Oregon Wildlife Institute - Conserving wildlife through research, planning, and education

Our staff is made up of three core people each with over twenty years of experience in wildlife research and management.  We hold Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in wildlife ecology and natural resource management with extensive backgrounds in statistical analysis, study design and execution, and management planning.

We have expertise in the following areas:

• Conservation Planning: We conduct species assessments, create and review management plans, and perform peer reviews of management documents;
• Monitoring: We design monitoring approaches that incorporate adaptive management.  We evaluate protocols and methods for their strength of inference and ability to meet stated goals.
• Population Ecology: We perform demographic and abundance/occupancy estimation using state-of-the-art methodology.  We also model population dynamics.
• Landscape Ecology: We explore habitat associations, connectivity among habitats, and movement potential.
• Ecotoxicology: Our in-house expertise allows us to identify potential ecotoxicological issues and perform risk assessments.

Dave Vesely, M.S., Executive Co-Director

Dave has a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota,a B.F.A. in Illustration from Oregon State University, and a M.S. in Forest Science also from OSU. Dave has been a wildlife ecologist for more than 20 years, specializing in the assessment of the effects of  human land use on wildlife populations and their habitats. His interests include restoration planning for wildlife, natural resource inventory and monitoring designs, and modeling approaches to understand land management effects on wildlife habitats. He has conducted research on threatened/endangered species and wildlife communities of the Oregon Coast Range, Oregon Cascades, and the Willamette Valley.

 Daniel Rosenberg, M.S., Ph.D.  Executive Co-Director

Dan received his dual bachelor’s degree in Biology and Wildlife Science from Virginia Tech, and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from Oregon State University.  His areas of expertise include population ecology, landscape ecology, and principles of monitoring.  Dan has worked on a wide range of wildlife species, including birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates.  He has published peer-reviewed research in journals including BioScience, Ecology, Ecological Applications, Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, Canadian Journal of Zoology, and Journal of Wildlife Management.   Dan is a Courtesy Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.  His personal interests include hiking, backpacking, kayaking, fishing, photography, and spending time with friends and family.

Jennifer Gervais, M.S., Ph.D.

Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Bowdoin College, her Master’s degree in Wildlife Resources from Humboldt State University, and her Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from Oregon State University.  Her areas of expertise include population ecology and ecotoxicology.  She has worked on a wide range of wildlife species, including birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial molluscs.  She has published peer-reviewed research in journals including Ecological Applications, Journal of Wildlife Management, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and Oikos among others.  She serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Wildlife Society Bulletin.  Jennifer is a courtesy faculty member of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.  Her personal interests besides wildlife watching and all aspects of natural history include running and hiking with her two Australian shepherds, growing vegetables, spinning and knitting, and creative writing.