Gary P. Beauvais

Dr. Gary P. Beauvais is the Director of the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, a service and research unit of the University of Wyoming and member of the Natural Heritage Network. He has researched the vertebrate wildlife of Wyoming and surrounding states for 18 years, focusing primarily on biogeography, habitat use, and conservatioon. Most recently Dr. Beauvais has established a program of producing predictive distribution models and maps for several vertebrates of conservation concern in Wyoming and the region. He earned a B.A. in Biology (1990) from Colorado College and a Ph.D. in Zoology and Physiology (1997) from the University of Wyoming.

Kevin Crooks

Dr. Kevin Crooks is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University, and is also an advisor through the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at CSU. He received his B.S. in Zoology at CSU, his M.S. in Ecology at the University of California Davis, his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz, and conducted post-doctoral research in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of California San Diego. Most recently, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. In his research, Dr. Crooks strives to apply theoretical principles of ecology, behavior, and conservation science to natural systems. One primary research avenue is investigation of the effects of habitat fragmentation and landscape connectivity on the persistence of wildlife in urbanizing landscapes.

Brian Miller

Brian received a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 1988 (behavioral ecology and conservation of black-footed ferrets) and then was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Conservation and Research Center of the National Zoological Park. This post-doc was centered on the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets on the western prairies. The techniques developed during this research are used for all captive-raised black-footed ferrets that are released into the wild. From 1992 to 1997, Brian lived and worked in Mexico as a professor at the National University of Mexico. At that time, he worked on starting a protected area on the high plains of Chihuahua, Mexico and then began an ongoing research project on jaguars and pumas in the dry tropical forest of Jalisco, Mexico. From 1997 to 2005, Brian worked as a conservation biologist for the Denver Zoological Foundation where he examined the impacts of wolf reintroduction on the small mammal community in Grand Teton National Park (in Wyoming). Presently, he is an ED for the Wind River Ranch Foundation, located in northern New Mexico. The mission of that organization is to further conservation of wild landscapes in northern New Mexico through ecological restoration, research, and education. His main research interest concerns the role of top carnivores in regulating ecosystem processes, and how to improve protection for carnivores when designing reserves. Brian has co-authored several books, including "Prairie Night: The Recovery of Black-footed Ferrets and Other Endangered Species", "Endangered Animals", and "A Southern Rockies Wildlands Network Vision." He served on the Board of Directors for several conservation groups, including The Wildlands Project (1994-2001).

Doug Ouren is currently a Physical Scientist with the Biological Resources Division of the USGS at the Fort Collins Science Center.  Doug has been working with the Federal government for the past seventeen years where he has been involved in geospatial and wildlife research.  On the geospatial side Doug worked in a research capacity for the Bureau of Land Management and the National Biological Survey developing Landscape Characterization techniques and the development of Biophysical Land Units.  Doug began working for the USGS in 1995 where his research focus shifted to application of global positioning systems to address wildlife-related questions. He is specifically developing techniques to investigate the impacts of motorized vehicle use on wildlife movements and habitat use.  Simultaneous monitoring of transportation networks and animal movements provides insight on the impacts of motorized vehicle use on wildlife movements and habitats. Doug is currently leading a multi-agency research effort in western Colorado assessing the impacts of motorized vehicle use on elk.

 

Jerry is the chair of the Science Adivsory Committee and a SREP Board Member. Jerry is a wildlife biologist that owns Wildlife Specialties, L.L.C. He has worked as a Threatened and Endangered Species Program Manager for the State of Colorado. His interests include impacts on wildlife and natural communities from transportation and residential growth. He got both his B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Biology at CSU. He is an executive board member of the Colorado Chapter of the Wildlife Society and is a panel member of the NCHRP panel on the use and effectiveness of wildlife crossings. He enjoys backcountry telemark skiing and rock climbing.

Michael Soulé

Michael Soulé is a biologist, writer, conservationist and a founder of the Society for Conservation Biology and the Wildlands Project. He has written extensively on ecology, genetics, conservation biology and the social context of contemporary conservation. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Archie Carr Medal and the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award for Science. In 1998, Audubon Magazine named Soulé one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century.

David Theobald

David Theobald is a conservation planner interested in understanding patterns of landscape change and their effects on wildlife habitat and biodiversity, especially in the Rocky Mountain west. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, and his M.A. from Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara. Currently David is an Associate Professor in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and a Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University.

In the past, David has helped to develop the Colorado Natural Diversity Information Source (NDIS), an online source of information on wildlife, habitat, natural communities and plants in Colorado. He also has written and lectured extensively on landscape change in the West, including contributions to the Atlas of the New West, Forest Fragmentation in the Central Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Futures, and the Forests on the Edge project.

David's current research includes developing ways to measure landscape connectivity as part of the Linking Colorado's Landscapes project, how land use changes in watersheds effect freshwater ecosystems (for EPA), and the dynamics of the wildland urban interface.