Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

The Intermountain West is undergoing dynamic demographic changes accompanied by changing land uses, and increasingly diverse and often conflicting demands on limited natural resources. As a result, finding solutions to complex natural resource problems has necessitated an increasingly inter-disciplinary approach. A Cooperative Agreement signed between the US Department of Interior and Utah State University in 1935 established the existence, mission, and function of the Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. It provides an organizational mechanism that enables the Unit, in the setting of the Quinney College of Natural Resources, to create and facilitate cooperative, interdisciplinary relationships between Faculty in all departments of the College and across Utah State University, with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the Wildlife Management Institute, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Further, the Research Work Order Process, unique to the Cooperative Research Unit Program, allows cooperative interaction between faculty at Utah State University and any federal agency. Specifically, it is the mechanism that allows acceptance of federal research funds non-competitively.

The mission of the Utah Unit, as stated in our Cooperative Agreement, is to conduct research on natural resource issues, educate students destined to work in the field of natural resources, and provide technical assistance to our cooperators and clientele. Our expertise includes landscape and spatial ecology, population and system analysis for both aquatic and terrestrial systems, aquatic food webs of large water systems, and wildlife habitat and vegetation modelling. Technical expertise in the fields of statistics, GIS and spatial analysis is strong.

We view our role as colleagues and partners who can bring our agency connections, as well as the administrative and material resources of the Unit to help our faculty colleagues in a meaningful way. The Unit vision is to accomplish our mission to the best of our abilities. We do this by establishing a Unit program whose culture and operating principles are based on win-win interactions that enable, invigorate, and empower all parties. We accomplish our vision with partners who are as committed to the same values.