“I am so excited — this is my first manager position. This is a great team so far and I am excited to take this to a whole new level,” Nelson said. “I am hoping to let people know more about their area so they can understand the ecosystem that we live in, and hopefully respect it.”

Nelson was born and raised in the town of Scottville in Michigan’s Mason County. She attended Central Michigan University, where she majored in outdoor recreation and worked towards a masters of education with a training and development concentration, also from CMU.

Nelson later completed a year-long internship at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge in the Aleutian Islands, studying sea birds.

She then worked for six years at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Homer, Alaska, where she would accompany biologists into the field and bring back lessons to the classroom.

DANA NELSON, SHOWN here doing field work in Alaska, is now manager of the Dickinson Conservation District. (Submitted photo)

With much of that work going online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson came to the Dickinson Conservation District in the summer of 2021 and worked with the Wild Rivers Invasive Species Coalition.

She then went back to Alaska, this time to Kotzebue above the Arctic Circle. Newly married and the mother of twins, she was looking to avoid long, dark winters when she came back to the area after two years. Nelson is married to Niagara, Wis., science teacher Joseph Saugstad.

She succeeds Amber Butterfield as DCD manager.

Nelson said she plans to bring her education background to the Dickinson Conservation District.

“We are going to go out and let people know about the birds in their area, the fish in the area, why this place is such a big area for recreation,” Nelson said. “What makes it so beautiful? It is the different types of trees and the fish that are in our lakes and streams and they are there because of the organisms and the habitat that supports it.”

According to the Dickinson Conservation District website, the district is “a group of likeminded individuals who are passionate about protecting, educating and assisting the sustainable use and practices of natural resources.”

The staff consists of a conservationist, forester and soil conservationist. Along with participating in WRISC and providing forestry services, the district offers the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, which the state operates through the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to help farms “voluntarily prevent or minimize agricultural pollution risks,” including reducing erosion and runoff into public waters, according to the MDARD website.

The district operates on federal, state and local grants, plus fundraising. Every year the Dickinson Conservation District has a tree sale, which is currently underway — a list of what’s available can be found at https://www.dickinsoncd.org/shop. Orders can be placed until April 4, with pickup set for April 25-26. For more information on the tree sale, call 906-774-1550.

Nelson encourages the public to attend the conservation district’s board meeting at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the DCD’s offices, 420 N. Hooper St. in Kingsford.

Upcoming educational events include a bird seed mini-wreath activity at the Felch Township Community Center on March 19 and Tree Pruning 101 at Pleasant View Orchard in Niagara, Wis., on March 29.