Posted 02/29/2000
Contact: Andrew Svec, 218-281-8380
Svedarsky Receives the Wildlife Society’s Minnesota Award
Dan Svedarsky, Natural Resources Professor at the University of Minnesota, Crookston recently received the prestigious Minnesota Award of the Minnesota Chapter of The Wildlife Society at their annual meeting in St. Cloud. The Wildlife Society is the organization of wildlife researchers, managers, and professors and the award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the profession of wildlife management in Minnesota.”
In announcing the award, Bill Berg, of the Chapter’s Awards Committee noted, “Few natural resource professionals in Minnesota have done so much for both the resource and the profession. Equally as important, few have been so considerate of students and peers. ‘Dr. Dan’ is very deserving of our Chapter’s 1999 Minnesota Award.”
Svedarsky received his BS (1967) and MS (1969) degrees at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and his PhD at the University of North Dakota in 1979. Since 1969, he has held the following positions at the University of Minnesota – Crookston (UMC): Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and since 1991, Professor. He presently is Distinguished Teaching Professor at UMC, in addition to being Program Leader for Natural Resources in the Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. He is also a Wildlife Research Biologist for the Northwest Research and Outreach Center at the University, and an Adjunct Professor at both the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks, and North Dakota State University at Fargo.
“Dan’s involvement in The Wildlife Society (TWS) is extensive and impressive,” according to Berg. At the national level, Dan is currently the North Central Section Representative to Council, and in 1995, served on the Technical Session Committee for the 61st North American Wildlife Conference. At the Section level, he was President of the North Central Section in 1991, served as its Secretary in 1983, and has either chaired or served on numerous committees. In the Minnesota Chapter, he is a former chair of both the Awards Committee and the Nominations and Elections Committee. Dan has always been a very active member of the Minnesota Chapter, and often brings his UMC students to assist at various Wildlife Society functions. Dan’s students have twice been recipients of the Chapter’s Student Conservationist Award. “Dan is perhaps more active in the Minnesota Chapter than any other academic faculty member in the state,” said Berg. “His most recent notable endeavor involving our Chapter is his serving as the Chair (and instigator) of the highly successful Dr. William H. Marshall Scholarship Development Fund which established an $ 12,000 endowment at the University’s Itasca Biological Station to support summer session scholarships.” Dan also belongs to the North Dakota Chapter of TWS.
Dan is active in other conservation groups, such as, The North American Wildlife Technology Association, The Society for Ecological Restoration, Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society, North Dakota Natural Science Society, and the North American Prairie Grouse Technical Council. For most of these groups, Dan has either served as president, chairman, newsletter editor, or board member.
Dan’s accomplishments have led to numerous honors and awards. Among them are: 1) University Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1999, 2) Horace T. Morse – University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education in 1997, 3) Minnesota Chapter of The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Award in 1997, and 4) UMC’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1995. And there are several more awards, dating back to 1971.
But Svedarsky is perhaps best known for his outstanding work on prairie chickens and prairie restoration that spans three decades. He played a key role in the formation of the Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society in 1973, and he has been a champion of preservation of the prairie and prairie chickens since then. He has guided the raising of hundreds of thousands of dollars for prairie management and acquisition. During the course of this effort, he found the time to publish more than 20 articles, 3 symposium proceedings, and present more than 45 papers on the subjects of prairie chickens, prairies, gravel pit reclamation for wildlife, and fire ecology. And in between these activities, Svedarsky helped organize several workshops, symposia, and field trips on subjects like fire, wetlands, gravel pit restoration, and wild rice/wildlife relationships. Many of these activities have been co-sponsored by the Minnesota Chapter of TWS.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Bill
Berg, Wildlife Research
Biologist
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
1201 E Highway 2
Grand
Rapids, MN
55744
218-327-4432