NRM Jobs

Department Head's Message

Greetings!

We hope this newsletter finds you well and keeping warm!

If you want to see what we are up to on a regular basis, please check out our social media sites above. Additionally, the whole university has launched a new web page platform, which we hope you enjoy exploring. Here is the link where you can learn much more about our activities.

Our spring semester is well underway with lots of meeting attendance and presentations by our faculty and their lab groups. Our department is thriving with about 280 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students owing in part to the success of our faculty in their grant awards. Assisting Jiyoung in the main office are two undergraduate assistants Nora Peterson and Izzy Tronnes and we are eternally grateful for their help.

The NRM joint effort in the classroom, through our research programs, and outreach allows NRM to have the privilege of training the next generation of natural resource professionals at all levels.

Please feel free to reach out – we love to hear from our alumni, donors, and friends!

Michele Dudash

Save the Date!

NRM First Annual Open House: Friday, April 11, 2025: All are welcome.

Faculty and Staff News

Our Program Assistant, Jiyoung Kim, was honored with the Civil Service Employee of the Month in January 2025 and we all celebrated Jiyoung with cake and good wishes!

Josh Leffler is the new Assistant Department Head. Thanks Josh!

NRM Welcomed

• Sean Di Stéfano as Assistant Professor of Rangeland Ecology and Management

• Riley Mounsdon as our new Instructor to lead our Natural Resource Law Enforcement program

• Catherine Luze as our new USGS Coop Unit Secretary.

Sadly, Dr. Bruce Eichhorst our Wildlife Instructor & Oak Lake Field Station Assistant Director for Education and Outreach passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer. Bruce is sorely missed by many students, faculty, and staff. There will be a remembrance for Bruce at Oak Lake Field Station on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Details will follow in the next newsletter.

To contact any of us, our information can be found here.

Fall 2024 Highlights

One Day for State raised $3,160 thanks to 40 donors and we exceeded last year's number of donors! Thank you! These funds have enabled us to support a number of undergraduates' attendance at scientific meetings to facilitate our students’ professional development.

Faculty Alison Coulter and Dave Coulter and their respective graduate students along with members of Chris Cheek’s lab and Steve Chipps' lab attended the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Hawaii! Many presented their research and elevated SDSU's presence in their discipline!

• During this meeting, Alison Coulter received the Early Career Fisheries Education Award.

• Ph.D. student BJ Schall (co-advised by Alison Coulter and Steve Chipps) received the William Remote Fisheries Fellowship.

• Ph.D. student Logan Zebro (advised by Alison Coulter) received the Runner-Up Best Student Poster Award.

• Natalie Liberati, M.S. student in Dave Coulter's lab presented a poster on the extent that floodwaters connect aquatic habitats in the Dakotas and was runner-up for the student writing contest.

Many members of Lora Perkins' lab attended the annual meeting of the Society of Ecological Restoration in Vancouver, Canada to share their research and outreach activities.

Graduate students of wildlife faculty Bill Severud and Amanda Cheeseman presented their research at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in Baltimore, MD.

Department Activities

• Academic Advising/Recruitment:  Amanda Wilder is NRM’s Undergraduate Professional Advisor. Amanda also successfully launched an NRM Ambassador Program where high-performing and enthusiastic NRM undergraduates assist with in-person visits to the department and special events to recruit potential Jackrabbits.
  
  
• UG Award and Scholarship Reception at McCrory Gardens: Please view our YouTube Video.
  
  
• Conservation and Planning students enrolled in NRM 321 Park Interpretation with Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek redesigned display cases in Biostress. They look wonderful! 💠Feb.10 | President's Monday Message

Extension & Outreach Activities

• Alison Coulter along with former NRM Extension Field Specialist, Katherine Jaeger, designed an Aquatic Invasive Species Curriculum for K-12 students and also hosted a workshop to train K-12 teachers: AIS Curriculum

• Krista Ehlert, our State Range Specialist has been busy with BeefSD and her other signature programs engaging youth and women across the state.

• Field specialists Pete Bauman, Sean Kelly, and Kaylee Wheeler are active across the state in assisting with restoring grasslands and range habitats.

• Dave Kringen, our Water Resources Field Specialist, will be launching a new platform to share collaborative initiatives across the state. Stay tuned!

• Natural Resources High School Program is now open for registration. Please share the information broadly: July 21-25, 2025 at the Oak Lake Field Station
  

To learn more about our faculty research interests please use the below link.

We greatly appreciate your support! Please click the button below and choose "Excellence Fund for Natural Resource Management" under Designation.