Human-Wildlife Conflicts Topic for May 10-12 Symposium at USU

Can people and wild animals peacefully coexist? It’s a question that becomes increasingly difficult as humans develop wilderness areas and people and beasts experience more frequent and troubling encounters. Resolving human-wildlife conflicts is the objective of the Jack H. Berryman Institute, based at Utah State University (Berryman Institute-West) and Mississippi State University (Berryman Institute-East).

 

The national organization, made up of researchers, educators and extension specialists from throughout the United States, holds its biennial symposium May 10-12 on the USU campus. All are invited to attend the symposium’s lectures at no charge. The gathering opens with an evening social on Monday and continues with lectures and other activities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Keynote speaker for the symposium is disease ecologist Paul Cross of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Bozeman, Mont. Cross, who speaks at 8:50 a.m. in Room 105 of the Natural Resources building, presents “Managing Wildlife for Reducing the Spread of Contagious Diseases.”

 

Other symposium topics include evaluation of roadside fencing to deter deer-vehicle collisions on highways, urban bear ecology and conflicts with humans, bird damage to crops and outreach programs to manage feral swine populations.

 

The symposium includes optional meals and a field trip, which require reservations and for which there are fees. For information, contact Dustin Ranglack, dhranglack@gmail.com by noon, Friday, May 7.

 

For a full symposium schedule, visit the symposium’s website.

 

Berryman Institute-West is housed in USU’s Department of Wildland Resources in the College of Natural Resources. WILD department head Johan du Toit serves as co-director of the national organization.

 

 

Contact: Lana Barr, 435-797-0242, lana.barr@usu.edu