Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “

” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact.

Kao Thao has always connected with the outdoors. As a young boy growing up in Laos, he said he vividly remembers a family garden filled with vegetables. Thao also recalled fleeing his birthplace when he was six or seven with his parents and seven siblings to go to refugee camps in Thailand.

“I do have small memory of going through the jungle,” he said. “Just being out there in nature and in time.”

In 1980, the Thao family settled in St. Paul where two additional siblings were born.

Now Thao is a full-time park naturalist for the Department of Natural Resources and is based at Fort Snelling State Park. He offers nature education programs at the park on a variety of subjects: fishing, birding and canoeing. 

Thao graduated from Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul and headed to the University of Minnesota to study computer science. But subject and student did not mesh well. He’d get headaches just reading about computers, Thao recalled.

His college counselor knew of Thao’s love for the outdoors. Once, during a casual meeting, she had a question.  

“‘Have you ever considered working for some outdoor places or working in a park or somewhere?’” Thao recalled his college counselor saying. “And I said, ‘Is there such a job that you get to work outside?’”

She talked to him about environmental jobs and the DNR.

Thao interned at Fort Snelling for the DNR and was hired after his graduation in 1998.

What interested you in nature and the environment?

I love the outdoors. I love nature. So when I got to the United States, we actually got here in February. Just imagine, you know, you're coming from a temperature that's about 80 to 100 degree, and you land in a place that it's about close to zero degree. My parents don't know many outdoor parks. 

Of course, we don't know how to take public transportation, don't speak the language too well, so we're pretty much stuck at home. And I really wanted to do something outside. Not until many years later, in elementary, that we had chances to go on field trip to local park. And I realized how much I love the outdoors, you know, the squirrels running outside, the trees, the greens, you know, even the mosquitos. Sounds great.

We are basically the teacher that teaches environmental education, that teaches outdoor activities, get the communities to understand about anything outdoor. We have hands-on program, we have sit-and-talk program, we have a variety of programs. 

I also go out to organizations and provide programs there if they can't come out. But we really love folks who come out to Fort Snelling State Park or other state parks for programs, because this is where the nature is.

What do you bring to your job as a Hmong American?

I would have to say a lot. When I first started out with the DNR in the 1990s, there were a lot of confusion and, I would say, a lot of conflict between law enforcement, especially DNR law enforcement, and Hmong hunters. Legal regulation, wildlife regulation, like hunting and fishing. 

So I'm one of the staff that basically will bring in to bridge that issue. Pretty much spent a lot of time out reaching to a lot of the people of color, underserved communities. As a person of color naturalist here, it does come with some responsibility. It would also come with reward too, because to bridge between the mainstream Caucasian communities and the people of color communities, it's difficult because we don't have too many people of color working for the DNR when I started out. 

Right now, the employee number of people of color starts to increase a little bit. That's one of the reasons why I am still here at Fort Snelling State Park, because my job is not done yet.

What advice do you have for young Hmong people or the youth in the Hmong community who are interested in pursuing a career studying or teaching nature?

My advice is, do what you love. That's number one. Number two is, if you like outside, pursue it. Study it. Come out to Fort Snelling State Park. If you are a parent, if you are a teacher, you are a community leader in the Hmong communities, I encourage you to even call me. 

Schedule a day, schedule a time. I will take your group out, fishing, canoeing, bird watching. It doesn't have to be a park naturalist. It could be a conservation officer. It could be a park manager. Pursue it.

Regina Medina

Author

Kao Thao remembers the beauty of nature in Laos before he and his family fled. In Minnesota, he has spent his career teaching fishing, birding and canoeing for the Department of Natural Resources.

From a garden in Laos to Fort Snelling State Park, his life has been devoted to nature

Go Deeper.

Like this?