The Official Friends of Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge

Gary is a retired pharmacist. He is active on the Refuge, particularly with projects involving Boy Scouts and the Explorer program. Gary helps coordinate Youth Deer Hunt and Youth Turkey Hunt workshops with BONWR. Gary Maas can be contacted at gmaas@mail.com.

Paul is a retired general surgeon. He is married, and has 2 boys and 4 grand kids. He enjoys hiking, horseback riding and kayaking and just being outside. Picture is of him in front of future Big Oaks visitor center mock up.

Kirsten is a curious character with a life-long passion for learning in fun and inventive ways. She can be found always thinking about ways to incorporate some new observation or experience in her own learning and sharing with others.When not formally teaching as a life science adjunct instructor at Ivy Tech Community College or visiting lecturer at Hanover College, Kirsten spends much of her time volunteering as an informal conservation educator with various programs and agencies, including the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Big Oaks and Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuges, Southeastern Indiana Recycling District, Oak Heritage Conservancy, Community Garden Action Team in Lawrenceburg, and Pollinator Partnership. Kirsten and her husband, Tom, live in Versailles, Indiana, on a former quarry, with their two dogs and two cats, where they manage their acreage for multiple uses including farming, classified forestry, wetland diversity, and pollinator conservation.

Kirsten loves to help others experience the interconnections that abound in nature. Life is full of connections, which makes for an endless palette of opportunities to help others find the relationships to those connections by wandering and wondering.

Kirsten received her B.S. in biology and M.S. in Secondary Science Education from Indiana University, Bloomington. She maintains a current Indiana teachers license, which includes mild intervention. Kirsten is a Certified Interpretive Guide, certified Forest School Teacher, Aldo Leopold Land Ethic Leader, and trained Leopold Land Education Project Instructor. Her hobbies include reading, photography, nature journaling, feeding and watching birds, and gardening for wildlife.

James grew up on a farm near Madison and graduated from Shawe Memorial High School. He went on to Indiana University Bloomington and graduate from the Kelley School of Business with an MBA in accounting and a BS in accounting and finance in 2010. He spend the first 10 years of his professional career at a CPA firm in Indianapolis with a concentration in healthcare consulting. He switched careers in 2020 and joined Baird Private Wealth Management as a financial advisor and was blessed with the opportunity to have back to his hometown with his wife, Blair, and their two young sons, James and Heston. He currently serves on the the board of Directors for Big Oaks Conservations Society, Friends of Shawe and Pope John, and the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce

Description coming soon.

Will grew up in Dupont, IN and went to Purdue University for Mechanical Engineering Technology. He now works at SuperATV as a design engineer and helps out on his parent’s and brothers’ farms. 

Luke grew up in Jefferson County and graduated from Madison Consolidated High School. Since graduating from Anderson University he has spent a year in the Iowa Conservation Corps, two years working for a habitat restoration company, and the past two years on his farm in Bedford, KY raising poultry. He currently works in landscaping at two farms in Goshen, KY.