broadcast on Wednesday, October 21st. The show highlighted the past, present and future of the facility surrounded by the beauty of Stone State Park in northwest Sioux City.
List of live guests:
Dawn Snyder – Education Programs Director for the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
Tom Crawford – former Board Member for the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
Dr. David Hoferer - Briar Cliff University Professor of Biology and member of the Executive Committee of the Northwest Iowa Group of the Sierra Club/Board Member of the Environmental Advisory Board for Sioux City
To adhere to COVID-19 safety guidelines several segments were pre-recorded:
Junior League Legacy Gallery – Eileen Lord
Loess Hills overview - Bill Zales
Nature Tales - Naturalist Theresa Kruid
Climate change and winter outlook – Jeff Chapman, National Weather Service/Sioux Falls
S.O.A.R. (Saving our Avian Resources) – Kay Nuemann
* “Tree House” – Performed by Rick Borg and Walter Peterson of the group Central Time. (Recorded on June 21, 2019 at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center)
About the guests:
Dawn Snyder is the Education Programs Director of the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. She began her career in 1988 as the first Woodbury County Conservation Board (WCCB) naturalist, and just began her 32nd year at WCCB. She initiated the concept of a nature center to the WCCB, they embraced the idea, garnered widespread
community support, and in 1995 the Loess Ridge (now Dorothy Pecaut) Nature Center opened its doors. Snyder oversees the environmental education program, supervises educational staff, writes grants and provides marketing for the nature center and WCCB. She is a native of Tripoli, Iowa and has two adult children, Sierra and David Chapman. Snyder serves on numerous boards and committees including the chair of the Loess Hills Alliance, Secretary of the Woodbury County Conservation Foundation, and is a former Friends of FM90 Board member. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, traveling, kayaking, reading and spending time with her family.
Dr. Hoferer was born and raised in Iowa. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology, he went to seminary to study Christian environmental theology and ethics. For his dissertation work, he combined his ecological and ethical knowledge to study the social processes in the Town of Dunn, Wis., that led to the
reinvigoration of local democracy in the town while simultaneously preserving and restoring natural and agricultural lands. His main interests concern the conservation of vertebrates in fragmented landscapes, particularly agricultural landscapes. He enjoys birding, cycling, and science fiction and fantasy.
Jeff Chapman has been a forecaster with the National Weather Service for 27 years - a little over 25 years at the office in Sioux Falls, SD. A native of Iowa, he always knew that he wanted a job in weather (and/or
climate) since being fascinated at a very early age by the variety of weather in the Northern Plains. After growing up in Minnesota, Jeff returned to Iowa to earn his degree in Meteorology at Iowa State University before doing graduate work at the State University of New York at Albany. Jeff works with the Climate program at NWS Sioux Falls, as well as documenting area weather events each month in the "Storm Data" publication. Even at home, Jeff has taken precipitation records for over 25 years and appreciates the role that the "citizen scientist" can play in weather/climate research such as the CoCoRAHS program.
Kay Nuemann is a flurry of activity! She provides the daily care, monitoring, and rehabilitation needs of the patients and care and feeding of the education birds, provides programming to school and adult groups, plus keeping the freezer stocked with food, and doing her least favorite activity — record-keeping. She makes time to oversee the education and training of high school and college interns as these are our future biologists, rehabilitators, conservation managers, and environmental educators.
Kay has an M.S. in Wildlife Biology and a B.A. in Biology. She has been working in the fields of environmental education, wildlife research, wildlife rehabilitation, and natural resources restoration for more than 25 years. Kay is a master-class rehabilitator and master-class falconer and celebrated her 30th hunting season in 2014.
Kay received the 2014 Ada Hayden Conservation Education Award from the Iowa Association of Naturalists / Iowa Conservation Education Coalition for outstanding efforts for education on preservation, land management, or natural resource conservation.
SOAR was honored with the 2018 Frederic Leopold Award from the Iowa Association of Naturalists / Iowa Conservation Education Coalition for outstanding environmental education efforts by business, industry, or labor.
Junior League Legacy Exhibit Gallery committee members toast to celebrate the Grand Opening on October 22, 1995. Shown left to right: Jackie Seymour, Ruth Rose, Janyce (Keeney) Woodard, Carol Cote, Eileen Lord (Committee Chair), Dawn Snyder and Tom Duffy (Exhibit Designer & Contractor)
Credit Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
