By JUDY JENKINS, Gleaner staff 831-8339 * jjenkins@thegleaner.com
October 25, 2005

Julie McDonald's career was determined when she was a grade-schooler -- but she didn't realize it at the time.

McDonald, who is Audubon State Park's new naturalist, acknowledges that "it took years of discovering what I wasn't cut out for before I figured out what I was cut out to be."

The native of a tiny community near Rockford, Ill., worked in banks, was an administrative assistant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and was in the insurance field for awhile before concluding that those positions "just weren't me."

That's when the daughter of a retired Eastman Kodak field engineer and still-working probation officer came full circle and realized that her destiny had been written in childhood.

Her family, including her older brother, had lived in a subdivision "that had been carved out of farm land," she said. Next to that development was wooded acreage that included a pond and small creek.

The neighboring land was owned by a man who became a grandfather/mentor figure in McDonald's life. "My environmental ethics education started then, when I was still very small," she recalled. The landowner, who was also an avid gardener, enjoyed teaching the little girl about the serene oasis of trees, water and wildlife.

"There was no hunting allowed there," she said. "It was a quiet, special place and you'd feel a calmness there." Her neighbor "taught me respect for the land and the plant and animal life. I'd go back there on a daily basis and often spend three or four hours walking around the property."

When her friend died, the property was sold to a housing developer. "The established woods were cleared to make way for houses, and all the wonderful places were gone," McDonald said. "In their place were mansions."

She grieved for the loss of her mentor and the special place.

It hadn't occurred to her to do anything in environmental education, she said, because there were no state or national parks close by and she hadn't encountered anyone working in those settings.

When at last she realized her career niche, she obtained degrees in biology and agriculture from Illinois State University, and received a master's degree in environmental education and interpretation from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.

She has since worked for the National Park Service at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, spent a season at Mammoth Cave National Park, had a season at Oregon Caves National Monument, and most recently was employed by the Council for Environmental Education in Houston, Texas, where she developed environmental education curricula on birds and water.

When she saw an ad in a professional journal for the naturalist position at Audubon State Park, she immediately pursued it. The park's previous naturalist, Micah Perkins, resigned in August to teach at Owensboro Community College.

McDonald, who has relatives in central Kentucky, said she enjoys being in a community the size of Henderson.

Park Manager Mary Dee Miller calls her "a fireball who's going to do some really interesting things here. She has a lot of different ideas."

McDonald is a facilitator for the Council on Environmental Education's Project Wild, which uses wildlife and the ecology as tools for teaching math, science, language arts, social studies and other subjects. She hopes to work closely with area teachers to incorporate environmental education into student studies.

But after only a week here, she's still exploring the park's 695 acres, which include two lakes and a hardwood forest, and she expects each expedition "will be a learning experience."