Western Students Success! 2023 Colorado Chapter of the Wildlife Society
20 students/staff/alumni attended the 2023 Colorado Chapter of the Wildlife Society meeting in Grand Junction. The meeting was a combined conference with the Central Mountains and Plains Section and the Utah Chapter of the Wildlife Society.
The meeting was a combined conference with the Central Mountains and Plains Section and the Utah Chapter of the Wildlife Society. We had five undergraduates from Biology, 8 MSE graduate students, and 5 MEM graduate students. Alyssa Rawinski was recognized as the Outstanding Wildlife Student in Colorado (the Allen Anderson Award) – special thanks to Phil for writing a letter of support. Lauren Hirsch earned the Jim Olterman Scholarship, a $1500 value plus the amazing honor of being part of Jim’s legacy. Brandon Skerbetz was awarded the Outstanding Student Paper (in heavy competition) for his talk on his MS thesis work on Mexican Spotted Owls. Mia Macneill won the best student Ignite Presentation for her MEM work using game cameras to assess ungulate use in the Powderhorn Wilderness. Corinne Ryan co-organized a Safety in the Field Workshop that was hosted by the CCTWS IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Awareness) Committee and I organized a Women in Wildlife Conservation session also hosted by CCTWS IDEA. Amanda Aulenbach was one of our speakers. Also, I invited Tina Butterfield (painter and Western Art professor) and Quincy Knight (poet) to share their Woman of the Land project – they highlight many local women including an MEM grad Gabby Zaldumbide and Dr. Jessica Young. In addition to Brandon and Mia, Amanda Aulenbach (modeling beaver use in Taylor Park), Corinne Ryan (foraging habitat of bats), Melissa Jernakoff (assessing snowshoe hare habitat suitability), and Madelon (the real and more complicated story of ungulate migrations) gave presentations. Te’a Saylor, our Student Chapter of TWS president, gave a chapter update at the business meeting and Erik Rathmann volunteered at the conference – the students were great ambassadors for Western. The students also engaged in the student professional networking reception and breakfast and several students attended specialized workshops. I apologize to the students for any of the great things I left out. As you can imagine, the conference was steeped in Western Colorado University and Western did really well!
I wanted to acknowledge the support and work that made this conference possible for our students. I appreciate all the work Amanda Aulenbach did to coordinate travel plans and drive the van—the ride home was a bit harrying in the whiteout snowstorm. Thanks to Madelon for finding MEM funds to cover the van. Other funding is coming from a variety of sources including NES travel, the Thornton Biology Undergraduate Research Program, MEM, MSE, and EMPLOYS. Paige Rumery kindly covered my BIOL 151 lab. AA kindly loaned us the easel collection for the poster session at the conference. I am super grateful for the pooling of resources across programs to make this opportunity possible. Thank you so much to all of you for your support and to all the students for being wonderful ambassadors for Western.
I also wanted to acknowledge the efforts of Derek Houston for taking a large group of students to Fort Collins the week before to the Colorado Chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting. Great stuff! Our students are getting out there and making great connections.
— Pat Magee, Associate Professor of Wildlife and Conservation Biology
