Karie Wheaton’s smile is contagious and comes naturally to the young woman who grew up exploring the natural beauty of central Ohio and seemed destined to choose a career in sharing her enthusiasm for the great outdoors.
Karie Wheaton’s smile is contagious and comes naturally to the young woman who grew up exploring the natural beauty of central Ohio and seemed destined to choose a career in sharing her enthusiasm for the great outdoors.
“I love getting to share each one of our unique parks with people,” said Wheaton, a Geauga Park Distinct naturalist. “Anytime you can spark someone’s interest or show them something they have never seen before is what I love.”
Wheaton is a generalist, learning as much about all parts of nature as possible and coordinating the popular summer camp programs, Saps-A-Risin’ event and maple sugaring programs, among others.
“Everything in nature is connected and having knowledge — even if it’s just a little — of as much as I can helps me paint a complete picture to our visitors,” Wheaton said.
She also is a certified interpretive guide for the National Association for Interpretation and a certified environmental educator for the Environmental Education Council of Ohio.
Wheaton grew up in a tiny town called Jelloway, just 10 miles south of Mohican State Forest.
“I lived on a beautiful piece of property with two ponds, woods and the clearest night skies you can imagine,” Wheaton said. “We spent a lot of time outside as a family. My dad is a big hunter and fisherman, and I think I inherited his love for being outside in nature that he got from his dad. My dad used to take me hunting and we would sit and watch the birds and squirrels when there wasn’t a deer to be seen. I enjoyed sitting outside in the cold and being a part of the forest.”
She went off to Camp Wanake in Beach City for a week every summer.
As a student at Loudonville High School, Wheaton’s biology teacher, Dave Spreng, had students out in the park as much as possible, studying macro invertebrates in the Clearfork River, learning birds and trees in the state park, monitoring vernal
pools and learning the skulls of Ohio vertebrate animals.
“If I wasn’t already, I was hooked,” Wheaton said.
Her grandfather owned a cottage on a lake in Northern Michigan.
“We used to catch fish in tiny nets at the edge of the lake and listen to Common Loons call across the lake,” Wheaton said. “He had bird feeders and we would admire the birds that would come and go. He would grab his binoculars and point out how many babies the mergansers had that year. It’s the same lake that the University of Michigan has their biological station on, so a large part of the lakeshore is protected.”
Wheaton attended Ashland University and after her freshman year of college, her mom helped find her a job as a camp counselor at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
“I learned there that there are people who teach outside for a living,” Wheaton said. “My focus quickly changed from formal education to informal education.”
The following summer, she worked at the Dunes Learning Center at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, gaining experience in leading programs.
After graduating from Ashland, Wheaton entered an internship program with
the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Learning Center, where she taught students all
about the Cuyahoga River Watershed and its history.
“We led night hikes and campfires and even dressed up as historical characters,” Wheaton said.
She then worked as an interpretive naturalist for Lake Metroparks at Penitentiary Glenn and at the same time, coordinated the Arthur Holden Leadership Institute Program for the Lake County YMCA, an in-school science enrichment program for sixth- through eighth-graders.
Wheaton and Jann Glove, a retired Lake Metroparks naturalist, shared the same office cubicle when she first began her career as a naturalist.
“Being near to retirement myself, I unofficially became her mentor,” Glove said. “Without exception, she was, from the get-go, eager to learn and highly respectful of my age and experience. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Her work ethics were impeccable. Her knowledge was exceptional. We had great times and learned from each other.”
A job then opened up for a Geauga Park District naturalist and Wheaton was happily hired.
“I can’t say enough good things about Karie,” said John Kolar, GPD chief naturalist. “She excels in virtually every aspect of her job. She is a great program naturalist and develops new and exciting programs, which are well-received by her program audiences.”
He added, “She is a lover of learning and continues to grow her natural history knowledge and indeed has a contagious smile. She has a positive attitude and is absolutely always willing to lend a helping hand. She cares a lot about the public that she serves and works very hard to inspire others to appreciate and love nature as much as she does.”
Wheaton said she thinks spending time outside and appreciating it is sometimes just as beneficial as knowing the names of everything around you.
“With a smile that greets everyone of any age group, Karie is the ideal naturalist.” Glove said. “She shares her vast nature knowledge without coming across as a lecturer or know-it-all. I can think of no one who has ever had a negative comment to make about this effervescent environmentalist.”
