Justin Meissen

Justin Meissen joined the Tallgrass Prairie Center staff in July 2016 to lead the Research and Restoration Program. Justin is responsible for implementing restoration research and demonstration projects, creating training seminars, giving presentations, and developing technical materials for multiple audiences including roadside managers and other conservation professionals. He has a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota and a BS in Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Justin has worked professionally in restoration ecology and botany from North Carolina to California with The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Society, and other non-profits and environmental contractors. He also lead the Red Bison Prairie Restoration Student Group as an undergrad at University of Illinois. He has served as a botanical consultant and plant ID workshop instructor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and was a teaching assistant for three years for an ecological restoration course at the University of Minnesota. His PhD research at the University of Minnesota evaluated the risks of repeated, intensive seed harvest from native tallgrass prairies to supply large-scale prairie restoration. The research, conducted in western Minnesota, involved extensive collaboration with the Minnesota DNR, The Nature Conservancy, and private landowners. Justin is also an avid nature photographer whose work can be found throughout the web, particularly on his Flickr page.