Behind the Parks: Meet Maria at Battelle Darby Creek

Maria Bergman
Battelle Darby Creek Naturalist

Maria Bergman is talking with Communications Coordinator, Virginia Gordon

About me

I grew up in Grove City, just about 10 minutes away from where I work now, at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. I was here at the park a lot as a kid. My mom and dad both have family backgrounds with distant connections to Germany. I was third of four kids, the other three all boys, so I had to learn to be stubborn and loud. Kyle is the eldest of my siblings, then Cory, and after me came Luke, the youngest. I have red hair, but I’m the only one in our family with red hair, although some of my brothers show a hint of red in their beards.

I studied at Saint Cecilia Elementary School in Grove City, which is a private Catholic school for kindergarten through 8th grade, then I went to Bishop Ready High School in Columbus, which is also a private Catholic school. Although I had a great education at both schools, my most important education was through my family and in nature. I was always doing outdoorsy and recreation things with my family and family friends. My dad taught me archery when I was 3 or 4 years old and I became really good with youth bows. Dad was a member of the Central Ohio Anglers and Hunters Club and every Wednesday they had youth archery night. Prizes were awarded if your arrow hit and popped balloon targets, and I won a lot of prizes. They also used dollar bills as targets, and if a kid hit a dollar they got to keep it. We shot our arrows from about 15 to 20 feet away. I earned an awful lot of pocket money that way as a kid, even if my dollar bills all had a small hole in them.

HUNTING
That archery experience was my precursor to becoming a hunter. As a young kid, I went with my dad when he was out hunting and spent a lot of time sitting in blinds with him, for at least two hours at a time, which is a lot for a young kid. I enjoyed learning to shoot firearms. During my high school years, I competed for the Anglers and Hunters Club in trap shooting and qualified for both state and national championships. When I competed at the nationals, it was held in Ohio, at the Cardinal Center in Marengo, which is a nationally-recognized center for clay shooting.

I hunt with my dad every year, even to this day, both archery and firearm hunting. My brothers join us sometimes. We usually camp out, with between three and seven of us. For years we’ve hunted on leased land in Vinton County, and sometimes in MacArthur, a small town just outside the county. I’m usually the only female in our camping and hunting group. I hunt for food, not for sport, so if I bag a deer during archery season, I won’t hunt in firearm season. Although I still tag along with the group at the camps. At least, I do if the weather stays reasonable. One year we were out camping and hunting when the temperatures hit 3°F. I won’t do that again! If it gets to 50°F, now that’s much more to my liking.

The first time I shot a deer I was 14. That was also the first time I was fully involved in processing and field dressing the deer. It takes maybe 15 minutes or so. Usually all of us in the hunting party will help with the field dressing. We open up the carcass and remove all the internal organs, which we leave on site as food for other animals, mostly coyotes. Removing the internal organs and most of the blood helps prevent the meat from getting too hot, which can impact texture and taste. Then we drag the carcass back to our camp base and hang it up, so that the last of the blood will drain out. After that we take off the fur, cut off the legs, and package the meat. We save backstrap steaks from along the spine, and grind the rest of the meat.

In more recent times, I qualified with ODNR for a license as a hunter education instructor. It means I can teach classes here at Battelle Darby Creek for people to qualify for a hunting license. I do two classes a year, one in spring, one in fall. Each one is a two-day class, with 11 hours of study, and an exam at the end. We usually have around 15 people enrolled in the classes. If the people pass the exam, I can give them the paperwork to go get a hunting license.

MY INTRODUCTION TO WORKING AT METRO PARKS
A family friend, named Michael, is a biologist and he used to conduct stream quality monitoring activities for ODNR. As a young girl I loved getting involved in his stream quality monitoring sessions and learning all about aquatic life and what it says about the quality of our rivers and creeks in Ohio. It’s why aquatic programs and aquatic surveys are my favorite things to do as a naturalist here at Battelle Darby Creek.

As a junior in high school I shadowed the then Metro Parks Assistant Resource Manager Carrie Morrow to learn about natural resources in the parks, and that inspired me to become a volunteer at Battelle Darby Creek. I worked in the nature center and helped out with programs. As a child I had wanted to become a vet, although I came to realize that might be a lot more work than I wanted to sign up for. Volunteering here, on top of all my outdoors experience, made it plain to me what I wanted to do, which was to become a naturalist. I thought, wow, I can get paid for doing what I love!

