- Posted 12/06/2000
Contact: Andrew Svec, 218-281-8435
UMC’s Wildlife Management Program Evaluated by National Expert
UMC’s Natural Resources Department recently hosted James E. Miller, National Program Leader for Fish and Wildlife with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Miller visited the Crookston campus November 29 - December 1 to evaluate UMC’s new wildlife management degree program.
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From left: UMC Chancellor Don Sargeant, James Miller, National Program Leader for Fish and Wildlife with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and John Loegering, UMC Assistant Professor of Natural Resources, recently hired to serve as a faculty member for the wildlife management program |
Miller is an expert on wildlife programs as they relate to state and federal agencies and to educational curricula at colleges and universities throughout North America. In the last 15 years he has led 40 evaluation teams that have reviewed fisheries and wildlife programs and have made recommendations for improvement. The USDA provides this review activity as a service to land grant institutions.
During his three-day visit Miller discussed the curriculum with faculty and staff in UMC's Natural Resources Department, toured the campus, and met with students in the degree program. He also visited area Department of Natural Resources (DNR) managers and local study and management sites including the Red River Valley Natural History Area, Nature Conservancy and DNR prairie areas, Rydell National Wildlife Refuge, Huot School Forest, and the Tilden Farms Project, an extensive prairie restoration area near Crookston.
Commenting on UMC’s program, Miller stated, "The facilities at UMC are excellent and are actually better than some much larger land grant universities. Another impressive aspect of the program [is] the hands-on orientation of instruction and the opportunities for students to do field work. Students need this practical experience. They will be valuable employees of agencies."
Miller was also complimentary of the relationship between the Natural Resources Department and UMC’s other agriculture programs. "I was very impressed with the integration of the wildlife management program with agriculturally-related courses,” he said. “This is an important connection at a time when students more than ever need fundamental courses that are connected to the land and its management."
Initiated this fall, the wildlife management program at UMC is the newest of five degree tracks offered within the Natural Resources Department. The others are natural resource management, natural resource law enforcement (a partnership with Bemidji State University), park management, and soil and water technology. Currently eight students have declared wildlife management as their major.
According to Dan Svedarsky, Professor of Natural Resources at UMC, “We are fortunate to have the opportunity for someone of this caliber from Washington, D.C., evaluate our youthful wildlife management program and to be able to benefit from his vast experience in observing what works, what doesn’t, and what distinguishes exemplary programs.” Svedarsky stated that the goal of the Natural Resources Department at UMC, with a particular focus on the wildlife management program, is to not simply offer an adequate program but instead one that is nationally competitive.
After 34 years of distinguished government service, Miller will soon be retiring as National Program Leader of Fish and Wildlife with the USDA. In his present capacity he has played a coordinating role with state extension specialists in fisheries and wildlife at land grant universities, has directed national programs in 4-H as they relate to conservation, has provided information to Congress on funding needs and policy direction for federal conservation programs, and has actively taken part at the national and international levels in The Wildlife Society, most recently as past president.
For more information about UMC’s degree programs in natural resources, contact Dan Svedarsky at 218-281-8129, or visit the department’s website at www.umcrookston.edu/academics/NatR/.