Staff News

June 29th, 2009 - Ecologist joins NOROCK science team.

NOROCK welcomes a new scientist and science discipline to our research arena. Jackson Gross joins the NOROCK biological science team to assist in management and eradication of aquatic invasive species (AIS). Gross is an ecologist with expertise in ecotoxicology whose research emphasis will include developing new technologies to impact reproduction and development in aquatic invasive and nuisance species impacting native salmonid habitats in the Northern Rocky Mountains using physical, biological, and chemical approaches.

The new position with the Center is a result of a collaborative proposal between NOROCK and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Bozeman Fish Technology Center. NOROCK aquatic biologist Bob Gresswell and FWS reproductive physiologist and ecologist Molly Webb worked together on a joint proposal aimed at securing a shared position between the two agencies that assists in current AIS research. The proposal was funded by numerous agencies including USGS-FWS Science Support Partnership (SSP) funds, National Park Service, National Wildlife Federation, the state of Montana and the Wyoming Chapter of Trout Unlimited. The result is a unique and collaborative split position between the two agencies which will assist in current efforts to control and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive and nuisance species within the Northern Rocky Mountains which is considered a stronghold for threatened salmonid species whose populations have dramatically declined over the past 100 years due to habitat loss and introduction and invasion of nonnative salmonids such as lake trout and rainbow trout.

Gross’s background includes a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a M.S. in Public Health with Environmental Health/Toxicology Emphasis, from San Diego State University. Jackson’s background has been focused on examining the effects of environmental stressors such as pollutants and pathogens on reproduction and development in fish and wildlife. While he joins NOROCK to control non-native fish species, his research experience includes birds, mammals and invertebrates and has specific expertise working with amphibians and amphibian deformity issues. Prior to joining NOROCK Jackson was part of the research staff with the Montana State University Department of Ecology where he will continue to serve as affiliate faculty. His research program currently incorporates undergraduate research opportunities with the department of Ecology and the American Indian Research Opportunities (AIRO) program on the Montana State University campus.

April 22nd, 2009 - New addition!

NOROCK researcher Geneva Chong and her husband welcome their new son Bard Khuan-Wei Barnett, born 10:23 am on Thursday, April 16. We wish Geneva and family well!

July 17th, 2008 - NOROCK scientists receive honors.

Four NOROCK scientists received honors for excellence in research and development within their individual disciplines. NOROCK congratulates these award recipients and their individual research teams for contributing to the Center mission by continuously producing and disseminating the sound, scientific information needed to manage and restore the ecosystems and associated plant and animal communities of the Northern Rockies.

Technical writing

NOROCK wildlife biologist Rick Sojda received an award for the best decision support paper (2007) from the journal, Environmental Modelling and Software. As described by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, the aim of the awards is to recognize those authors whose papers epitomize the aims and scope of the journal. Sojda’s paper, Empirical evaluation of decision support systems: Needs, definitions, potential methods, and an example pertaining to waterfowl management, met these criteria and the selection committee stated, “empirical evaluation methods are discussed and informed by an example of evaluation of a decision support system for trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) management, developed using interacting intelligent agents, expert systems and a queuing system.”

The certificate of award was presented at the 2008 Congress of the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society in Barcelona, Catalunya (Spain). Sojda's paper was joined by two other papers and authors from around the world who were recognized in the categories of integrated modelling, and generic modelling and software.

Sojda is based out of the NOROCK headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. His expertise is in the following disciplines: wetland and waterfowl ecology and interdisciplinary wetland studies; radar ornithology; artificial intelligence, and computer technology, decision support, and ecological modeling; and effects of wind power on birds. His current projects include migratory bird studies and modeling efforts in the areas of wetlands, migratory bird routes, and wildlife and wind energy. 

Bear research

USGS wildlife biologists Mark Haroldson, Katherine Kendall, and Chuck Schwartz were awarded the Scientific Leadership Award by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) for their individual contributions to the study and conservation of bears in both the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems.

IGBC is part of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST), an interdisciplinary group of scientists and biologists responsible for long-term monitoring and research efforts on grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The team is composed of representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Montana State University, and the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. In 2008 the IGBC celebrated 25 years of grizzly bear recovery and Haroldson, Kendall, and Schwartz were presented with the award at an IGBC ceremony at the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area.

Mark Haroldson works with IGBST and is based out of Bozeman, MT. His expertise is in grizzly and black bear studies and includes trapping and handling techniques, ecology and demographics, survival analysis, and movement and home ranges analysis. Haroldson’s current work focuses on grizzly bear population trend monitoring in the GYE and includes differentiation of sightings of females with cubs of the year into unique families, estimation of vital rates (survival and fecundity) using radiomarked bears, and distribution and trends in grizzly bear mortalities.

Katherine Kendall is the lead scientist for the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project, based out of NOROCK’s West Glacier, Montana field station. Kendall’s expertise surrounds grizzly and black bear research and includes non-invasive sampling, using DNA to monitor bear populations, grizzly bear and black bear ecology, and limber pine and whitebark pine communities. Kendall’s most recent work includes using non invasive methods to collect hair samples from bears in order to estimate bear populations within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

Chuck Schwartz is the team leader of IGBST and is based out of Bozeman. Schwartz’s expertise is in brown and black bear ecology and management and includes the following: predator-prey dynamics; population biology; ungulate reproduction, nutrition, and physiology; conservation of threatened and endangered wildlife; and Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-telemetry. His current projects include Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population monitoring, grizzly bear habitat use and resource selection, grizzly bear use of Yellowstone cutthroat trout, use of stable isotopes and mercury to determine diet composition of bears, and impact of humans on grizzly bear survival in GYE.