Featured volunteer — February 2007

by Tim Boyle

Warren Stortroen may travel the world in his eco-adventures, but he’s always eager to return to Grey Could Dunes and his Missississipi River roots.

Photo by Tim Boyle

Academic and shy, Warren Stortroen appears just as one might expect of a retired medical insurance claims manager, the last listed profession on his résumé. Nevertheless, behind his oversize accountant’s glasses, “Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas” ball cap and camera-shyness simmers the identity of a genuine ecological superhero.

Even if it weren’t for the fact that Warren alone collected as much seed at Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area last year as did 40 normal humans, all for use in FMR-led habitat restoration at Pine Bend Bluffs Scientific and Natural Area, Warren’s mostly post-retirement résumé is incredibly vast.

If this weren’t the 21st Century (and there weren’t already five Superman sequels), Warren would be working at The Daily Planet, posing as a mild-mannered reporter. He pronounces his last name Stor-tren (“Probably not how my Scandinavian relatives said it,” he chuckles), but it may as well be “Kent.”

Highlights of his life include:

• 44 Earthwatch Expeditions (spanning the planet and including such envy-enducing volunteer jobs as assisting with whale and dolphin research) during the last 10 years,
• Five summers with the U.S. Forest Service controlling forest fires and blister rust,
• Worldwide educational travel with the Science Museum of Minnesota;
• A plethora of volunteer work for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, FMR, and others. All this, crowned by archeological/paleontological digs and rare finds with Earthwatch and the National Forest Service, should surely lock him in for the Environmental Super-hero Hall of Fame.

No matter where he goes, however, this downtown Saint Paul resident strongly identifies with the river. “I’m proud to have grown up in northern Minnesota by the source of the Mississippi,” says Warren with a smile. “Now my connection is more restoring and protecting the shorelands and enjoying the views.”

Stortroen drives half an hour each way to Grey Cloud Dunes, yet has collected 40 volunteers’ worth of seed.

Photo by Tim Boyle

While he has experienced a good deal of glamorous eco-work, Warren remains reverent about spending time at Grey Cloud Dunes, along the river, and passionate about such a below-the-radar task as collecting seed. “Warren is every ecologist’s dream of a volunteer,” says FMR ecologist & project manager Karen Schik. “He’s knowledgeable, capable, competent, can lead others and he’s extremely productive, too. We primarily recruited volunteers who were comfortable in seed identification, of which there were only a few, and only Warren turned it into a mini-career.”

To sum up, he’s faster than a fleeting Minnesota autumn, and more powerful than an outbreak of spotted-knapweed — and he’s picked enough leadplant that not even Kryptonite is a problem for him.

Tim Boyle is a freelance writer and photographer and fellow FMR volunteer, and can be reached via e-mail.