Staff Spotlight: Stephen Dickman
Meet the amazing, dedicated staff who help to keep our nature preserves healthy, clean, and accessible!
Even if you go hiking, riding, bird watching or kayaking in our nature preserves all the time, you may not get a chance to talk to our staff too often. Just under 50 staff manage Hillsborough County's over 63,000 acres of nature preserves, so they're pretty spread out. We want to give you this opportunity to meet and learn about the people who work hard to keep the County's nature preserves in good shape. Our staff do everything from mowing, trash pickup, and fence construction to prescribed fire, invasive species removal, ecological restoration, guided programs and more! This month, we asked Stephen Dickman to give us a little insight into his position and what conservation means to him. Here's what he had to share!
"Growing up in Florida, I developed an appreciation for the region’s natural areas early on. As a kid, I was fascinated with the habitats and animals and plants that called it home. That interest never diminished. I was drawn to the spectacular array of plant diversity years before I began with the County. I learned to appreciate that diversity working as a landscaper and a horticulturalist for 3 or 4 years.
Ever since this program started in 1987, I wanted to become involved in some way. It wasn’t until a decade later when I joined the local chapter (Suncoast) of the Florida Native Plant Society. Some of the FNPS members were also County employees who worked on and managed the County’s Nature Preserves! It was known then as the County’s Resource Management Section of the Parks & Recreation Dept. I expressed to them an interest to work. It wasn’t long before they informed me of an opening. A full-time, temporary entry level position on the, wait for it… Spray Crew! I applied and was hired. My first day was December 26th, 1996. It was a Thursday.
My new job brought with new opportunities to learn about controlled burning & controlling exotic pest plants among the many aspects of the job. Lots of training! It was evident this new job became my new career. It was an exciting time as well, as the program continued to grow with acres of quality habitat protected.
Keeping me outside with the job assignments to different preserves. Frequently visiting the diverse habitats that are now protected in perpetuity: scrub, sandhill, long leaf pine flatwoods, dome swamps, flood plain hardwood forest & coastal barrens and witnessing the overwhelming variety of specialized/adapted native plants within each of these habitats.
Frequent exposure to the plants, served to reinforce the learning process and hone identification skills and encouraged by staff (and my good friends of the FNPS). Soon I learned of the USF Herbarium and the importance of documentation occurrences of plant species. As more natural areas of habitat were protected, the more native and non-native plant species I learned to identify and were not documented as occurring in Hillsborough County. As familiarity with the nature preserves increased, I felt confident enough to leading field trips for the Suncoast Chapter.
After 20 something years of this… I’m still learning."
Thank you, Stephen, for all you do for our public lands!
