Sarah Barron

Advancement Manager

Contact at: SBarron@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org

Growing up in Southwest Wisconsin, Sarah has had a love of native plant ecosystems since childhood. Now, she and her husband seed-collect on roadside, forgotten habitats as well as grow native plants for their small nursery. Sarah is often out on a prairie or savanna, toting a pack with a camera, binoculars and perhaps a parsnip predator. She is passionate about sharing “Prairie Enthusiasm” with others and loves learning about the natural world. She started at The Prairie Enthusiasts in 2023, where she oversees our marketing and fundraising programs and is the editor and designer of The Prairie Promoter.

Duncan Schultz

Donor Relations Officer

Contact at: DSchultz@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org

Duncan moved to the Midwest from Orange County, California in 2007. Time spent outside with the land has always been important to him, but it mostly came through long trips to “get to nature.” Once he started at the UW-Madison Arboretum in 2009, the prairie rooted itself in his everyday life. Duncan considers himself extremely fortunate to spend his working hours supporting the prairie and other fire-dependent ecosystems and hopes his passion and excitement shine through all he does. Married with two kids, you’ll find his happiest places are in a good chair with a good book, or in wide open spaces having good conversation.

Debra Behrens

Executive Director

Contact at: DBehrens@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org

Debra has been the Executive Director of The Prairie Enthusiasts since 2020. She brings more than 25 years of nonprofit leadership and development experience. Debra has an entrepreneurial approach to solving problems, focusing collective energy and building momentum. She’s passionate about saving the rare biodiversity and beauty of ecosystems in the Upper Midwest, and is actively restoring prairie and oak savanna at her homestead outside of Viroqua. 

Peter Hartman

Minnesota Driftless Chapter Representative

Contact at: Info@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org

As a teenager, Peter Hartman had the opportunity to live on a Wisconsin dairy farm for several summers and work with the Youth Conservation Core in Northern Wisconsin. Peter attended UW Milwaukee where he earned undergraduate degrees in Botany, Zoology and Chemistry. An advertisement for jobs in soil conservation led him to UW Madison where he took soil and conservation engineering classes. Peter was inspired by soil and the five soil forming factors: parent material, climate, biota, topography and time. Soil tied together his love for geology, plants, landforms, and earth history. Peter became a Soil Scientist and a soil mapper for years, first in Indiana then in Minnesota with a mapping detail in Florida. He mapped over a million acres. Peter then became an Area Resource Soil Scientist in Rochester, MN for NRCS. That job gave him the opportunity to dig into soils even deeper and work with engineers on soil conservation projects. This opportunity got Peter involved in Soil Health and opened his eyes to the damage conventional farming practices are doing to our environment. Peter briefly retired, but then did a contracted NRCS project: an ecological site description project on bluff prairies in the Driftless Area. Peter retired again from NRCS over ten years ago and now spends a lot of his time with his family, volunteering, and studying the world and our place in it. For Peter, it has been a great joy to be a volunteer with The Prairie Enthusiasts. The good work The Prairie Enthusiasts does is his motivation. He is thrilled by all the things he has learned about fire ecology and loves spending time in the natural areas we are preserving.

Alice Mirk

Vice President

Contact at: Info@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org

Alice was one of the original founders of The Prairie Enthusiasts. Her skills have contributed to the creation and growth of The Prairie Enthusiasts with her 25 years of experience in public policy, legislative action, and grant writing with the State of Wisconsin. In her career, she managed budgets, planned and managed projects, planned and performed quality assurance and quality improvement activities, and managed staff state-wide. Alice has dedicated her knowledge and time to The Prairie Enthusiasts, acting as treasurer, board member, membership coordinator, and vice president. She is also an active member of the Glacial Prairie chapter and, with her husband Walter, assists in making and shipping makutus.