About Me

MARK BURCHICK

I was born and raised in Greenbelt, Prince George’s County, Maryland from a family of eight. I am married, my wife Michelle is a registered nurse and owner of an elderly care business. We have four boys, all four recently completing their undergraduate and graduate programs from Johns Hopkins University and Towson University. Two of our four boys are now married and live locally, and we are blessed with two grandchildren so far. Our family lives in rural western Howard County, Maryland and enjoy all manner of 4-H livestock programs including swine, goat, sheep, rabbit and poultry. We maintain a chicken coop with typically 20 birds at a time and beekeeping apiary of generally three to four active hives on our small farm. We have a large scale garden and enjoy gardening. You will always find at least two dogs as extended family, and we are partial to Bernese Mountain Dogs, Pyrenees Mountain Dogs, and beagles.

I went to the University of Maryland for my undergraduate and received a BS in Natural Resources Management (Agricultural Engineering). I have an MS in Natural Resources Management and Systems Ecology, with class work from the University of California at Davis, Colorado State, Clemson University and Texas A&M. I also have a Master’s Certificate from the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Natural History Field Studies.

I was a U. S. Park Ranger with the Department of Interior, National Park Service for 13-years and am a long-term principal/owner of a natural resources and ecological restoration firm (ESA, Inc.) located in Crofton Maryland, and with 40-years of direct natural resources management experience. Some of my blog entries come from time in the field doing formal wetland delineation, natural resource inventory, forest stand delineation, rare plant surveys, wildlife and fisheries studies and implementation of integrated natural resource management plans.

I am a practicing Roman Catholic, very much enjoy my family, friends, photography, fishing, shooting sports, botany, natural history field studies, hunting and politics. I am also an unabashed constitutional conservative.

I use a Nikon D7500 camera and my primary lens is the AF-S Nikkor 18-300 mm, and I also use a AF-S Micro Nikkor 85 mm lens and AF-S Telephoto Nikkor 200-500 mm lens. Now and again, I’ll also take out my GoPro Hero 7 and DJI Osmo Action cameras. I also own the DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone, with Hasselblad camera and have my FAA 107 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Commercial Remote Pilot License.

I’ve taken about 90% of the photos on this web site.