Petra Spiess grew up in the Sonoran desert chasing lizards and snakes, an interest she kept into adulthood which prompted her to obtain a B.S. degree from Arizona State University in Environmental Resources and two years of working in a pet store, one year managing the reptile section. She’s spent two summers working as a herpetologist for the Arizona Game & Fish Department striding across the desert in the middle of the night in thigh-high rattlesnake boots searching for rosy boas and desert tortoises, as well as a stint working for a reptile wholesaler which entailed dodging a really pissed off 14 foot African rock python that escaped its cage.

After moving to Colorado, Petra started her own reptile breeding business, with over 100 animals in her basement reptile rooms (unbeknownst to her neighbors). Petra bred more than 30 different reptile species including grey-banded kingsnakes, milksnakes, veiled chameleons, knob-tailed geckos, and many others. Petra also obtained a master’s degree in ecology from Colorado State University studying the interaction of alterations to the nitrogen cycle and weed ecology. She then spent several years working as a research scientist in biogeochemistry at CSU, associated with the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research Project, analyzing data and writing technical scientific papers.

After Petra’s funding ended and she produced her own hatchling, she moved to a new urbanist community and it completely changed her life. Instead of the isolation and alienation she felt in her old, traditional subdivision when staying at home with her infant daughter and looking out at a beige ghost town of blank garage doors, she now found a vibrant, exceedingly social community that provided her with security and support from which she happily writes today.

Areas of interest include:

• All areas of science
• Green building techniques and technologies
• New Urbanism
• Reptiles of all colors, stripes, and squamation patterns
• Gardening, especially container gardening
• Home and community design