Bill Wasser has had a long career at DCNR, fueled by a passion for environmental education.
Joining DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks in the early 1990s, he worked as a seasonal environmental interpretive technician at Clear Creek State Park and Ohiopyle State Park.
Bill conducted campfire programs, night hikes, Junior Naturalist day camps, and many public interpretative programs while continuing to build his knowledge of the flora and fauna of Pennsylvania.
Bill also has been an Environmental Education Specialist at Jennings Environmental Education Center and Nockamixon State Park, as well as a park manager trainee in the bureau’s central office in Harrisburg.
Throughout his career, Bill has had the opportunity to learn lesson plan development, facilitating teacher workshops, and working with students of all ages and abilities.
He has focused his programming on lake water quality and worked with numerous schools from Allentown, Lower Saucon, and Philadelphia to improve and monitor water.
Bill’s goal was to someday be able to use the environmental principles that he’d been teaching for more than a decade.
He got that opportunity in 2004 by becoming the assistant park manager at Promised Land State Park and nearby Varden Conservation Area.
Coming full circle, Bill moved back home to Mercer County as a park manager at Maurice K. Goddard State Park. He had grown fishing and hunting on Lake Wilhelm in this park with his dad.
Long before becoming a state park employee, Bill started up a volunteer group to pick up litter around the lake. It seems appropriate that he would end up managing the park years later.
In 2020, Bill was awarded the Government Partner Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators.
This award recognizes a government official who serves on a local, state, or national level and has demonstrated significant support for environmental education within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Over the years, Bill has had the great fortune to work with many conservation partners.
Through these partnerships, the water quality of Lake Wilhelm has improved, forests and wetlands have been protected, and many people have been influenced through research opportunities and education programs
Know of a good natured Pennsylvanian who is passionate about outdoor recreation and/or conservation that we should feature? Contact DCNR by sending an email to: ra-resource@pa.gov to nominate someone.
For more information on state parks and forests and recreation in Pennsylvania, visit DCNR’s website, Click Here to sign up for the Resource newsletter, Visit the Good Natured DCNR Blog, Click Here for upcoming events, Click Here to hook up with DCNR on other social media-- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.(Reprinted from April 29 DCNR Resource newsletter. Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)
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[Posted: April 30, 2020] PA Environment Digest
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