Outreach:
 Engagement
of stakeholders provides one of the greatest opportunities for
making enduring contributions to fish and wildlife conservation.
Dr. Riley’s
current outreach efforts focus on improving capacity of resource
agencies to make effective decisions, professional development for
agency personnel, program evaluation, and techniques to integrate
human and environmental dimensions of management.
New New New
Click on the title above to access an on-line bibliography of literature on hunters, hunter recruitment and retention, and other issues related to hunters.
Selected Recent Professional Service and Outreach Activities of Dr. Riley:
 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference. Dr. Riley is a presenter in a workshop titled: Making Human Dimensions Research a Part of Your Research Agenda, December 2008.
British Columbia Ministry of the Environment Wildlife and Ecosystems Branches. Dr. Riley presented a speech and workshop on Thinking Like a Manager. Lac Le Juene, BC, October 2008.
National Fish and Wildife Health Initiative. Dr. Riley serves as a member of the technical advisory committee for this Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' health program.
University of Victoria, Bristish Columbia. In January 2008, Dr. Riley served as an instructor in a workshop on Engagement strategies for 21st Century resource decisions. Sponsored by the BC Ministry of the Environment.
The Wildlife Society: Technical review committee on the role of public trust doctrine in North American wildlife management.
Thinking like a manager. Instructor for workshop on integration of human and environmental dimensions of wildlife management to the management team of the Florida Game and Fish Commission. September 2007, Candor, New York; and May 2008, Live Oak, Florida.
Workshop leader on “A Learning Lab for Wildlife Disease Management” at the 2007 International Wildlife Disease Association Conference August 2007, Estes Park, Colorado.
Yellowstone Wildlife Health Program workshop to develop a strategic action plan focused on understanding and addressing wildlife disease and ecosystem health problems in Yellowstone National Park. June 2007, Bozeman, Montana.
Board of Technical Experts, Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Session chair, "Human dimensions of Great Lakes Fishery" for the 2006 International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Conference, May 22-26, 2006, Windsor, Ontario.
Plenary session chair, 2005 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Invited blue ribbon scientific panel: Review of proposed mine and road development on Taku river Tlingit First Nation lands, northwest British Columbia (2004)
Ad-hoc member, Governor’s Task Force on Chronic Wasting Disease in Michigan.
Associate Editor, URSUS: the International Journal of Bear Research and Management
Interdisciplinary review team on evaluation of Wisconsin’s management of chronic wasting disease.
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Current
Outreach Projects
Thinking like a manager: reflections on wildlife management
This project revolves around a book of the same title coauthored by John Organ of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Decker and Bill Siemer of Cornell’s Human Dimensions Research Unit, and Len Carpenter of the Wildlife Management Institute. Practicing wildlife managers are the target audience; especially those who are striving to integrate human and environmental dimensions of management. The Wildlife Management Institute published the book in 2006. We are now conducting workshops on how to apply the principles conveyed in the book.
Outreach Workshop: Decker, D.J., S.J. Riley, W.F. Siemer, and K.L. Leong. 2007-2008. Thinking Like a Manager. Workshop on integration of biological and human dimensions of wildlife management. For Florida Game and Fish Commission Management Team. Candor, New York.
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Adaptive impact management:
Fish and wildlife resources contribute greatly to the quality of life in Michigan and throughout the US. Yet, conventional approaches to management for many species and ecosystems are failing. To better optimize benefits and costs of wildlife-human interactions, a marked paradigm shift in making and implementing policy is needed, as opposed to the gradual evolution underway the last two decades. This project seeks to increase decision-making capacity of stakeholders in fish and wildlife management, especially fish and wildlife agencies, through development and diffusion of theory, models, and methods for integration of biological and human dimensions information.
Expected outputs include:
 Development and diffusion of new paradigms for fish and wildlife management (AIM).
Theory, models, and methodologies for integration of environmental and human dimensions of fish and wildlife management.
New techniques for stakeholder engagement, such as web-based interactive models.
Development, evaluation, and refinement of techniques for group model building in fish and wildlife management.
Expected outcomes include:
Improved capacity of state resource agencies, local governmental entities, and communities to make decisions about management of fish and wildlife resources.
Improved capacity should increase benefits and reduce costs from fish and wildlife resources to Michigan stakeholders while allowing management agencies to achieve public trust obligations.
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Increasing capacity for management of wildlife diseases and invasive species US National Park system
Effective disease management in wildlife populations requires an understanding of disease ecology, but also an understanding of a broader system in which management occurs. Familiar textbook factors of agent, host and environment need to be understood as well as possible, but in real-world management, wildlife disease concerns are steeped in human values, and management of disease occurs in organizations that can be thought of as systems.
A system is an assemblage of inter-related components, which comprise a unified whole. Systems typically consist of components connected together to facilitate the flow of information, matter or energy. The term is often used to describe a set of entities which interact, and for which a model can often be constructed. The ecosystem, in which wildlife disease management occurs, with its environmental and human components including management institutions and processes, can be thought of as a system.
