Marian Maas

Bellevue, Nebraska

I was raised in rural north central Iowa with an understanding and appreciation for the land and its natural resources. Upon graduation from high school I attended Iowa State University and was selected for membership in several academic honoraries. After graduation from ISU, I married and accompanied my husband in his Air Force officer career in F-4 fighters. We raised two sons during his tenure in the Air Force. In our various locations, I served as a substitute teacher for junior and senior high schools and worked fulltime as a secondary physical science teacher. I also contributed to the community by leading a spouses’ support group, organizing community fund raising events, volunteering in our sons’ school libraries and classrooms, and establishing a local neighborhood 4-H club. We lived overseas in Germany for seven years and I traveled extensively, visiting Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Eastern Europe, and many of the western European countries. These travels broadened my exposure to numerous ecosystems, river systems, land formations, and the approach used by various countries in their protection of their natural resources.

Upon returning to the U.S. and settling in Omaha, NE, I entered graduate school, and obtained my Master's and Doctorate at the University of Nebraska in Biology. My Master’s graduate program focused on ichthyology, limnology, and stream ecology. My research concentrated on native prairie fish species, specifically, on the scanning electron microscopy analyses of breeding tubercles on males of three species of Phoxinus (finescale dace, northern redbelly dace, and southern redbelly dace). My doctoral program was developmental neurobiology, using in vitro methods to research the factors influencing LHRH neuronal differentiation in the avian embryonic olfactory placode. I have published papers in peer reviewed journals and given presentations at professional meetings at local, regional, and national levels.

I have worked for the City of Omaha's Public Works Department in the Quality Control Laboratory, and later given the responsibility to conduct the development and implementation of a first-of-its-kind water quality monitoring program on the Papillion Creek, a 402 square mile stream system that flows through the entire Omaha area. This responsibility included the establishment of goals, monitoring site selection, conducting the actual sampling and monitoring on a weekly basis, data analyses, reporting and budgeting, and expansion of the program. This was the first extensive database established for the Papillion Creek.

I have also worked for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as Supervisor of the TMDL and Water Quality Assessment Section. During my tenure with the IDNR I supervised the programs responsible for the analyses of all water quality and biological data on the streams, rivers, and lakes of Iowa, and for the determination of the impaired waters of the state and the subsequent development of TMDLs (watershed improvement plans) for those impaired waters.

Currently, I am Project Manager for an EPA grant awarded to me. It is focused on the improvement of water quality in the Papillion Creek system. A major component of the grant is a strong media campaign and public outreach effort, thus, it is hoped that the conveying of information to the citizens of the watershed will ultimately result in the improvement of water quality in the streams. Through my grant, I have been a leader in promoting Low Impact Development information and providing an increased awareness of the value of the Papillion Creek to the residents of Omaha.

I am active in our family’s restoration of wetlands and native prairie on property in southwest Iowa, and maintain an ongoing interest in the protection and restoration of our natural resources.

For comments or questions about this website, please contact: usiecr@ecr.gov. This page was last updated 7/17/2019.