About me
Heidi Hoven has always followed her interest in salty and often muddy waters, having earned her B.S. in Natural Resources at the University of Rhode Island under the advisory of Dr. Frank Golet (co-author of “Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States”) and Dr’s. Marilyn Harlin and Paulette Peckol, who opened her world to marine ecological interactions and the incredible salt tolerance of plants and other organisms. She went on to earn her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire with a special interest in estuarine ecosystems and plant physiology. After moving to Utah, she worked in the private sector focusing as many projects she could on Great Salt Lake and then founded a non-profit research group to inform policy to safeguard wetland quality for the birds and other wildlife of lake. She developed strategies to improve managed, impounded wetlands of Great Salt Lake that are still used by managers today and spearheaded the development of a wildlife functional assessment of the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake City, which provided scientific rationale behind conservation of “the Natural Area” to buffer globally important wetlands of Great Salt Lake for birds.
Currently, she has developed two new programs at Gillmor Sanctuary: Research and Conservation, and Outreach and Education. Along with managing the sanctuary for shorebirds and other waterbirds, these programs open the door for scholars and volunteers to come learn about the unique saline playas and become their steward. She has developed many strong partnerships to make these programs successful and is actively engaged in conserving and restoring wetlands and their adjacent uplands of the sanctuary and neighboring and other critical properties in the Lower Jordan River watershed.
When she’s not at the sanctuary, she’s out with friends finding and learning about more birds!