Seth Benz, Senior Ornithologist
Seth Benz, Senior Ornithologist
Seth Benz has amassed nearly 30 years of experience in the fields of conservation science and environmental education. His professional positions include: Director of Hog Island Audubon Center and Camp (1999-2008); Education Director and Faculty of the Audubon Expedition Institute (1986-1999); Interpretive Park Ranger at Acadia National Park (1991); lsland Supervisor for Project Puffin Seabird Restoration Program (1992 and 1993); and, Assistant Curator of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania (1978-1984). He has conducted raptor migration research, designed, developed and implemented ecological education programs, published articles on environmental education, raptor migration, island living, and avian breeding bird research. Seth has held appointments such as Northern Appalachian Editor for the Hawk Migration Association of North America, Great Backyard Bird Count Records Reviewer for state of Maine; North Penobscot Bay Christmas Count Compiler; Board Member of the Mid-coast Audubon Chapter, Sheepscot-Wellspring Land Alliance, and Council for the Arts in Belfast, Maine.
Seth’s career in conservation was inspired at age 10 when his father found an injured Rough-legged hawk and brought it home to rehabilitate. Upon delivering it to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Seth met Maurice and Irma Broun (the legendary couple who transformed a shooting ground of migratory hawks to a path of protection and conservation history). Seth later served as Hawk Mountain’s first college intern and then became a full-time staff member. He conducted autumn hawk counts there for eight seasons. Seth has visited hawkwatching sites throughout North America and has served on scouting excursions to Mexico and Peru for popular birding tours. He provided the vision for an interpretive hawkwatching site at Acadia National Park.
Seth’s other noteworthy experiences include radio telemetry work on bald eagles in New York, black-crowned night heron in Maine, and eastern timber rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania. He has assisted with catching migratory peregrine falcons on the beaches of Assateague/Chincoteague Island National Seashore, serves as an advisor to a Pennsylvania nest box monitoring project for American kestrels, eastern screech owls, and eastern bluebirds, and has recently developed bird bus tours for the city of Belfast, Maine. Additionally, Seth teaches natural history as well as birding courses for Elderhostel and the University of Maine Hutchinson Center’s Senior College.
Understanding human attitudes and relationships with nature was the focus of Seth’s graduate studies, college teaching career, and remains a present passion. Group dynamics, shared inquiry, conflict-resolution, team building, collaboration, and consensus-decision making have been every day tools. Seth believes that people become better local and planetary stewards when the interpretation of nature transforms the language of science and the phenomenon of experience to make it personal and relevant in the everyday lives of ordinary people.