Mary Harner

is a riparian ecosystem ecologist and an associate professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in the departments of Communication and Biology. Mary grew up along rivers, studied at Tulane University, the University of Montana, and the University of New Mexico in the NSF IGERT Freshwater Sciences Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, and was awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for postdoctoral studies of alluvial flood plains. Since then, she has worked in the conservation community and as a researcher and educator in central Nebraska. Her research has included studies of the ecology of cottonwood trees, biodiversity of wet meadows, and behavior of sandhill and whooping cranes. Her current work includes educational projects to share information about natural resources with the public. Mary recently co-produced a documentary film Life on the Gila, and she is a research partner with the Platte Basin Timelapse Project.