Steven J. Young Biography

9 Skyway Avenue 207-543-5050

Frenchville, ME 04745 mail@habitatplanning.com

Steve Young is Certified Wildlife Biologist with spatial forest modeling skills, extensive field, and project management experience, and strong skills in data management and analysis. He has a broad environmental background in water quality, landfill, and ambient air-quality monitoring, and has current State of Maine Grade V Biological, and Grade I Physical / Chemical Wastewater Treatment licenses. A photographer with over twenty year’s professional experience, Steve has expertise in view camera photography, color and archival black & white darkroom processes, and digital imaging.

Steve is the co-owner of One World Artisans, a small family-owned business in Frenchville, Maine that offers local stained glass art & supplies, forest and wildlife management planning services, marketed through www.habitatplanning.com, and photography, marketed through www.sjvphotography.com, www.viewcameraphotography.com, and www.archivaldigital.com. He is also currently employed part-time as the Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator for the Town of Frenchville,

He has been involved with the local art community as a founding member of Artisans Alliance of Northern Maine in the late 1980’s, Director of ArtisTree Gallery in Fort Kent in 2004, a member of the Aroostook Visual Arts Coalition, and exhibiting a dozen solo photography shows in Maine and New Brunswick during the past 15 years.

Graduating from University of Maine a Orono with a B.S. degree in Wildlife Management in 1978, Steve spent the first 6 years of his career doing a variety of wildlife and fisheries field work, studying fish (inland and marine), whales, seabirds, waterfowl, and terrestrial mammals in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Labrador, Washington State, and Alaska, for various government and private organizations.

After returning to his native Upper St. John Valley, he was employed by the environmental department of Fraser Papers from 1984 to 1993, with responsibilities for air, water, and landfill monitoring. In 1993, he was appointed as the Wildlife Biologist for the company in Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, where Steve served until 2004. In order to tackle the daunting task of managing wildlife on the 2 million acre forest land base, Steve successfully established strong research, management, monitoring, and conservation / restoration programs, and in doing so, gained extensive project management experience, along with skills in data management and analysis, and in spatial forest modeling.

For twelve years, Steve developed and managed all components of at least two wildlife research or monitoring projects annually (within budget every year), establishing cooperative research on biodiversity, White-tailed Deer, year-round resident forest birds, and vernal pools and associated amphibian species. The forest wildlife and biodiversity research projects that he managed were awarded the prestigious Natural Science and Energy Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Synergy Award for cooperative “Research on Forest Management Practices and the Maintenance of Critical Wildlife Habitat and Biodiversity” in 1998. Steve co-authored wildlife research papers published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Forest Ecology and Management, and the Canadian Field Naturalist, and was on the advisory committees of several graduate biology and wildlife students while serving as Honorary Research Associate for two consecutive 4-year terms at the University of New Brunswick.

Steve spearheaded delineation and formal adoption of designated “Habitat Management Areas” and developed formal standards and guidelines for habitat management on Fraser Papers company forest lands in Maine and New Brunswick. He was a member of the Wildlife Habitat sub-committee for the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy that developed wildlife habitat guidelines for New Brunswick Crown land; was an active participant in the Maine Forest Biodiversity Project, and was a member of the working group that developed “Biodiversity in the Forests of Maine, Guidelines for Land Management”. Steve completed forest wildlife habitat models and full spatial habitat management plans for over 150,000 acres of individual designated habitat areas on private land in Maine and New Brunswick, and on New Brunswick Crown Land (for both Deer Wintering Areas and Mature Coniferous Forest Habitat). While Wildlife Biologist for Fraser Papers, he led company efforts in development of the first comprehensive agreement of habitat management between a major industrial landowner and the State of Maine, which was recognized in nomination for The Governor’s Award by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

In establishing effective partnerships with First Nations People, government, academia, and local clubs, he completed comprehensive fisheries and stream-habitat inventories of the Tobique and Green River watersheds in New Brunswick. He developed and maintained a systematic helicopter winter wildlife habitat-use monitoring program and monitored winter habitat use in 100% of Fraser Habitat Management Areas in Maine and New Brunswick Canada for moose, deer, coyote, fox, otter, and snowshoe hare. Fixed transect lines were utilized, and GPS positions for all track and animal sightings were recorded and subsequently incorporated into the companies GIS system to allow mapping of wildlife use over time. Steve developed and managed a woodlands water quality monitoring program on over 20 streams and rivers in Maine and New Brunswick that included aquatic invertebrate monitoring for 6 years, and for 11 years, managed a lake-fishery monitoring program, in which information collected on game and non-game fish, water quality, and invertebrates was subsequently used to establish conservation angling regulations on the lakes. He established partnerships with public groups involved in conservation and restoration efforts for Atlantic Salmon and, entered into agreements with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Environment hatcheries to provide distinct native Brook Trout brood stock to be reared for the provincial stocking program, and organized and hosted a Youth Fishing Derby for the Village of Plaster Rock, New Brunswick for 7 years. Steve also partnered with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans on a study of persistent pesticides in the aquatic environment. In order to analyze from data collected during monitoring activities, Steve built and maintained databases, which he used to analyze trends, create reports, and prepare graphics for numerous presentations.

After being laid off from Fraser Papers in December of 2004, when the company decided to sell its forest land and eliminate the Wildlife Biologist position, he enrolled at University of Maine at Fort Kent. After attending full-time and year-round for two years, he completed a B.S. degree in Business (e-Business concentration) in fall 2006 with a 3.8 GPA.

In 2007, Steve was awarded grant funding by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, and the Forest Bio-fuel Research Initiative of the Enhanced Program to Stimulate Competitive Research of the National Science Foundation, to support his community forest management project for all communities of the Upper St. John Valley in Maine. Steve also received a Community Block Development Grant (CDBG) through the towns of Frenchville, St. Agatha, and Madawaska in 2007, which was used to expand the photography component his One World Artisans business.