Joe Walewski is the Director of Naturalist Training at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minnesota. He earned a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology from Iowa State University and a M.Ed. in Environmental Education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Every spring and fall, Joe leads Wolf Ridge graduate students on field botany excursions - "Green Guys Hikes" - with the intention of identifying all the green "guys" and "gals" in the woods. It was on one of these hikes in the early 1990s that Joe first included his beloved lichens.

When away from work, Joe finds plenty to do helping his wife, Lori, in the garden and banding birds (especially hummingbirds). He enjoys rambling and exploring outdoors with his daughter Jenny. Joe continually strives to reduce his ecological footprint. In an effort to reduce his contribution of global warming gasses, Joe commutes to work by foot, bike or ski at least fifty percent of the time.