FIELD NOTES BLOG

Meet Bryce

Bryce Messer
January 30, 2024

Salutations Everybody! My name is Bryce Messer and I am happy to be serving Severson Dells, for the first time, as an AmeriCorps Environmental Educator. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia but moved to Illinois a little over 1 year ago, so I am excited to learn everything I can about the natural wonders of the area.


I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Biology with minors in Geology and History of Science. Then I received my master’s degree from Southern Illinois University majoring in Zoology. As a requirement for graduation, I developed a habitat management plan for the American Pronghorn across a 140,000-acre ranch in New Mexico.


Before my time at Severson Dells, I worked in wildlife rehabilitation with WildCare Oklahoma to nurture sick, injured, and orphaned animals back to health. Following leaving Oklahoma I served as a natural resource technician at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico then traveled to Trinidad & Tobago to study the evolutionary histories of guppies.




I have had a lifelong love for wildlife and the outdoors which means I spend most of my time outside hiking, fishing, birding, and hunting. When not outside I enjoy playing video games, live-action role-playing, and watching movies & anime.

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