Mariah Lundgren has been a conservation photographer and filmmaker for a decade, focusing on stories within the Great Plains and the American West. She loves giving voice to the voiceless and working alongside scientists, landowners, and conservation partners to tell impactful stories about wildlife, water, and working landscapes. Her work is driven by a deep passion for grasslands and other underappreciated ecosystems–she uses storytelling to help people better understand and care for our natural world.
She is the project manager & producer for Platte Basin Timelapse–a Great Plains conservation storytelling project co-founded by iLCP Senior Fellow Michael Forsberg that uses photography, film, and other forms of multimedia to explore watersheds, document change over time, and connect people to the natural world. In 2017, she co-produced the national PBS documentary, Follow the Water. Today, her award-winning short films have been featured on PBS and screened at film festivals across North America.
Mariah is a graduate of the University of Nebraska’s School of Natural Resources, on faculty with Summit Workshops, and an Associate Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers. In 2021, she co-developed a class at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, “NRES 260: Introduction to Conservation Photography”. She is also a licensed drone pilot and has held her FAA Part 107 certification since 2018.
Born and raised in Nebraska, she now calls Colorado home and spends her free time snowboarding, prairie running, mountain scrambling, and backyard farming with her husband, two cats, and five chickens.
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2025 Dam Short Film Festival – Under the Wire – Best Documentary
2024 Omtvedt Innovation Award for Team – Platte Basin Timelapse
2024 Nature Without Borders Film Festival – Under the Wire – Excellence Award
2024 Wyoming International Film Festival – Under the Wire – Best Wyoming Documentary
2024 Wild and Working Lands Film Festival – Under the Wire – Award Winner & Audience Choice
2023 International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) – Associate Fellow
2023 Omaha Film Festival – High Plains Wild – Best Nebraska Short Film Documentary & Audience Choice
2022 Wild and Working Lands Film Festival – High Plains Wild – Migration Initiative Award
2022 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest – High Plains Wild – Third Place
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2025 Quail Forever Magazine Spring 2025 Cover Image – Photographer
2024 The Nebraska Sandhills Book – Contributing Photographer
2024 NEBRASKAland Magazine The Perch – Writer & Photographer
2024 NEBRASKAland Magazine Fens Forever – Writer & Photographer
2023 NEBRASKAland Magazine – Life Follows Water – Cover Image & Ten-Page Spread
2023 Sierra Magazine Thinking Like a Watershed – Featured Photographer
2023 Sierra Magazine What About Bob? – Photographer
2020 Audubon Magazine Meet the Dipper, North America's Only Aquatic Songbird – Filmmaker
2020 Trout Unlimited Going to the Birds – Filmmaker & Featured Work
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2026 Curator & Photographer – Platte Passages – Lincoln, NE
2026 Contributing Artist – Into Whooperland – Davis Global Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center – Omaha, NE
2025 Contributing Artist – From the Great Lakes to the Great Plains: The Visible Currents of Climate Change – Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
2023 Contributing Artist – Group Exhibition – UNK Walker Art Gallery – Kearney, NE
2019 Contributing Artist – A River Runs Through It – Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, NE
2019 Contributing Editor & Advisor – Cherish Nebraska – University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, NE
