Announcements
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We would like to thank everyone who participated in our Virtual UT TWS Meeting this year. We feel it was a great success, in light of COVID-19 limitations. We hope that next year we will be able to meet face to face!
We would also like to congratulate and recognize the award winners this year and our newly elected board members.
Presentation Winners
Poster: Cal DeBerard
Student Talk: Kristin Engebretsen
Professional Talk: Simona Picardi
UT TWS Logo Winner
Matt Webster
Scholarships (We had a tie for second place):
1st Place: Megan Kepas
2nd Place: Natahan Floyd
2nd Place: Veronica Winter
Election Results
President Elect: Makeda Hanson
Odd-year Board Member: Tal Avgar
Thank you to everyone that attended the 2019 UT Chapter of The Wildlife Society Meeting March 20-22, 2019 in Springdale, UT
Congratulations to our 2019 award winners.
Award of Excellence: Dr. Terry Messmer
Award of Merit: Covy Jones, Mary Pendergast, Kendall Bagley
Certificate of Appreciation: Cooper Farr
Congratulations to the winners for the 2019 paper and poster winners.
Best Professional Paper was awarded to Janice Gardner for Rapid stream-riparian assessment: An effective method for monitoring and assessing stream health
Best Student Paper was awarded to Ethan Hammer for Remote camera surveys to inventory and monitor wildlife in Cedar Breaks National Monument
Best Poster was Sydney Lamb (1st) for Bambi, how fat is your mother
Heather Shipp (Tie 2nd) for Monitoring rare plant species and habitat use by ungulates in the Tushar Mountains, Utah
Danielle Finlayson (Tie 2nd) for An inventory and assessment of natural springs in Utah’s Great Basin: Factors associated with wildlife diversity
Congratulations to our 2019 student scholarship winners!!!!
Sydney Lamb from BYU ($2,000) for her work on Maternal effects on fawn survival in Northern Utah
Emma Doden from USU ($1,500) for her work on Comparing resident and translocated beaver ecology at stream restoration sites
Hailey Wayment from USU ($1,000) for her work on Greater sage-grouse responses to livestock grazing in semi-arid sagebrush rangelands
August 2018
Utah Chapter of TWS Post
Pendergast, Mary
CITIZEN SCIENCE:
The involvement of citizens in the research community and the participation in filling data gaps has become increasingly important to the progression of conservation science. Citizen science helps increase the spatial and temporal scales at which data can be gathered and provides scientists the opportunity to gather information that would otherwise be impossible to collect at the same magnitude given limited time and resources. Academic, nonprofit, and agency scientists recognize the important contributions of citizen science in Utah. Below are just a few examples of programs in which you can participate. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page Utah Citizen Science for timely updates on events and programs.
Hawk Watch International
Natural History Museum of Utah
State of Utah
Tracy Aviary
Wild Utah Project
Greetings fellow wildlifers!
Do you get questions about birds that you don’t have the answers for? Do you have a grandma who loves watching birds? Are you interested in learning more about birds?
There are two groups of birding organizations in the state, both aimed at bringing people together who are interested in learning more about birds and going out and seeing them – those that are Audubon Society affiliates and the more casual birding clubs.
The Audubon Society is a 100+ year-old non-profit organization that was named after John James Audubon, an ornithologist, naturalist and artist who made it his life work to catalog and paint bird species across America. The Audubon Society’s purpose is to conserve birds and provide opportunities for bird watching and conservation-related activities. In Utah we have the Bridgerland Audubon Society in Logan, Wasatch in Ogden, Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, and Red Cliffs in St. George. Each chapter offers monthly field trips (often for a nominal fee which goes to help fund conservation efforts), monthly meetings, activities, and newsletters. Links to those organizations can be found here:
http://www.greatsaltlakeaudubon.org/
http://www.wasatchaudubon.org/
http://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
http://www.redcliffsaudubon.org/
Both the Great Salt Lake Audubon and the Red Cliffs Audubon host annual birding festivals with workshops, field trips, and family-friendly bird activities.
The largest non-Audubon-affiliated club is the Utah County Birders, but I believe both Moab and Vernal have small clubs as well. The Utah County Birders generally have 1-2 field trips per month and a monthly meeting with invited speakers and they also maintain one of the two state websites/listservs where all manner of bird-related information and photographs taken by local enthusiasts can be found. Both Utah listserv hotlines can be found here:
http://www.utahbirds.org/connections/E-hotlines.htm
http://www.utahbirders.com/ubird
As we say in the birding world… happy birding!
©Keeli Marvel
©Keeli Marvel
Do you know someone who deserves recognition for their accomplishments? Nominations are now being accepted for the following awards: Award of Excellence, Award of Merit, Conservation Achievement Award and Certificate of Appreciation. Click here for more details.
We invite submissions of contributed papers and posters on topics of wildlife science, management, ecology, conservation, education, or policy for the annual meeting of The Utah Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Start thinking about any papers or posters you may want to submit! Email all submissions to dave.dahlgren@usu.edu.
Treasurer’s Reports
January 2018
In 2017, we held our annual chapter meeting at Ruby’s Inn near Bryce Canyon. We had 154 members attend this meeting, down slightly (8%) from 168 attending the 2016 meeting in St. George. We had terrific participation in the raffles and silent auction and were able to award $4,500 in scholarships to 3 graduate students conducting wildlife research in Utah. We are in great financial shape heading into the 2018 annual meeting being held in Vernal. The Utah TWS Chapter is grateful for the interest and participation of its members, and we are committed to providing avenues to present wildlife-related research and fund student projects. Thanks to everyone for continuing to support the Utah Chapter of The Wildlife Society.