After I graduated from high school in 2016, I was looking for a small college with smaller class numbers. I went to Akron University to study biology. I had been very impressed by the entry talk by a biologist at the university, and it made me believe there would be lots of field ecology classes. Unfortunately it didn’t really pan out that way, and I found that my biology major was geared mostly towards the needs of pre-med students. I studied there for two years and completed most of my Gen-Ed requirements, but then transferred to The Ohio State University. I started at OSU in 2019 on their Natural Resources Management program. I only had my specialty classes left to do, and was able to study on the smaller Agricultural Campus, which is just three buildings and two classrooms. I rented a house nearby with two other students, and was able to walk to all my classes.

Meanwhile, I had continued my involvement with Metro Parks. I became a camp counselor at Highbanks in the summer of 2017, and returned the following year as a head counselor. I enjoyed being a counselor and working with young kids. Of course, as counselors. we are still very young too, so it could be a hard job to do. But I learned a lot of new skills, especially organizational skills, and how to keep kids interested and have them buy in to what you want to teach them. I was able to introduce quote a quite stream-related activities for the campers.

In 2019 I worked the summer as a seasonal naturalist here at Battelle Darby Creek. In January 2020, although still a student at OSU, I was employed as a part-time naturalist at Blacklick Woods Metro Park. I graduated from OSU in fall of 2020. Covid had hit the world, of course, so I missed out on the mass-shared experience of on OSU graduation ceremony at Ohio Stadium. We 2020 graduates just got a phone message of congratulations and our graduation certificates in the mail.

At Metro Parks, I was promoted to full-time naturalist at Blacklick Woods in 2022, and then transferred to my current position, of full-time naturalist at Battelle Darby Creek, in May 2023.

What I do at Metro Parks and what I love most about it

I enjoy educating and love to learn new things to add to my knowledge. This enables me to create new classes and programs. ‘Pass on the love,’ has become my catch phrase, as I love to share my enthusiasm for nature with park visitors. I especially enjoy it when I’m introducing visitors to animals or plants they may never have seen before. As well as public programs, we also have school groups come to the park. That can sometimes be challenging, as depending on their teachers and supervisors, they may come with needs or requirements that haven’t been fully communicated to us ahead of time. There’s often an element of we naturalists learning on the go and adapting to what the groups really need for their own curriculum. It’s a challenge that I enjoy, as it’s a learning experience for me too.

My aquatic surveys and aquatic programs are my favorites, as I’ve already mentioned. Taking visitors to what seems to them like a brown and opaque stream becomes transformational when we get into the stream with nets, and I’m able to show visitors some of the wonderfully colorful aquatic animals that live there. I’m lucky to work at Battelle Darby Creek, as our creeks are nationally famous for their high water quality. I encourage visitors to pick up rocks and see what they can find under them, as there are so many organisms to be found there, from insects such as mayflies, to various species of fish and mussels.

I like leading night hikes too. Our park closes at 10pm, so it’s not in the full depth of night, but the sun has gone down and it becomes a great avenue for teaching how to use other senses than just sight. We get to listen for owls and other critters, see bats fly their roosts, and get to appreciate a different aspect of wildlife and their nocturnal lives.

I enjoy working with my colleagues at Battelle Darby Creek. We all have our own interests and experiences, and we enjoy learning from each other.

A memorable visitor interaction

While I was working at Blacklick Woods, and on the boardwalk through the vernal pools doing a survey of aquatic critters there, a family group came up to me, a mom and three kids. They had never heard of a vernal pool but were interested to learn about this particular one and to help me look for stuff. I had already put together a couple of trays of salamanders and other animals and the kids were so keen to see them and search for more. It turned into an impromptu program, and those really are always the best. I had seen the family at the park before and I saw them numerous time later on. It’s always fascinating for us, as naturalists, to interact with regular visitors and get to know more about them as we teach them about nature.

Traveling – places I’ve been, places I’d love to go

We’re a close family, and we like to get together as a family group, and with friends, for regular camping trips. My mom and dad are originally from Indiana, and one of my uncles has a 200-acre property there, near the town of French Lick. There’s a lake on the property and we set up camp there and fish, swim, go for hikes. There’s usually about 16 of us who go for a three-day camping session. In summer, even more of us get together for summer trips. We’re not beach goers at all. We love to be out in the wilderness or to visit national parks.

