 I always liked nature and I grew up in London, England looking at daisies and dandelions. How do you get to be an ecologist when you grow up in a big city? Well, when I was 19, I was invited to go up to Hudson Bay. In my first field season, I was like running around the Arctic and I was handed a gun because I had to be aware of polar bears. I am also an expert on animals that eat grass and that includes snow geese. I'm an expert on their creepers there. I get out of bed every day because I love being outdoors and studying plants and animals. My name is Dawn Basely and I'm an ecologist.