Unit Leader - Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
RECENT HONORS AND AWARDS
- Conference Best Paper Award, Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2011
- Department of Interior STAR Award, for work with Outer Continental Shelf energy development team, 2011
- Department of Interior STAR Award, for work with Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, 2009
- Department of Interior STAR Award, for work with Washington Fish and Wildlife Office, 2009
- Department of Interior STAR Award, for work with Northeast Region Fisheries Program, 2008
CURRENT TRAINING ACTIVITIES
- Instructor: Training for Effective Conservation Translocation (with IUCN Reintroduction Specialist Group), workshop venues
- Instructor: Integrated Population Modeling (with Drs. Marc Kery and Michael Schaub), workshop venues
- Instructor: Introduction to Structured Decision Making, National Conservation Training Center
ASSOCIATED POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
- Dr. Nathan Hostetter, Improved Design and Analysis of Polar Bear Population Studies (2016-Present)
- Dr. Jonathan Cummings, Landscape Level Population Modeling as a Decision Support Tool for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (2014-Present, w/Dr. Dave Smith, USGS Leetown Science Center)
- Dr. Sabrina Servanty, Population Viability of the Eastern Migratory Population of Whooping Cranes (2009-2013, w/Dr. Larissa Bailey, Colorado State University)
ASSOCIATED STUDENTS
- Dr. Stefano Canessa, Decision Theory for Reintroductions (2011-2015, w/Drs. Mick McCarthy and Kirsten Parris, University of Melbourne)
- Ms. Megan Brown, Causes of Poor Fertility in Captive Whooping Crane, PhD Candidate (2013-Present, w/Drs. Nucharin Songsasen and Carol Keefer, University of Maryland)
- Ms. Megan Brown, Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Poor Reproduction in the Whooping Crane, M.S. (2011-2013, w/Drs. Nucharin Songsasen and Carol Keefer, University of Maryland)
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Wildlife Biology, Colorado State University (2005)
M.S. Natural Resource Sciences, University of Nebraska (1999)
B.S. Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University (1996)
Science and Products
Decline of Beluga Whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska
In conjunction with the Cook Inlet PhotoID Project and federal agencies, the USGS Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is aiming to learn more about the fundamental factors that drive changes in beluga whale population dynamics, specifically what affects the rates at which individuals survive and reproduce. Understanding this piece of the puzzle is critical to future conservation...
Adaptive Management for Threatened and Endangered Species
The Challenge: Threatened and endangered species have to be managed in the face of uncertainty, but traditionally, there has been reluctance to think about adaptive management of listed species. Management agencies with responsibility for threatened and endangered species need tools to help manage in the face of uncertainty, with the hope of reducing that uncertainty.
Structured Decision Making: Methods, Applications, and Capacity-Building
The Challenge: The field of decision analysis is a rich and mature discipline that provides robust methods for helping decision makers understand the nature of their decisions, involve stakeholders and scientists in appropriate steps of the process, and develop transparent records for the public. The use of these structured approaches is emerging in natural resource management, and there is strong...
Science and Products
- Publications
- Science
Decline of Beluga Whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska
In conjunction with the Cook Inlet PhotoID Project and federal agencies, the USGS Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is aiming to learn more about the fundamental factors that drive changes in beluga whale population dynamics, specifically what affects the rates at which individuals survive and reproduce. Understanding this piece of the puzzle is critical to future conservation...Adaptive Management for Threatened and Endangered Species
The Challenge: Threatened and endangered species have to be managed in the face of uncertainty, but traditionally, there has been reluctance to think about adaptive management of listed species. Management agencies with responsibility for threatened and endangered species need tools to help manage in the face of uncertainty, with the hope of reducing that uncertainty.Structured Decision Making: Methods, Applications, and Capacity-Building
The Challenge: The field of decision analysis is a rich and mature discipline that provides robust methods for helping decision makers understand the nature of their decisions, involve stakeholders and scientists in appropriate steps of the process, and develop transparent records for the public. The use of these structured approaches is emerging in natural resource management, and there is strong... - Data
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