NEW ZEALAND
Last year, though, I went with a much smaller group on a trip that had been on my bucket list since about 6th grade. I went to New Zealand with my mom, Tammy, and my Aunt Jane. We spent most of our nine-day trip on New Zealand’s South Island, which is about 25 percent larger than Ohio. I made elaborate plans of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see, and my mom and aunt were real troopers about it and made all the hikes with me. We stayed at different motels or hostels each night and then drove to the next spot on our itinerary. We drove 1,245 miles over the nine days. I did all the driving myself. The main hike I wanted to do was from Hooker Lake, on the foothills of Mount Cook, which is also called Aoraki in the Maori language. These days, it is most often called by its dual name, Aoraki/Mt Cook. This trail cuts through the valleys of the mountain sides, and crosses three large bridges as it rises up to some fabulous glacial lakes on the plateaus.

When we got to the plateaus, we all did the Bergman family tradition of dunking our heads in the lakes, which helped to keep us cool after a strenuous hike. The glacial lakes were absolutely stunning, a gorgeous turquoise color and with some ice in them. The trails were really good and safe, though we needed to do some scrambling in places. Overall, we hiked about 42 miles over the course of the trip, with an elevation gain of more than 5,000 feet. Everywhere we went we were surrounded by mountain peaks, including that of Aoraki/Mt Cook itself, which frequently stood before us in its snow-capped glory.

There were only two things I regretted about the trip to New Zealand. One was that we didn’t have time to do much on the North Island, which is where they have the sets of The Shire, still standing, from the three Lord of the Rings movies. And the second regret is just how long and tiresome the flights were. We flew first from Columbus to California, and then a straight 17-hour flight to New Zealand. As much as I want to go back to New Zealand and see the Lord of the Rings’ sets, it’s going to take me a good amount of time, let’s say years if not decades, before I can forget how uncomfortable that flight was.

UTAH AND ARIZONA
Just this past June we had one of our extended family and friends trips to Utah. We visited all five Utah-based national parks on our seven-day trip. I really liked Bryce Canyon National Park, with its famous hoodoos, great spires of eroded sandstone standing tall and thin, like silent witnesses to the passage of geological time. We established a routine of hiking very early in the morning, stopping for lunch, then back to base for a siesta and then out again at night, either for another hike, or just to camp out and watch the stars. We also had a fabulous vacation in Arizona where we spent time hiking in the Grand Canyon.

ICELAND: A SOLO TRIP AND FUTURE PLANS
The only long-distance solo trip I’ve ever made was just four years ago, when I went to Iceland. It only became a solo trip after my friend had to drop out of the trip we had been planning. I went in April, and signed up for a few group tours when I got there, with other tourists. The most memorable part of the trip was climbing down into a glacier. It involved some pancake walking, where you had to negotiate some narrow and low-roofed tunnels, and other times we needed to use our rented gear, including climbing ropes and harnesses. It was totally amazing. From a distance, the glacier had looked just like Mount Everest.

For my next big trip, I’d like to go to Austria and hike in the Alps. I’d also love to learn the secrets of how to make some of their famous foods, such as their national dish, Wiener Schnitzels. These Austrian schnitzels are made of veal, pounded very thin and then breaded and pan seared until they’re crisp.

Fun facts about me and my family

1. A family rite of passage! Although I’ve been to some wonderful places on vacations and family trips, no place has made such a marvelous impression on me as Quetico Provincial Park in northern Ontario, Canada. I’ve been there three times at this very large wilderness park, famed for its canoeing and fishing. The park has more than 2,000 wilderness campsites spread across more than 600 lakes.

You have to register with a ranger on site for a permit to enter the park, and give them an anticipated date of exit. The Bergman family, and some family friends, have made it a rite of passage for their kids when they reach high school age. It’s very rugged and wild. You basically catch your own meals in the lakes, and the only showers you get to take are by cliff-diving in one of the lakes. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and so remote you hardly every get to see anyone apart from the few people in your own group.Typically, it’s three dads and three kids, all of them in their high school freshman year. When my brother Luke came time to do it, there were no other kids of that age in our friend and family group, so some of the past initiates were asked if they would like to go again, and I jumped at the chance. I was in my senior year of high school when I joined Luke for his rite of passage at Quetico. Then, in 2022, I went again, and this time it was just me and my dad. There is a lot of portage required, carrying your canoe with you across one of the multitude of islands to reach the next lake. We’d take some prepackaged food with us, but relied on fishing for most of our meals. Carrying a canoe, and about 60 pounds or more of gear in a backpack, is never easy, but it’s so stimulating and exciting. Sometimes weather can create waves on the lakes and rivers, and one time we were caught in a thunderstorm that got to be quite difficult. Because I’m so small and light, I would sit in the front of the canoe when waves were on us, with both my dad’s and my own backpacks as a kind of ballast, to help anchor us down in the water and prevent us being swept up and over as waves hit us.

