Jerry Freilich Joins Staff

by Nancy Debevoise

In May, Jerry Freilich joined WOC as our first staff ecologist. Jerry will provide WOC staffers with detailed scientific reviews of their work, from comments on federal resource-management actions to proposals for mitigating the environmental effects of energy development, livestock grazing and timber sales.

While WOC has always relied on scientific expertise from various sources, Jerry's presence on the staff will ensure that every action we take receives a thorough scientific analysis.

With a grant from the Turner Wildlife Foundation, Jerry will also prepare a conservation plan for the Great Divide Basin, which comprises all the land between the Wind River Range and the Colorado Rockies. Long known to contain precious ecological resources, the Great Divide Basin has been under-studied and under-protected. Working with scientists from the Wildlands Project, Wild Utah and other organizations, Jerry will create a Reserve Network Design highlighting the region's most important biological resources. The coalition's final design will include maps showing migration corridors for important wildlife, proposed habitat for large carnivores and the presence of rare and sensitive species.

Jerry comes to WOC with a wealth of scientific knowledge gained over decades of academic and professional experience. After majoring in biology at Temple University in Philadelphia and earning his B.S. in French at SUNY Stony Brook, he spent the next six years as head of the live-animal department of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Jerry then went back to college, earning an M.S. in science and environmental education at Cornell University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology at the University of Georgia at Athens a decade later.

He spent 14 years working for the National Park Service at six national parks all around the country, including four summers as a naturalist in Grand Teton, leading nature walks and outdoor evening programs at Colter Bay, and six years as a research ecologist at Joshua Tree National Park in California.

Although his main research subjects at Joshua Tree were desert tortoises and satellite remote sensing, he also spent time studying the environmental effects of rock climbing, learning how to inventory bighorn sheep populations and experimenting with methods of discouraging begging roadside coyotes. One of his proudest achievements was helping prevent construction of the world's largest trash dump only a mile from the Park's border.

From 1996 through last year, Jerry was The Nature Conservancy's Science Director for the state of Wyoming, where he was responsible for prioritizing conservation sites, conducting ecoregional planning for Wyoming and four adjacent states and studying the effects of livestock grazing and recreation on biodiversity.

"I'm very excited to be part of the Wyoming Outdoor Council!" Jerry enthuses. We're equally excited to have him on board.