[2] Nelson was married for 53 years to Geri, whom he met at the University of Minnesota's Lake Itasca Field Station while both were doing research.
[1] Growing up on the Minnesota River town of Morton, Nelson developed a love of the environment, including ecology, geology and history.
[4] For 35 years Nelson was a teacher of biology and environmental sciences at Anoka Ramsey Community College, where he was selected by students to receive the Golden Chalk Award recognizing faculty excellence.
"[2] An early advocate for the wilderness designation of the BWCA, Nelson served with many non-profit organizations, including Friends of the Boundary Waters, Conservation Minnesota, the Nature Conservancy, on the board of the Freshwater Society, and the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, which was created by Minnesota voters in 2008 by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.
[7] In addition to a number of publications in Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, Silent Sports, Biocycle, and The Naturalist, Nelson wrote two critically acclaimed natural history books.
Described as "an ode to the beauty of lakes and the high stakes of what we have to lose; it's also an eyes-wide-open cautionary tale of how things are changing for the worse, and what has already been lost."