Wildlife Management Background and Technology Skills Make Vredenburg Indispensable

It’s not like Norm Moody is looking over his shoulder, fearing for his job security as Land Commissioner of the Backus, MN, office of the Cass County Natural Resources Conservation Service.  It’s just that Elissa Vredenburg is that good.

“Exceptional.  Amazing.  Those are the first words that come to mind to describe her,” Moody said of Vredenburg, a 2001 graduate of the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) who works for him as a Forest Resource/Wildlife Manager.  “Some days I feel like I’m working for her.”

Vredenburg, who holds a degree in wildlife management from UMC, was very familiar to Moody long before she started working for him full-time in February of 2002.  Throughout her four years at UMC, she worked at the Backus office whenever she had a break from classes.

“Christmas break, summer break, spring break…I’ve spent all of those here since 1999,” Vredenburg recalled.  “During spring break, my friends were on the beaches while I was trudging through the snow.”

Backus just happens to be Vredenburg’s hometown.  Even with her family and employment ties there, she said she had no intention of sticking around once she graduated from UMC.  “But the job here was just too good to turn down, and I haven’t once regretted staying,” she said.

Moody feels lucky to have her.

“She’s just one heck of an employee; very self-motivated,” he said.  “Sometimes it’s best to just get out of her way, because you know she’s going to get a project done and get it done very, very well.

“Her organizational skills are phenomenal,” Moody continued.  “I don’t know if that’s a credit to UMC or her upbringing, but I do know that she organizes all of her stuff and everyone else’s stuff, too.”

Vredenburg is the resource manager for an eight-township territory.  Her main duties involve planning and setting up timber harvests and administering sales for loggers.  She’s also involved with wildlife surveys.

“We do ruffed grouse drumming counts, and trapped and collared them to track their mortality rates,” Vredenburg explained.  “We’ve also done bear baiting to monitor predator scent routes.”

She’s also getting involved with the utilization of aerial photography and is currently matching photos with their township section.  She uses Global Imaging Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) every day, and has also obtained her real estate appraisal license so she can help coordinate land exchanges in Cass County.

So, clearly, Vredenburg is busy.

“I’d rather have too much to do than too little,” she said.  “There’s lots of variety with my job, too, which is good because I’d get bored doing one thing over and over.”

Alongside a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manager, she just recently began monitoring all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trails in her territory, to determine which ones should permit ATV traffic and which ones should not.  Across the nation but especially in Minnesota, the negative environmental effects of heavy, unmitigated ATV use are a hot topic. Vredenburg is aware of that fact, and it only increases her passion for the task at hand.

“I’ve lived here all my life, and to see places I’ve gone since I was a kid now ripped to shreds because of all these ATVs really kind of bothers me,” she said.  “Hopefully we can make some wise decision and get a handle on this.”

Vredenburg credits UMC for preparing her for such a wide variety of duties.

“I took a wide variety of natural resources classes, and I tried to take all of my electives in the natural resources area, too,” she explained.  “Every day, I use all of that knowledge.”

But it’s in the area of technology that really sets Vredenburg apart, Moody said.  Attending UMC, the first university in the nation to issue a laptop computer to each student and integrate its use into the curriculum, has made her extremely valuable in the workplace, he said.

“Sometimes I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have Elissa around to troubleshoot and provide technical assistance,” Moody said.

“If they need something done or if something isn’t working right, they bring it to me and I try to figure it out,” Vredenburg added.  “UMC’s technology has come in very, very handy and has been a huge benefit to me.”

Simply put, Moody said, she’s a joy to have around.

“It’s fun watching her; she’s really setting the pace.  Just give her the tools she needs and she’s off,” he said.  “If UMC can keep producing people like Elissa…wow!  We’d all be doing very well.”  

Written by Mike Christopherson