My name is Kelby Gjovik, I am from Pekin North Dakota, and just recently moved to a farm outside of town, where I have two Scottish highland cows. I am in my third year of college at VCSU majoring in Fisheries and Wildlife Science with a concentration in conservation law. I am currently pursuing a career as a Game Warden. During the summer I work as a Park Ranger at Lake Ashtabula and spend a lot of my free time outside.
Growing up I spent a lot of time outside at my grandparents’ farm. I would always spend my time playing in the yard, walking to the creek looking for rocks, and helping out with the chores as I was able to. One of my favorites things to do while out at the farm was watching different wildlife like deer, ducks, coyotes, and muskrats. I would spend hours outside looking for wildlife and bugs all over the farm.
As I got older my dad started taking me bow hunting with him, which is when my love for the outdoors really started to grow. I enjoyed going to the deer stand with my dad and sitting there watching to see what we could see, and to me it did not matter if we saw any deer or not because we always saw birds or other animals. I then started hunting deer, pheasants, and coyotes; now I spend many free nights in the stand during hunting season.
Growing up I did not spend a lot of time traveling around; however, when I got older, we did start heading west more often. We traveled to Montana many times starting when I was around 14 or 15 years old. I really enjoyed the different landscapes and ecosystems that we got to see out there. I am excited to get to Texas and learn about the different ecosystems that they have down south. I am also excited because I have not traveled that far south before. It will provide me with amazing experiences seeing many species of wildlife that I will not see in North Dakota.