University of Montana

Montana’s Wildlife Program

The University of Montana’s Wildlife Biology Program provides students with an extensive background in wildlife ecology, population biology, critical thinking and quantitative skills. Montana’s students become leaders, bringing science to the dynamic management of wildlife and fish populations and their habitat, communities, and ecosystems. Faculty and students use the resources of nearby Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, national forests and federal wildlife refuges. The National Bison Range serves as a teaching laboratory and research facility, and the University’s Biological Station, eighty miles north on Flathead Lake, offers biology courses during the summer and is available for scientific research.

Boone and Crockett Fellow Profile
Mike Clawson

Mike is originally from western Montana and was raised in Seattle, WA. He spent summers in Montana exploring nature and watching wildlife documentaries with his grandfather. Mike received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Eastern Washington University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in wildlife science from the University of Washington. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Montana, focusing on developing and refining models used to monitor harvested wildlife populations. Mike seeks to bridge the gap between ecologists and wildlife managers, using a collaborative process to build capacity within state agencies and give agency personnel the user-friendly tools they need to make informed management decisions. He also works with resource managers to design and implement field studies where gaps in knowledge exist.

Montana’s Boone and Crockett Professorship Program

With the hiring of Dr. Joshua Millspaugh in fall 2016, Montana’s Boone and Crockett program is preparing for the next chapter in its history. Dr. Millspaugh came to Montana from the University of Missouri, where he served on the faculty for nearly 17 years. While at Missouri, much of his research focused on harvested wildlife populations, with an emphasis on large mammals such as bison, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and pronghorn. His goal is to build a robust and high caliber research and teaching program at the University of Montana that is centered around pressing conservation issues that directly impact policy and management decisions. Preparing future conservation leaders is critical to the future of our conservation legacy in North America. For this reason, he will continue providing science-based instruction to college students to prepare them to sustainably manage wildlife and natural resources in the future. Pursuing research and teaching with these aims will help assure wise stewardship, application of the best available science, and informed policy decisions.

Montana’s Boone and Crockett Conservation Program

A central component of Montana’s Boone and Crockett program has been a focus on integrating wildlife conservation and land management. Many contemporary issues in wildlife conservation, such as migration corridors, habitat decisions, energy development, and wildlife disease problems, are related to land management strategies and policies. Current projects include determining habitat requirements and performance of elk reintroduced in Missouri; assessing possible impacts of oil and gas development on mule deer populations in North Dakota; modeling effects of chronic wasting disease on white-tailed deer populations; and evaluating white-tailed deer survival, movements, and habitat needs in Missouri. New efforts to integrate wildlife conservation and land management will be centered around the Boone and Crockett Club’s Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch and the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center, near Dupuyer, Montana. The 6,000-acre working cattle ranch and the Center provide a perfect landscape to conduct research and education programming about the integration of ranching with wildlife conservation.

Policy Impact

Josh Millspaugh and B&C Fellow Jonathan Karlen are working on a project to catalog hunting license policies in each state that may act as a barrier for college students who want to hunt. In Montana, they are working to address the high price of a college student hunting license during an upcoming legislative session.