Dr. William F. Porter
Boone and Crockett Chair of Wildlife Conservation
Dr. William Porter is the first Boone and Crockett Chair of Wildlife
Conservation in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State
University. The Boone and Crockett Club is the oldest
conservation organization in North America, and is dedicated to the
conservation of all wildlife and the promotion of the highest standards of
hunting.
His research explores population dynamics and the behavior of wildlife
in relation to habitat, emphasizing the application of ecological knowledge to
management and conservation policy. Most
of the work he and his students do focuses on larger vertebrates, including moose,
wild turkeys, elk and white-tailed deer, but recent studies examine songbird
communities. Current studies emphasize the
fundamental forces now reshaping wildlife conservation: climate change, land-use change due to energy
development and urban sprawl, disease eruptions in wildlife and societal
interest in the stewardship of wildlife populations.
His teaching includes courses at the undergraduate and graduate level
in wildlife management and policy.
Current courses explore the issue of wolf restoration in US National
Parks and the northern Great Lakes region, and sustainability of the Northern
Forest from Minnesota to Maine.
Dr. Porter leads the Quantitative Wildlife Laboratory at
Michigan State University. This group of
graduate students and postdoctoral research associates is dedicated to bringing
cutting edge analytical tools to understanding wildlife ecology and informing
decisions about wildlife management.
Dr. Porter comes to Michigan State University after a long career at the
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse where he was Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Director of
the Adirondack Ecological
Center.
Quantitative Wildlife Laboratory
Research
and Graduate Students
E-mail: porterw@msu.edu
Telephone: 517-432-0874
10C
Natural Resources Building
Department
of Fisheries and Wildlife
Michigan
State University
East
Lansing, MI 48824