First, I hope that you are all well and have had a fun and restorative summer! NRM is back! We are already in our 2nd week of classes, and we have welcomed three new faculty to the department with tons of campus activities for students and staff! This Thursday is SDSU’s annual day of giving - One Day for State - and we hope that you will consider participating! Our goal is to increase the number of donors from last year (42)!
Once again, we will focus on raising funds for experiential learning opportunities for our students, which is a hallmark of NRM. Two enticements to participate are naming NRM’s Cougar in the Atrium and a private tour of our natural history collections.
Look out for many Facebook and Instagram posts leading up to Sept 4th.
NRM Assistant Professor / Range Specialist, Dr. Krista Ehlert, received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor, effective August 22, 2025. Congratulations, Krista!
New Faculty & Staff
Please give a warm welcome to new NRM family and staff members (Kirsten, Sydnie, Christy, and Katie) as they join the NRM world!
Three NRM undergraduate students were awarded to conduct their research.
Brindy Bolander (Dr. Dave Coulter): Dehaan Endowed Program Award ($3,000) 'Using stable isotopes to determine the effect of hypoxia on Largemouth Bass diets'
Ethan Gullickson (Dr. Lan Xu): Dehaan Endowed Program Award ($3,000) 'Exploring Plant-Based Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Coal Mine Waste'
Micah Hunter (Dr. Amanda Cheeseman): Orville and Enolia Bentley Undergraduate Research Award ($2,684) 'The Old and the New: A Comparison of the Efficacy of Avian Point Counts and Acoustic Surveys for the Declining Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus)'
Forty-one NRM undergraduates were acknowledged as Dean's Scholars (4.0 GPA),and another fifty-six NRM undergraduates made the Dean's List (3.5-3.9 GPA) for their hard work in classes and labs this past spring semester. Check out more details and the full listing online. Congratulations to all!
Some of our West River crew (Dr. Rachel Short, Dr. Jeff Martin, Dr. Alex Shupinski, and Sarah Gheida, M.S.) presented their research;
Dr. Rachel Short: Ecometrics as a Tool for Incorporating Paleobiological Data into Wildlife Management
Dr. Jeff Martin: Earliest Occurrence of a Protohistoric Bison-Cattle Hybrid in the Mid-Continent of North America circa 1802CE
Dr. Alex Shupinski: Leveraging 21,000 Years of Past Data to Anticipate Change in Climate Suitability of North American Bison (Bison bison) by 2100
Sarah Gheida: Seabird Predation on Kaua'i: Age-Dependent Risk from Feral Cats Based on Gut Content Analysis.
Additionally, Dr. Short co-chaired the symposium: “Conservation Paleobiology: Bridging the Gap between Paleobiology and Conservation” which sparked some exciting conversations about using the fossil record to address modern conservation challenges.
Dr. Josh Leffler and his graduate student, Mia DiCianna, and Dr. Sean Di Stefano presented their research at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Baltimore, MD!
Dr. Josh Leffler presented work on the impacts of Typhoon Merbok on tundra soil and plant communities in the Y-K Delta after the storm hit western Alaska in the fall of 2022, and the impacts of flooding, warming, and herbivory on mesocosms of two wetland communities also in the Y-K Delta, AK.
Dr. Sean Di Stefano gave an invited symposium talk about 'Evaluating Oil and Gas Reclamation Success: A Data-Driven Approach to Landscape Response in Western Colorado'.
Mia DiCianna's research poster focused on the impacts of flood duration and floodwater salinity on greenhouse gas fluxes from wetland and tundra soils from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska.
Fifteen NRM faculty and graduate students trained about seventy students on terrestrial, aquatic, mammal, bird, and plant field techniques for a week at OLFS.
Our Natural Resource Law Enforcement (NRLE) techniques class (fourteen students) was trained by Riley Mounsdon and our federal, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota conservation officer cooperators.
Extension & Outreach Activities
Rangeland and Soils Days
June 10-11 | Belle Fourche, SD
Kaylee Wheeler, SDSU Extension Range Field Specialist, led over two hundred 4-H and FFA youth who gathered in Belle Fourche. The event was co-hosted by SDSU Extension, USDA NRCS, and the Butte/Lawrence Conservation Districts. Across two days, participants tested their plant ID skills, evaluated ecological sites and soils, and competed in judging contests, student talks, and displays - all while building lifelong stewardship skills. This is a 'hands-on' celebration of South Dakota’s natural resources, blending science, competition, and fun in the beautiful Northern Great Plains!
Dr. Charlie Fenster, Director of Oak Lake Field Station, organized a very successful field day at the station! Visitors and participants ranged in age from 14 - 80 years and came from as far away as California and Missouri, but mostly from SDSU, and the area from Brookings to Watertown.
SDSU graduate students Kelsey Crowley (mussels), Logan Zebro (paddlefish), Amadeu dos Santos Neto (pollinators) presented their research.
There was also an informative discussion of the role of controlled burns for land management by extension specialist Peter Bauman.
Afternoon tours of the station focused on the importance of controlled burns, native plants (Dr. Lora Perkins' Lab), and plant-pollinator interactions.
While the mission of the station was explored and expounded, the best way to describe the event was one of fun and informative discussions among all the visitors.
Dr. Krista Ehlert organized a successful second year of the Grazing Workshop hosted in Faith, SD, representing a partnership between SDSU Extension and Principled Land Managers. Participants gained hands-on experience in a variety of areas, including plant ID, forage production assessment, body condition scoring, and even strategies for handling conflict. It was an educational and rewarding experience!
The Northern Plains Water Voice series is presented by David Kringen, SDSU Extension Water Resources Field Specialist. In this presentation, Kelsey Crowley, an NRM Graduate student with Dr. Chris Cheek and Dr. Alison Coulter, provides information on her native freshwater mussel research: The Importance of Fish for Native Freshwater Mussel Reproduction
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