I was inspired to create The Artist’s Field Guide to Yellowstone given my love of natural history, my interest in the arts, and my desire to better know my new home, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Can you explain your inspiration for creating The Artist’s Field Guide to Yellowstone and how MOSS’ Master Naturalist course tied into that? I have always been a lover of natural history, but the Northern Rockies is a very different ecology than my childhood home ground of the Northern Great Lakes. I was seeking the next level of knowing this place, and for that I turned to MOSS. At the time, I was still getting my bearings after a somewhat recent move to Bozeman and felt that my own explorations of nature here had been maxed out given my knowledge of this region’s natural history. I took MOSS’ Master Naturalist course in 2012 and absolutely loved it. You took MOSS’ Master Naturalist course several years ago, right? When did you take it and why? #Storymill park freeI spend my free time trail running, climbing, hiking, and nature journaling, though these days my explorations keep me in nature closer to home: watching birds with my young son and awaiting a new baby arriving this summer. I have my Masters from Yale’s School of the Environment, where I co-taught Yale undergrad courses on Yellowstone and Global Change, and traveled with student groups to guide them in exploration and study of the biological, social, and policy contexts of the region. Through my organization, Coyote Art & Ecology, I have collaborated with such groups as the Trust for Public Land, National Geographic, the WILD Foundation, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, and AMB West Ranches. I have worked for environmental NGOs for most of my career, spanning science, policy, management, education, outreach, and the arts. Much of my art takes the form of intricate wildlife portraits created in watercolor, and my paintings appear in books, galleries, and in natural areas across the country. I have been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts grants for development of artful interpretive resources in GYE natural areas: Story Mill Park (Bozeman) and Astoria Park Conservancy (Jackson). For example, I created the interpretive panels appearing throughout Bozeman’s Story Mill Community Park - painting, writing, and designing the content to appear on each sign in collaboration with local conservation and community partners. I am drawn to interdisciplinary projects that engage communities around shared values in nature. I am the artist-in-residence at the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, which is based in Jackson. I spent a lot of time outdoors in wild places through my childhood and have continued the tradition here in the Rockies. I grew up in Northern Michigan along the shores of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I have lived in the GYE for most of the last decade between Bozeman and Jackson, though am currently based in Boulder, CO. I am an artist, writer, conservationist, and mother. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? What you do, where you came from, your background and your family? I tracked Katie down to sign a copy for me and fill me in on how Master Naturalist led to her becoming a published editor. It turns out that book came out in May 2021 and is an amazing collection of art work that grew from idea hatched from nature journaling in MOSS’ Master Naturalist course. We vaguely stayed in touch via social media enough that I knew she was working on a book. Years went by, jobs changed and Katie, my coworker, left Bozeman to pursue a Master’s Degree at Yale. I remember asking her about it at the time. One of my co-workers there was taking what sounded like a very cool class in the evenings through MOSS. Back in 2012, I (Molly Ward, MOSS’ Education Director) was working for the Project WET Foundation.
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