Profiles

Peter J. van der Linden, Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, UI Division of Continuing Education

	Peter J. van der Linden, executive director of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory near Spirit Lake, Iowa. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Imagine an office nestled in nature, where a short walk allowed you to view a pristine lake and hear the sounds of chirping frogs and gobbling turkeys.

This is the environment in which Peter J. van der Linden works every day.

As executive director of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory since July 2007, van der Linden, a native of Sibley, Iowa, is responsible for overseeing the 147 acres of diverse wetlands, prairies, lakes, and forests located in northwest Iowa near Spirit Lake. The lab is located on the west shore of West Okoboji Lake, occupying the entire shoreline of Little Miller's Bay. The bay and adjacent uplands and wetlands are used as a natural classroom in Lakeside courses.

Even though van der Linden spends his days like many other administrators—corresponding via e-mail, attending meetings, writing grant proposals or collaborating on projects with community partners—he can easily take a quick stroll into nature if time allows. And did we mention that view of Lake Okoboji?

"We see more deer than people some days," van der Linden says with a smile.

Lakeside Laboratory, which is administered by the University of Iowa Division of Continuing Education and serves all three state universities, was one of the first field labs in the United States. The lab offers university courses in the summer, year-round noncredit programs for children and adults, and abundant natural resources for researchers to study and visitors to enjoy.

The late UI professor Thomas H. Macbride and colleagues established Lakeside in 1909 as a private summer field station, and in 1936 it became a state institution. Today, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Iowa run the lab cooperatively through the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

fyi was fortunate to catch up with van der Linden on a spring trip to The University of Iowa, where he reflected on his first year in this role and the value of the lab to the state, nation, and world.

Tell us a little bit about Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. What is its mission?

Thomas Macbride stated the traditional mission very succinctly: "Lakeside Lab is a place where students study nature in nature." Lakeside is a biological field station. We provide a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in the study of nature. Students take one class at a time for four weeks. Courses are field oriented and hands-on, with enthusiastic professors and small class sizes. We have a new mission as of 2006—which does not replace the original mission—which is to serve as a Regents' resource center, a pilot program to extend the services of the Regents universities into northwest Iowa through Lakeside Lab and make it a center for lifelong learning for the people of the area.

This is the people's laboratory. People are always welcome to walk around, take a hike, or have a picnic. They don't need to be enrolled in a class.

Please share a little bit about what your role with Lakeside Labs entails.

I direct the operations of Lakeside Lab, including finance, programs, facilities, and community relations. Every day is different—that's one thing I like about the job. I even serve as the web master.

Lakeside Lab operates with four full-time staff, and I work closely with the Friends of Lakeside Lab, a community organization that helps support the lab, especially during the upcoming centennial celebration in 2009.

Where do your faculty come from who teach and do research at Lakeside?

They come from several universities, including Drake, UNI, ISU and the UI. Some professors come from as far away as California, New Mexico, and even England.

How many students participate in classes or field trips?

The number varies from year to year. Our total summer enrollment, from all colleges and universities, is 70 to 80 students, and we are working to increase that number. The UI and ISU consistently send the most students. Popular classes include ecology, prairie ecology, plant taxonomy, conservation biology, and the ecology and systematics of diatoms. There's also a new class this August in aquatic toxicology and wetland dynamics.

Last year, more than 800 people participated in educational programs at Lakeside. Many others attended meetings and retreats.

Can you share a favorite memory or anecdote from your work with Lakeside—what is most rewarding about your job?

It is especially fun to work with children because they get so excited when they encounter even a small, ordinary creature like a frog or turtle. Last September we hosted a group of 24 Talented and Gifted students from the Pocahontas schools, leading them right into a marsh to see what lives there. Their enthusiasm was really contagious.

How has the lab changed over the years?

It actually hasn't changed a whole lot, but my office is located in a new building on campus, the Waitt Lab. Back in the early 1990s, there was talk of closing Iowa Lakeside Labs. Local people banded together and said, "We must appeal to the Regents," and they got the Regents to agree to keep the lab open. As part of their commitment, the local people raised a million dollars and built a new building. Land around those lakes sells for $1,500 an inch, so water quality is of great concern. The Waitt Lab is a place for environmental education and also a lab for testing water.

Have you always been a nature lover?

I'm an alumnus of Lakeside Lab. I was a student there in 1974, and after that went to graduate school and spent most of my career in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan with arboretums and botanical gardens. I was always interested in nature and plants and animals.

What do you do on your days off? Anything that would surprise your colleagues?

Depending on the time of year, gardening, cross-country skiing, reading, working sudoku puzzles, and watching movies. Now that I've moved back to northwest Iowa, near where I grew up, I also enjoy spending more time with family. My colleagues might not know that I once spent a month camping and collecting seeds and plants in Siberia.

What do you feel your biggest accomplishments have been over the past year?

Developing new partnerships that, over time, will greatly expand the outreach of Lakeside. One example: we partnered with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where the Friends of Lakeside Laboratory provide funds for writers to live in cabins once they finish their degrees from the Writers' Workshop. They can write as a sort of fellowship, and they do some community service in return—conduct public workshops and read to children in schools. We had our first two writers in fall 2007 and one in spring 2008.

What kind of resource do you see Lakeside Lab being for the state of Iowa and beyond?

The potential is unlimited—it all depends on funding. We are developing a reputation as THE place to study freshwater diatoms, an ecologically important group of microscopic plants. Our summer course on that subject attracts students from all over the world—Macedonia, Serbia, Ecuador, Mongolia, and elsewhere. We also want the campus to become a model of good land stewardship, where people can come to see well-managed prairies, savannas, woodlands, and wetlands. Ultimately, we want local people to continue to see Lakeside as an indispensable part of the community.

There's a whole movement to call attention to something called Nature Deficit Disorder, where children are totally disconnected from nature because they spend so much time inside. There's a whole generation that is losing touch with nature.

It's important in this day and age, when we're more and more confined to the Internet and to inside occupations, that we keep up that connection with the natural world, and that's what Lakeside does—it provides that connection with nature that we so easily lose if we're not careful.

by Lois J. Gray

Past Profiles

Sarah Prineas, University of Iowa Honors Program

Beau Hartsock, Department of Public Safety

Eloy and Sarah Barragan, Department of Dance/Youth Ballet

Ed Wasserman, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Sheila Schechinger, Office of Admissions