Wildlife Biology at University of Montana - 75 years and counting

The Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana started in the fall of 1936. It is housed in the College of Forestry & Conservation, but it's formally a joint program between Forestry, the Division of Biological Sciences, and the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. We have students today from 37 different states, eight different countries, within our program, almost 400 students overall. I could not be more pleased with the way the program has grown. The faculty here are dedicated, they're hardworking, they're bright. We're able to attract them in part because of Montana, and many of them want to be part of something bigger, because of these leaders that we've had in the program in the past, because they see something special here. Phil Wright taught at the University of Montana, mammalogy, ornithology, I believe from 1939 until 1984. Phil got his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and when he applied for the job here, Aldo Leopold, who was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, wrote him a letter of recommendation. When *** Hutto was hired as the Ornithologist, Phil took him out on a field trip to show him where Phil had taken his ornithology classes on filed trips. And I was putting my binoculars what for me I think was the first time in my life I'd ever seen this bird, and which I thought was a pine grosbeak, but wasn't sure, and said, "Ah, I don't know. I think it's a..." And then POW! KABOOM! He had his shotgun out, he shot that bird, it fell right at our feet, and he picked it up, and said, "Pine grosbeak!" That was back in the day when you know, if you saw something neat, you needed to be able to prove that that was actually there. That bird is now in the museum, one of the specimens collected in, I guess it must have been 1977, the fall. Phil began developing this museum in the late 1930s, early 1940s, and the collection now, I think, has a little over 30,000 specimens. We can actually use material from those particular specimens that might have been collected 100 years ago. and extract DNA from those, so this museum collection is really quite valuable. Less Pengelly was on the faculty for many years [archival audio] Les was also very well known for his criticism of Yellowstone National Park. He felt that carrying capacity was exceeded by the numbers of elk that were in Yellowstone back in the 70s and 80s, and so he was almost persona non grata in the park at that time. Les taught a course called Careers in Wildlife. He would tell them at the beginning of the class, only two of you are going to end up being wildlife biologists. And yet anybody who came into his office and sat down and talked to him, would always get an ear full about all the joys and the pleasures and the things that you can really achieve if you set your mind to it. He was a really good mentor to our students. Bart O'Gara was the leader of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Montana for many years. Bart was another person, like Phil Wright, who was very student-oriented. Very much a mentor to get students involved in research. [archival audio] *** Tabor was on the faculty back in the 1960s, and he actually got his master's degree working with Aldo Leopold at the University of Wisconsin. [archival audio] And later when *** was in his late 80s, he won the Aldo Leopold Award from The Wildlife Society for his many contributions on wildlife research in the northwestern part of the United States. John Craighead was the leader of the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, and spent about 25 years at the University of Montana. Widely known around country and around the world for his research on grizzly bears in Yellowstone Park. [archival audio] One of the things that we did six or eight years ago was to raise the money for an endowed chair in John's name. And if there's one thing that I'm proud about it's being able to get that done and introduce the whole idea and the concept to John at a reception a number of years ago, and have John there to receive that honor. He's somebody who had a huge impact on on many, many lives, especially of graduate students at the University of Montana. The Craighead Chair comes with trying to follow on the tradition of what John J. Craighead did, and he brought to the University, and he brought to America, and he brought to the world: innovative wildlife management, conservation, education, inspiring people. We're very proud to have two endowed chairs here at the University of Montana, the John J. Craighead Chair, and the Boone & Crockett Chair. The Boone & Crockett Club endowed a chair here back in the early 1990s. Hal Salwasser was the first Boone & Crockett professor, followed by Jack Ward Thomas, who had been Chief of the Forest Service, and today it's Paul Kraussman as chair. A lot of my research interest is related to habitat. We're looking at habitat relationships between caribou and clearcuts and calving areas up in Newfoundland. And we're currently working on habitat studies with bison in central Montana. Their support of the Boone & Crockett professor program, provides them with biological information that they can use to drive their policy initiatives in conservation. Within the Boone & Crockett program, my master's thesis focused on bison and cattle comparisons in the northern Great Plains. We were looking at: How do we manage a species of concern, in this case bison, in the presence of human influence? The Boone & Crockett program offers some unique opportunities that allow students like myself to study these questions that need to be answered right now. That research budget allows us to have the flexibility to bring in students to deal with studies that we think are important. We are so pleased that people stood up and contributed to these efforts so that these sorts of senior level people who are really at the top of their game can participate on our faculty and continue that tradition of excellence that was started by people like Les Pengelly, Bart O'Gara, Phil Wright, and so forth. The Wildlife Biology Program is now a little over 75 years old, and we have had a long string of absolutely amazing faculty members. Four of our faculty members have been Aldo Leopold winners. Four have been presidents of The Wildlife Society. They've been very engaged with their students. Our graduate students are off at places like the Smithsonian, with the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Washington, D.C., but in all 50 states and many, many countries around the world. For global conservation to be successful we have got to have people who are well trained, who know how to work with people, but also who can work with wildlife to come up to solutions to the conservation issues today. And the issues that were around thirty, forty, fifty years ago -- some of them are the same that we have today, others are different. Global climate change -- that's going to take things in directions we are just starting to figure out today. Human population is seven billion and growing. These sorts of issues are going to need -- are going to demand problem solvers in the future. We aim to produce those kinds of people here at the University of Montana.