Who is the Outdoor Professor?

Captain Richard Thomas Bothel, Ed.D.

Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/ 

Here's your outdoor tip on who is the Outdoor Professor.

Who am I?  I’ve included this information in my tips because as my podcast numbers have increased, I’ve been receiving more and more questions about myself.  Who am I and why am I producing podcasts providing outdoor tips?

So here’s a few thing about me.  I’ve been active in the outdoors my whole life.  At the age of three, my parents started taking my family to a lake in Michigan each summer where I spent every day swimming and fishing—I even have a picture of myself holding a stringer of fish when I was five years old.  When I was in college, bass fishing came on the horizon and I began fishing in tournaments throughout the United States.  I was fortunate to become a regional winner and fished in the first B.A.S.S. Federation National championship. 

After finishing college and becoming a high school teacher I did not have time for the competitive bass fishing, but I became interested in working as a volunteer naturalist at a city park in Indianapolis.  I continued with recreational fishing and some hunting throughout the Midwest, Texas and into Florida.  I also started paddling my canoe more taking trips in the South and up into the Boundary Waters in Canada.

At the turn of the century, I moved to Beaumont, Texas to work at Lamar University.  I was excited about the region because it has one of the large areas of almost untouched wilderness and also three major rivers.  In Southeast Texas I started a nonprofit Environmental Learning and Research Center that purchased a 49 passenger boat that did eco-tours on the Neches River. I went to Sea School and received my US Coast Guard Masters Captain License that enabled me to operate eco-tours on the Neches.  I also started a kayak group that paddled throughout the area that quickly grew to about 400 members.

As I continued my full-time job as a professor at the university, I became more and more involved working with people and encouraging them to spend more time with nature.  I worked through the Texas Master Naturalist Program and completed several certification programs to work with different ages of children and nature.  Over the past few years this enabled me to work with thousands of children and adults to increase their interactions with nature.

In an effort to reach more people, I have written ebooks (Nature Quotient and Outdoor Professor’s Tips); have a Web site, DiscoveringTheOurdoors.com; and Blog, DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/Blog that support exploring nature.  I also have a podcast, Outdoor Professor’s Tips, available via iTunes® and Stitcher® that provides audio programs over the Internet.  I am a frequent presenter and enjoy working with all kinds of people helping them explore nature.  Please contact me at Richard@DiscoveringTheOutdoors.comwith your ideas about how we can further support exploring nature.

So that’s me…I hope you are enjoying the podcasts.  Please leave your positive comments at iTunes or Stitcher.

This is the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/

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