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Wylie Barrow, Jr., Ph.D.

Prior to his retirement in 2022, Wylie Barrow built a research program focusing on aspects of landscape ecology and disturbance ecology that influences the persistence of bird populations and communities, and has solved research problems throughout the Gulf coast and Texas-Mexico borderlands.

Barrow's research program used an integrated team approach by collaborating with colleagues at universities, joint ventures, other agencies, and other scientists at WARC. Current research that Barrow has designed identify factors and processes that affect the suitability of habitat for migratory birds and provides science support for the USGS Hurricane Sandy Assessment, Gulf Coast Joint Venture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and USFWS R4 Divisions of Refuges and Forestry.         

BACKGROUND

Wylie C. Barrow, Jr. spent his early years roaming hardwood swamps and coastal marshes, instilling in him a lifelong love of birds and their habitats. At Louisiana State University he obtained a B.S. in Forestry. It was at Highlands Biological Research Station of western North Carolina that Barrow developed a strong background in plant ecology and an interest in aspects of old-growth forest conditions. At West Virginia University he began his first intensive study of forest birds; he received his M.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology. He returned to LSU where he spent seven years studying with some of the preeminent scientists in wildlife management, ornithology, and tropical ecology. It was at LSU that Barrow became intensely interested in migratory birds throughout their annual cycle. His dissertation was on the foraging behavior of forest birds on their wintering (Mexico) and breeding grounds (Mississippi Valley). In 1989, he accepted a position with Patuxent Wildlife Research Center at a field station in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Following the completion of a study on non-breeding Puerto Rican Parrots, Barrow accepted a position at a field station in Corpus Christi, TX operated by the National Wetlands Research Center. Five years later, he moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, to work for the then National Wetlands Research Center (now Wetland and Aquatic Research Center).            

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Louisiana State University

    M.S., Wildlife Ecology, West Virginia University

    B.S., Forestry, Louisiana State University

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