About the Author

Ms. Howells worked as a wildlife, fish, and rare plant biologist for the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for 20 years in five western states where she managed threatened and endangered species populations and their habitat.

With the U.S. Forest Service, she fought forest fires in California, Oregon, and Washington.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife management, with minors in rangeland management and history. She is a qualified government forester and also worked as a botanist, archaeological technician, and range conservationist.

The author helped develop and carry out management plans for threatened and endangered species such as bald eagles, wolves, jaguars, red squirrels, salamanders, and rare species of cactus. She surveyed and studied plants and animals, and planned and created habitat improvement for many species, including bald eagles, goshawks, great gray owls, osprey, spotted owls, and waterfowl.

Some of her career highlights include:

- Surveying for mountain lion by checking dirt roads for their paw prints, also known as tracks.

- Working with a state wildlife department to capture, radio collar, and tracked elk using radio telemetry technology to follow their movement as they migrated through their territory.

- Building water developments for deer, quail, and other wildlife.

- Helping set up a riparian bird count/monitoring program to study riparian area vegetation conditions and migratory bird populations.

- Planting willow to rehabilitate and stabilize stream bank to protect fish habitat.

- Working on recovery and monitor plans for all three subspecies of the spotted owl.

She also analyzed the potential effects of other land management practices on species and their habitat and documented the findings and mitigation recommendations in environmental impact reports.

Teamwork: As a biologist, she coordinated fish, wildlife, and rare plants projects and research with other federal agencies, Indian tribes, state and county offices, universities, and non-governmental organizations. This included working with other natural resource professionals such as foresters, engineers, recreation managers, range conservationists, archaeologists, landscape architects, and fire managers. She was part of a team that wrote wildlife refuge management plans.

Ms. Howells worked to ensuring projects complied with federal laws that pertain to federally managed land for wildlife, fish, and rare plant habitat management laws including the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.

Born into a U.S. Air Force family, she lived in many places around the world including Dublin, Ireland; Ankara, Turkey; the Philippine Islands; and London, United Kingdom.