Life is good: Woman finds dream job at Middle Creek Management Area

After years of bouncing from job to job, and state to state, Lauren Fenstermacher has found a home, and her dream job.

Fenstermacher, 29, works for the Pennsylvania Game Commission as the visitor center/biological manager at Middle Creek Management Area along the Lebanon/Lancaster county line.

The outdoors has appealed to Fenstermacher since she was a child tagging along with her dad and brother while they hunted near her childhood home of Mohrsville, in Berks County.

"I would just walk with them," Fenstermacher explained. "Or I would sit next to them in the tree stand."

"To some people, (working with wildlife) seems like a fantasy job. But that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to love my job. I didn't want to sit at a desk and dread going to work every day. Which is good because I live at work," Fenstermacher said as she watched a Hummingbird fly away.

Fenstermacher and her colleagues are now prepping for a National Hunting Day Event on Sunday, Sept. 24 at Middle Creek Management Area. Fenstermacher helped organize the event in hopes of inspiring a new generation of wildlife workers.

Highlights of the program include an appearance from Shawn Bailey of the Food Channel, who will demonstrate how to cook Canada Geese, a K-9 unit demonstration, live raptors, learning how to shoot a muzzleloader, and more.

"I wish I would have been able to participate in events like this growing up," she explained. "I want events like National Hunting and Fishing Day getting kids out and seeing all there is to do with fishing and hunting."

Fenstermacher had a series of jobs before settling at Middle Creek.

"Some of my family were like, 'Are these real jobs or is she just bopping around New England,'" Fenstermacher said with a laugh noting she worked in Rhode Island for the U.S Fish Wildlife Service and for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries, before returning to Pennsylvania and working different jobs for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

A temporary job working in accounts payable for Godiva Chocolatiers gave her all the proof she needed that she wanted to work outside.

"I had to sit at a computer most of the time and do filing. I knew 100 percent at that point I did not want to do that. It was just a reinforcement of absolutely this isn't what I want to do," Fenstermacher said.

"I always wanted to work outside and work with animals," Fenstermacher said. That drive to work with animals led her to Delaware Valley University as a pre-veterinarian major. However, that only lasted one semester after she had trouble microchipping a rat.

"I could dissect things, but when it was an animal that was alive and breathing. And I was responsible for it. I couldn't suture it back up. I thought if I couldn't do it on a rat how could I take care of another person's pet," Fenstermacher said.

So, she shifted gears and became a wildlife conservation and management major.

It wasn't until an internship at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pennsylvania, that Fenstermacher knew exactly what she wanted to do.

"When I came in there, we worked with a bunch of different interns from all over the world and I saw their passion for conservation," she explained. "And these people from these other countries -- where these fields aren't as accessible to them -- they had such a passion to bring it back to their countries."



"Having the hands on interaction with raptors and song birds -- which was the fun part of it -- but seeing what you could do with a little bit of funding and a little bit of research, it was interesting to see you could make a difference -- conservation wise -- on a bigger scale," she added. "Seeing their passion made me more passionate about it."

Like most people in wildlife careers, Fenstermacher bounced around from temporary job to part-time job until she finally landed a full-time job with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

She eventually became a wildlife biologist in the NorthCentral Region of the Pennsylvania Game Comission living in State College but her job was cut because of state budget issues. So, she took a clerical job in the Southeast office in Reading.

"I applied for it with the hopes of staying with the game commission," she explained. "The biologist at Middle Creek had recently retired and they hadn't backfilled his position right away so I had hopes of them eventually backfilling it."

"I was always so fascinated with (Middle Creek)," she said. "It had this heritage of the goose hunting traditions. It was this awesome place that I wanted to know more about."

The position was molded into a new type of job where it was part biologist and part of land manager duties.

"When they molded this position all I could think was I have to apply for this," Fenstermacher said. "I love being outside working with wildlife, doing the biologist things and research side of things but at the same time this new part is the education side of things."

She was hired May 2016.

"(Middle Creek) is an area that thousands of people come to visit each year and it's nice to knowing that I have a say to make this place a better place for all those user groups and the wildlife, too," Fenstermacher said.

National Hunting Day at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

The event is Sunday, Sept. 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Middle Creek Visitors Center, 100 Museum Rd, Stevens, PA 17578

Highlights:

Shawn Bailey from The Food Channel show "Game On! Prep to plate in 30 minutes" will demonstrate how to cook Canada Geese at 2 p.m.

Pennsylvania Game Commission K-9 unit Sky and handler Dave Allen will put on a demonstration at 1 p.m.

Live Raptors from Red Creek Wildlife Center at 12:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.

Learn to Fish

Learn to shoot muzzeloader

Decoy carving

For a full list of the events at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area click here.