Austin Roe starts as Jefferson County Naturalist

FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County Conservation has a new naturalist.

Austin Roe started as the county’s naturalist on Nov. 27. He is assuming the role previously held by Brittney Tiller, who announced her intention to step down in September. Roe said he was fortunate to spend a few weeks with Tiller before she left on Dec. 8 so that he could get up to speed on all the conservation department’s programs.

Roe said he intends to maintain the programs Tiller was doing such as Toddler Time, the after-school program and meeting with home-school groups. He’d also like to start or expand other programs, too, based on his own knowledge and background.

“Birding is really my thing,” Roe said. “I’d like to do more of that. I’m also really into foraging and eating natural foods. In March, I’d like to do a foraging program and pick garlic mustard and make garlic mustard pesto. It tastes pretty good. You can put it on a sandwich or eat it with pasta.”

Roe grew up not too far away in Eddyville, and graduated from Eddyville-Blakesburg High School in 2012. Being a naturalist wasn’t on his mind back then. He figured that he would have a career in construction. However, before doing that, Roe wanted to serve his country, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps when he was just a junior in high school.

“I always looked at the Marine Corps as being the hardest branch, so that’s why I joined them,” he said.

After his three months of boot camp, Roe became a combat engineer. He hoped to focus on the construction side but instead he was assigned to demolition. Near the end of 2013, he served for four months in Afghanistan, where his unit was in charge of decommissioning bases either by tearing them down or transferring them to the Afghan National Army. His unit was also responsible for detecting improvised explosive devices hidden along the road. Roe recalled one instance when, just after a base had been decommissioned, the Taliban lined the road to the base with IEDs.

Roe married his wife Emily in 2014, and they lived in California while Roe served on the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton north of San Diego. Roe said he planned to be in the Marines for 20 years, but he realized that he didn’t like the lifestyle, since he was away from his wife every other week. Since Emily is from Kansas, they decided that they would rather be closer to family in the Midwest.

Roe had always loved hunting, fishing and being outdoors, so he decided that he might like a career in conservation. He attended Kansas State University where he got his degree in Wildlife Ecology and Management, graduating in 2020. He worked as a conservation technician at a small town in Wisconsin called Glen Haven, but it was not a good fit.

The couple moved to Fairfield, and while Roe was searching for a job in conservation, he took a job in construction, working for Cleary Building Corp. After that, he did something completely different, working in the Fairfield HyVee bakery. He said it was a great learning experience, and that he came away knowing how to make many different kinds of bread.

Austin and Emily bought a house in Ottumwa, and Austin was able to resume his career in conservation, working as a conservation tech for Wapello County. He did that a little over a year before he learned about the opening for the Jefferson County Naturalist.

“I’ve always wanted to be a naturalist,” Roe said. “Once I learned this is a job you could have, I realized this is what I wanted to do. I love being a wildlife educator. You get to teach kids and adults all about nature. Being in nature has helped me a lot in life.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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