Mountain Goats Topic of June 29 UW Research Center Talk

Wildlife biologist and author Bruce L. Smith will discuss mountain goats of the West’s great mountain ranges Thursday, June 29, at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Center. The center is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

Smith will present “Life on the Rocks: A Portrait of the American Mountain Goat” as part of the center’s Harlow Summer Seminars at 6:30 p.m. at the AMK Ranch, located north of Leeks Marina. A barbecue, at a cost of $5 per person, will take place at 5:30 p.m. Reservations are not required.

Smith retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004 after a 30-year career as a wildlife manager and scientist. Three years studying and photographing mountain goats in Montana’s Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area began a 40-year fascination with the animals. His presentation will look at the mountain goat’s life and ongoing conservation challenges across the West, including photographs from his 2014 National Outdoor Book Award-winning “Life on the Rocks: A Portrait of the American Mountain Goat.”

He also will share his recent work in Montana that shows starkly different fortunes for that state’s native and introduced goat populations.

Smith was named Wyoming’s Conservationist of the Year in 1997, and he received the John and Frank Craighead Wildlife Conservation Award in 2005. Besides his scientific publications, he writes for magazines and has published five books, including “Where Elk Roam: Conservation and Biopolitics of Our National Elk Herd” (2012) about the Jackson Hole elk herd, and “Stories from Afield: Adventures with Wild Things in Wild Places” (2016), a collection of 16 outdoor adventure essays. From his home in Bozeman, Mont., he writes to promote conservation of wildlife and wildlands.

The UW-NPS Research Center provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.

For more information about the Harlow Summer Seminars, contact Michael Dillon at (307) 543-2463 or michael.dillon@uwyo.edu.