Yellowstone Wildlife Expert Honored for Natural Resource Stewardship

Yellowstone Wildlife Expert Honored for Natural Resource Stewardship
Date: April 1, 2011
Contact: Al Nash , (307) 344-2015
Contact: Dan Hottle , (307) 344-2015

Yellowstone's Chief of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources has received one of the National Park Service's highest awards for natural resource stewardship for his on-going work involving adaptive management of the park's bison population. Patrick (PJ) White was presented with the 2010 Director's Award for Natural Resource Management this month at the prestigious George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas and Cultural Sites held in New Orleans, Louisiana, earlier this month. He was among six other regional park service professionals nominated by the NPS' Intermountain Region in Denver, Colorado, for their contributions toward resource conservation and management. Through his objective scientific findings, relationship building skills and ability to make wildlife science understandable to the layman, White was instrumental in developing an adaptive management plan that significantly increased tolerance for Yellowstone bison migrating to essential winter ranges in Montana. He also led the park's development of an Environmental Impact Statement on remote vaccination of bison – without capture – for the disease brucellosis, and continues to provide critical assessment of the park's overall ecology management strategy, according to the award citation. Prior to his arrival in Yellowstone in 2002, White held positions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He holds a B.S. in Wildlife Science from Cornell University, a M.S. in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin.