Liz Renner is pictured on Nov. 4, 2025, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until she lost her job as part of the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
When 9-year-old Liz Renner visited the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in southeastern South Dakota with her grandfather, she was hooked.
In adulthood, she devoted more than a decade of education and work to understanding the intricacies of fish biology and conservation. Then, in May 2024, she was hired to work at the hatchery as a fish biologist and member of the Pallid Sturgeon Recovery Program, working to save the endangered species of fish…