University of Maine at Farmington

Since Phippsburg’s nearly 2,000-acre Basin Preserve was donated to The Nature Conservancy in fall 2006, the land and all its craggy coastline have been in the care of UMF graduate Dan Grenier.

As a Nature Conservancy land steward, Grenier (a biology major at UMF) crisscrosses the state inspecting conservation easements to make sure land is managed according to easement specifications. The work involves meeting with landowners to discuss changes in land use. He documents erosion and invasive species with GPS and GIS maps, photographs and written narratives that form historical records about land-use changes and biodiversity in Maine. At the Basin Preserve and other sites in Maine, he also works with local recreational clubs to identify areas where impacts from human use such as horseback riding as well as snowmobiling and ATV use might be compatible with conservation.

Grenier said the trailhead on his career path was taking General Botany (the first for-majors biology course) with Drew Barton, associate professor of biology.

“At the end of the course, he stepped away from teaching strictly botany to focus on the natural history of Maine, showing how the landscape is evolving due to human influence. It really resonated with me,” Grenier said.

In his upper-class years at UMF, Grenier assisted Barton with researching the health of jack pine forests and rare coastal plateau bogs on Maine’s Great Wass Island, another Nature Conservancy preserve. During that time Barton introduced Grenier to Yves Bergeron, a forest ecology expert and professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, where Grenier went on to earn a master’s degree in forest ecology. Grenier’s research on southwestern Quebec forest fire cycles has been published in the Canadian Journal of Research (in both English and his second language, French). And after nearly 10 years of collaboration, Grenier and Barton submitted a jointly prepared article on their jack pine research to the same academic journal.

Now, Grenier believes his job is as much about changing hearts and minds as it is about protecting the environment.

“Some people have a different value system about land, but you have to look at that as an opportunity to educate people. Conservation begins in your own back yard,” he said. “The main goal is to make sure development doesn’t inhibit biodiversity in Maine. I think I’m part of a group that will have a positive impact on conservation, making life better for everybody.”

-- By Marc Glass, managing editor of the UMF alumni magazine

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