Fall Semester WILD Alumni and Friends Newsletter 2020

Greetings and welcome to the first WILD Alumni and Friends newsletter! WILD Alumni and Friends is a growing group of people who are graduates of, or otherwise close affiliates with, the Department of Wildland Resources (WILD) at Utah State University.  The group has the following goals:

• To provide a mentoring resource for current WILD students (graduate and undergraduate). Students will be encouraged to contact WILD Alumni and Friends to ask about career advice, job application tips, graduate school and continuing education tips, and which skills are important in today’s market.  
• To provide a networking resource for alumni and current students. A newsletter published twice per year will update the list and provide highlights about various alumni.  We welcome your stories and photos!
• To provide a loose advisory network for WILD. As a new Department Head, I will be soliciting your opinions about emerging trends and skills required in the job market in order to keep our degree programs current.

Direct contact with WILD Alumni and Friends members will be mediated by the WILD Department so that member contact information (emails, phones, addresses) does not become public. See the list of current members, along with their WILD degrees and current positions. We currently have over 80 members, so have a look to see who you can catch up with!  If you want to invite someone else to join the group, please direct them to the alumni and friends page.

If you want to update or correct your information, please do so on the alumni and friends page, or feel free to contact Allison Cochley in the WILD Department.

This very first newsletter will feature two WILD Alumni and Friends members at different stages in their careers; one in wildlife law enforcement and one in forestry.

Bill Woody’s career will be inspirational to those Wildlife Ecology and Management students who have an interest in law enforcement.  Bill started his natural resources trajectory back in 1978, when he worked as a seasonal Forestry and Range Technician for the USFS Wasatch-Cache National Forest in the Uinta Mountains.  He earned his BS degree in Outdoor Recreation from the USU College of Natural Resources in 1981.  Bill initially followed a law enforcement career pathway, earning another BS in Criminal Justice from Weber State University, graduating from the Utah State and Phoenix Regional Law Enforcement Academies, and serving as a Deputy Sheriff in Rich County.  But that pull back to natural resources led him to be an investigator and game warden and investigator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources for 14 years, during which he also graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy. 

Bill went on to be the Director of Law Enforcement for the Utah Department of Natural Resources for two years, and then became the Chief of Law Enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service for 6 years. From there Bill became the Director of Law Enforcement for the US Bureau of Land Management for 8 years, then the Chief of Law Enforcement for the US Fish & Wildlife Service for 6 years, and returned to his position with the BLM for two years before becoming a wildlife law enforcement consultant in 2020.  Over his career, Bill has made impressive contributions to combating wildlife trafficking around the globe, while helping to make improvements in a variety of national policies and law enforcement training programs. 

Bill’s advice to students: “Educate yourselves on all the opportunities available out there now, including state, federal, NGOs (both in the U.S. and internationally), Indigenous agencies, and private industry. Diversify your curriculum vitae as much as possible and start while at the University (seasonal and volunteer work). You need to look at a variety of opportunities to help get you started…don’t limit yourself. Email me (wcwoody@comcast.net) and I’ll give you some ideas to consider looking at.”