Lyon was interested early on in wetlands and other moderately disturbed systems as places to evaluate the condition of native vegetation communities. This interest was honed in his youthful wanderings in the mountains and alpine systems of the Pacific Northwest, California, Nevada, and Alaska. Systematic study of wetlands in undergraduate work at Reed College in his native Oregon, and graduate work at the University of Michigan yielded bachelor’s and master’s theses and a doctoral dissertation devoted to wetlands and other natural systems. Eighteen years as a faculty member and ultimately a full Professor of Civil Engineering and Natural Resources at Ohio State University were further devoted to scholarly pursuits of these interests. A body of work included remote sensor and GIS evaluations of wetlands, development of field methods for wetlands identification, and other efforts on soil, agriculture, riverine, and Laurentian Great Lakes systems.