Maryann Helferty Maryann Helferty connects people and ecology as a writer and a naturalist. Her geologic ramblings have taken her to the top of 20,000 foot mountains in Peru, the California - Arizona desert lands, the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off Oregon and home again to the Philadelphia area. She has taught Environmental Health at Temple University and worked for twenty years as a environmental scientist, with expertise in drinking water and sustainability, in various government agencies .