The Wildlife Society Celebrates 88th Birthday

Eighty-eight years after wildlife biologists at the North American Wildlife Conference in St. Louis decided to form a new organization to support their growing field, The Wildlife Society has surpassed the founders’ wildest hopes for what the organization could be.

Since 1937, TWS has grown to include more than 11,000 members in wildlife science, conservation and leadership across North America and beyond. Though the Society’s mission—to empower wildlife professionals to advance conservation through science, community and professional excellence—has remained constant, the organization has changed, too.

The Wildlife Society launched The Journal of Wildlife Management (JWM), one of the Society’s first programs and its flagship and longest-running publication, in the founding year. “It was the first of its kind that was very specific to this emerging discipline of wildlife management,” said TWS CEO Ed Arnett.

The success of JWM carried momentum, and the Society launched Wildlife Monographs in 1958, followed by the Wildlife Society Bulletin in 1973. In 2007, TWS began publishing its member magazine, The Wildlife Professional. “I’ve been a member for about 40 years now, and in that time, I’ve seen how the Society has evolved to bring our members and colleagues together—from a professional society to so much more than that,” Arnett said.

The Wildlife Biologist Certification Program has also been one of the Society’s signature offerings since its launch in 1977. TWS’ membership currently consists of more than 400 Associate Wildlife Biologists®, 1,900 Certified Wildlife Biologists® and 32 Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists. Now, members and nonmembers alike can search for a certified wildlife biologist via TWS’s Certification Directory.

“We’re more than just a scientific Society,” Arnett said. “We publish science but also advocate for strong policy, have a certification program and train new leaders.” With the addition of web articles and TWS’ social media presence—which has boomed in the last year—Arnett said that TWS has continued to grow to tell the stories of the wildlife profession to its members and to the public. “We’re not only sharing science, but we’re telling people what it’s like to be a scientist, what certain agencies do and why wildlife scientists, managers and wildlife itself are all so important.”

TWS’ member-driven efforts have also become more diverse in recent years, including the Latin American and Caribbean Working Group and the Mexico Chapter of TWS, which will both expand the Society’s cross-border wildlife management. In total, the Society now includes 56 chapters, 155 student chapters, 30 working groups and two communities.

Women of Wildlife (WOW) was TWS’ first community founded in 2011. WOW has led workshops, symposia, webinars, panel discussions and other events to support the participation of women in the wildlife profession. Past TWS President and Aldo Leopold Memorial Award Winner Carol Chambers said she’s proud to see the participation of women—and all genders—in TWS, and that she hopes that the Society continues to be an inclusive and diverse organization that represents all wildlife biologists. “Having all voices participating provides better collaborations and better science,” Chambers said. “We’re in a time when we need the best science we can generate to deal with climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and other factors affecting wildlife.”

From the beginning, TWS members and leadership have recognized the importance of wildlife policies grounded in science and informed by the expertise of wildlife professionals. Recent efforts have strengthened the Society’s work in policy. “In the past decade, we’ve seen growth in collaborative policy engagement across TWS thanks to initiatives like the Conservation Affairs Network,” said Kelly O’Connor, TWS’s Conservation Policy Manager. “It’s more important than ever that TWS supports our members’ efforts to bring their crucial perspectives into the policy process.”

Mariah Beyers, Director of Member Engagement—who first joined TWS as a member in 2011—thanked TWS membership in a recent letter. “The strength of TWS isn’t just in the research we support or the policies we help shape,” she wrote. “It’s in the people who make up this community—mentors and mentees, colleagues and friends—bound together by a shared commitment to wildlife and to each other. That’s what makes this Society extraordinary, and I’m proud to be a part of the TWS family.”