Our trips to Quetico would last nine days. We saw moose many times in the park, although they never came too close. We’d hear wolves howling, though we never saw them. Nor did we encounter any bears in the park, although they are known to be there in quite large numbers. Although we had a great view of the stars when we were in Utah, as I already mentioned, it couldn’t compare to the astonishing spectacle of seeing the night sky from a camp site at Quetico. It was simply amazing.

2. Pickleball is the family game! My mom and dad have built a pickleball court in their yard and every Friday night, if it’s nice out, we have a pickleball tournament among family and friends. Pickleball has become a very popular participation sport over the last decade or more and we all love it. There is often about 20 of us. We play doubles, and draw cards to decide who will partner together each time. The first team to win 11 points wins their match and goes on to the next round of the tournament, but you can only score a point on serve. If it’s raining, we’ll often play Euchre instead.

3. Wood is good! I love to make things using wood. I began by making book shelves, tables and desks for personal use and then for family and friends. I’ve even sold a few items. I figure out how to make things for myself. I buy slabs of wood to work with, mostly hickory or pine. Sometimes I’m donated wood by family, say if a dead tree has to be taken down on their land. I salvage workable wood from that dead tree and save some money on my next woodworking project.I also like to make colored wood-burning art using pyrography pens.

I keep a bookshelf at work that I made and which includes a panel with a wood-burning image I made of Smaug the Dragon flying over Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, from The Hobbit. I paint on canvas too. I’ve made paintings of the hobbit holes from The Shire and other fantasy images using oils, water colors and acrylic paints. As my family know what I like, I often get a new medium to work with every Christmas. Last year it was a set of pen and ink drawing tools and supplies, which I’m enjoying working with.

My favorite food and desert

I do a lot of cooking. Food is my love language. My take is, if I like you, I’ll cook for you. I love to make Indian food, like various kinds of curry, and lots of other spicy foods. I love spice. I make a really good Cajun chicken lemon pasta dish, with heavy whipping cream for the sauce, plus Parmesan cheese and lots of spices, like paprika, turmeric, cumin, plus lemon juice and garlic. I always have venison available from my yearly hunt. Just today I had venison tacos for my lunch. I freeze my venison and it lasts me throughout the year, suing it maybe two or three times a month.

Having said all that, my favorite food group is bread. My favorite is pumpkin bread, especially if it’s made really well and is good and moist. That’s more or less my favorite dessert. I also love chocolate. I like to freeze my chocolate and then eat it right out of the freezer. I’ve been doing that for years and I’m surprised more people don’t try it. It’s best when it’s cold, and you get to experience a ‘real’ melt in your mouth.

My favorite entertainment

If I’m not working, or not painting or doing my wood-working, I’m almost certain to be reading. It’s my main hobby. I love to read, and I’ll read just about anything, but I especially like fantasy stories. Recently I’ve been reading Eragon and other titles in the four-book The Inheritance Cycle series, by Christopher Paolini. Eragon is a teenage boy who finds a dragon egg and later becomes a dragon-rider. I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books too. I like to think of myself as belonging to Hufflepuff House, one of the four houses at Hogwarts. Naturally enough, having spoken already about my Hobbit paintings, I’m a big fan of JRR Tolkien’s work. I’ve read all of his books, and not just the famous ones, such as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Interestingly, when the movies came out, I preferred The Hobbit trio of films to the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. But as books, it’s the reverse. The Lord of the Rings books are magnificent.

We have an unofficial book club here at Battelle Darby Creek. We call it the Bison Book Bureau. Once every four to six weeks or so we get together at a bar or eatery to socialize and talk about the latest book we’ve been reading. Out current book is Mistborn: The Final Empire, the first book in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, another fantasy novel series.

What Battelle Darby Creek Manager Geoff Hamilton says about Maria

“Maria brings incredible passion and enthusiasm to her position and to the park in general. I’ve always been very impressed with her ideas and innovation, especially when it comes to programming. We are truly lucky to have her on our team.”