In February 2005, wildlife management and disease specialists working in Colorado participated in a workshop sponsored by the Biological Resource Management Division of the National Park Service (NPS), and facilitated by. Margaret Wild (NPS), Shawn Riley (MSU Fisheries & Wildlife), and Daniel Decker ( Cornell University 's Human Dimensions Research Unit). The group was convened for purposes of developing a concept map and managers' model for Wildlife Disease Management that would be relevant for facilitating communication among disease management experts and between them and natural resource managers in parks and other protected areas. The model was revised during a June 2006 workshop, and the next stage will be beta-testing the model with various experts around the country, and then presented at the 2007 Wildlife Disease Association annual conference in Estes Park, Colorado. A pre-conference instrucitonal workshop on wildlife disease management is planned.
Expected outputs:
Conceptual and simulation models of the wildlife disease management system [LINK - Disease Management Model]
Paper presented to 2005 Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium, and published in special issue of Human Dimensions of Wildlife on disease management. Paper published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife (see publication web page).
Development, evaluation, and refinement of techniques for group model building in wildlife management.
An instructional workshop occurred in summer 2007 on wildife disease management at the Wildife.Disease Association Annual Conference, Estes Park, CO.
A paper on model development was presented at the 2007 Wildlife Disease Association Conference, Estes Park, CO.
Expected outcomes:
Improved capacity for making decisions about management of wildlife diseases and Invasive species in US national parks.
Improved capacity should increase ecological, economic, and esthetic values of national parks.
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Increasing management capacity for Great Lakes fishery
management
This
project, in collaboration with the
Great Lakes Fishery
Commission human dimensions research theme, seeks to
improve fishery management in the Great Lakes through
development of decision-aiding procedures that integrate
human dimensions with consideration of other ecosystem
components. The project is closely linked to research
conducted by Rebecca Berngartt
titled IMPROVING USE OF HUMAN DIMENSIONS INFORMATION IN
GREAT LAKES FISHERY MANAGEMENT. We are also partnering
with ValueScope Research consultants of Galiano, BC to
conduct workshops on decision-making, and produce
written decision-aiding tools.
Past Workshop - October 15, 2004 in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Human Dimensions of Great Lakes Fishery Management: Defining Research Needs and Direction
Workshop Report
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Landscape ecology of white-tailed deer in agro-forest
ecosystems: a cooperative approach to support
management
This project is linked to North Central Agricultural
Experiment Station project
NC1005, a multi-state research effort on
white-tailed deer. The field research for this
project begins in winter 2003-2004.
The audience for the project outputs includes
university-based researchers, natural resources
managers with federal, state or local jurisdiction,
and the general public. Appropriate project
outputs will be made available to university-based
researchers primarily through publication in refereed
publications and presentations at professional
meetings. Natural resources managers will have
access to outputs through the periodic reports
required by granting agencies, non-refereed
publications, and workshops. The general public
has access to the professional literature, but will
undoubtedly receive desired information through the
web-based products, public forums and workshops,
articles in specialty magazines (e.g., out-doors or
deer hunting magazines) and extension pamphlets.
In particular, web-based products, magazine articles
and pamphlets can be targeted to meet the needs of
specific stakeholders. Learn more:
south-central Michigan deer research
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Learning to live with eastern massasauga
rattlesnakes: initiating a public education and
outreach program in southeast Michigan
Rebecca Christoffel, in collaboration with
Michigan Natural Features Inventory, is
conducting this project to evaluate the potential
for using education and outreach as a conservation
tool for rare snakes. The eastern massasauga has
declines throughout its range, primarily due to
habitat loss and human-induced mortality.
Michigan is one of the species’ last strongholds.
Much of its habitat is on private lands, and thus
one challenge is to develop ways people can live
side-by-side with a potentially dangerous animal.
This project is closely linked to research by
Rebecca on rattlesnakes and turtles in
Michigan and Minnesota.
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Mitigating deer-vehicle collisions in southern
Michigan
Deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs), through their
effects on human health, economic, and
psychological conditions, influence the well
being of communities throughout Michigan. An
estimated 65,000 DVCs occur annually in
Michigan and result in at least $120 million
in vehicle damage, and more than $180 million
in total costs to society. In year 2000, an
estimated 200 human fatalities and $2 billion
in damages resulted nationally from at least 1
million DVCs. DVCs also may have important
secondary influences on attitudes towards
wildlife, transportation, and agencies that
manage them. Research-based knowledge is
urgently needed for more effective education
to alleviate impacts of DVCs while improving
agency image.
This project, in cooperation with Michigan
Deer-Crash Coalition, is closely linked to
research conducted by
Alix Marcoux
and Krishnan
Sudharsan on development of information
and education policy to alleviate DVCs, and
landscape factors affecting the distribution
and frequency of DVCs.
Findings have been presented at various conferences (see Publications and Presentations web site), and will be discussed with Michigan's Natural Resources Commission at their October 2006 meeting.
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