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Joseph Clark, Ph.D.

Dr. Joseph Clark is Branch Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s NOROCK Southern Appalachian Field Branch, located at the University of Tennessee, where he conducts hypothesis-driven environmental research focusing on Department of Interior issues in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere. Dr. Clark holds an Adjunct Professor appointment in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries.

Research Interests

Dr. Clark is a wildlife biologist and specializes in carnivore ecology, population dynamics, and habitat modeling. Dr. Clark served for 9 years as a Research Biologist and Assistant Chief with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. As such, Dr. Clark has a unique perspective of wildlife resource management from both the practical as well as academic side. Dr. Clark has studied population dynamics of black bears in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas, at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, in the Mobile Basin of Alabama, White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, and throughout Louisiana; has evaluated the effects of public use (i.e., deer hunting) on Florida panthers ecology and management in south Florida; has developed methods for black bear reintroduction in Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Arkansas; has performed a demographic analysis of a reintroduced elk herd at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina; and has studied muskrat and river otter ecology at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. Current projects include a population viability assessment for the threatened Louisiana black bear, a nuisance bear study and a feral hog study in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and a statewide mark-recapture bear population estimate for Florida.