Jennie: Okay. Well, nature journaling is kind of my jam. I grew up as a feral child running the foothills northwest of Boulder, Colorado. And I kept track of the deer herds. And I had a little steno pad, and every time I saw them, I'd write where they were, how many there were, et cetera, et cetera. And when we'd go on vacation, I would make notes of where we were, the landscape, any animals I saw. So I've kind of been nature journaling in one way all my life.

Then I loved to draw as a child, as most children do, and then in seventh or eighth grade, I had an art teacher who thought they were all that. And if she didn't like you, you knew it.

And so one day I was very proud of a painting I had done, and she held it up in front of the class and made some comment about how, "Well, this looks like someone who changed their mind about what they were painting." And that was it. I just stood up, I walked out of the class, I went down to the principal's office and said, "Get me out of her class."

Nancy: Wow. Good on you for standing up for yourself.

Jennie: And that so soured me on drawing or painting or anything else that I did not pick up a pencil probably till I was in my late 20s. And then just sort of dabbled here and there. And then in 2017, I'm a retired science teacher. I taught all the sciences at our alternative high school. So I'm one of those dangerous people who knows a little about everything and not a lot about anything. But I had to renew my teaching credential.

So I took a workshop at the University of Wyoming on science and art. And we just explored all kinds of stuff, art related, and there were a couple days we spent nature journaling, and it just clicked. I got back into it. I've been doing it ever since. And then as a Wyoming Naturalist, part of the program is nature journaling.

And then I started teaching nature journaling for the Wyoming Naturalist program and various other programs, and I've gone into classrooms and worked with students and done workshops with various other groups. It's just my gig. I just love doing it.

Nancy: Good. So are you a frequent participant in BioBlitz? Is this your first one, or have you come to them [before]?

Jennie Lawrence: Yeah. I've been coming to BioBlitz. I love it. My very favorite one was probably the Wind River BioBlitz two years ago. Yeah. When we went up to the Wind River Tribal... It was about the Wind River Tribal initiative where they're restoring the buffalo to the reservation. So that was my favorite so far.

Nancy: Did you take some time while you were there? And if you had time, did you take time to do any of your own nature journaling?

Jennie: No.

Nancy: Oh, really?

Jennie: I was busy.

Nancy Small: You were busy teaching.

Jennie: But that's okay. I often, if I don't have a lot of time, I take photographs. As I mentioned in my workshop, that's perfectly acceptable. And then I go home and draw from the photographs. So.

Nancy: Yeah. I love that. Do you have any from your time, it could be observing something and journaling, it could also be from a BioBlitz or a different naturalist or citizen science event, so it doesn't have to be associated with anything in particular. Do you have a story of a favorite time that you've been out in nature and you've observed anything?

Jennie Lawrence: This morning.

Nancy Small: Oh, good. Tell me.

Jennie: I got up and nobody else in camp was up. If they were up, they were out in the field somewhere. And so I sat on a stump by the fire ring in the meadow, and just, I drank my coffee, and I felt the sun on my face, and the slight breeze coming through the trees, and I watched the chipmunks and the ground squirrels play.

And I thought to myself, "You know, this is what it's all about." Just being out in nature.

Nancy: That's beautiful. Thank you. Last question is, did you grow up in Wyoming? Are you from this region?

Jennie: No, I grew up in Colorado. And moved to Buffalo, Wyoming with my first husband. And then we moved down here for him to go to school. And later divorced. But I just love Wyoming. I love everything about it.

Nancy: If you were gonna share something that you love, beyond the beautiful picture you painted of this morning with your coffee, about Wyoming, but with people who have never been here, never gotten the chance to visit, what would you tell people is special about Wyoming?

Jennie: I would tell them to slow down and appreciate what they're seeing. Even coming through the Red Desert, you know, it looks just like there's nothing out here but sagebrush. But if they start looking closely, you know, there's green grass, there's the sagebrush, there's various soil types.

To me, all of Wyoming is beautiful. It's desolate, I will give you that, and there are a lot of broken dreams in Wyoming when you drive. Even the interstate, you'll see a lot of broken dreams. I prefer all the back ways. We stay off the interstate as much as possible, 'cause the back ways are just so much more pleasant.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.