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On the prowl for conflicts with animals By
Eric Buchanan
He doesn't look for an argument or a fight, but rather for conflicts between humans and animals, or animals and animals. Messmer is an associate professor and Fisheries and Wildlife Extension specialist. He said conflicts could be dealt with more effectively through an idea called community-based conservation. The idea is to get people in the community involved in conservation. It does this by helping a community become educated on an issue, understand research on the issue, and then letting the community voice ideas on how a conflict may be resolved. "There's always a big question about how to use resources," Messmer said. "Wildlife managers need to use the public more. I think we need to find ways to involve the community." Messmer said communication among researchers, scientists and the community is important. He said those dealing with natural resources need to make decisions based on what the public wants, not what natural resource people think should be done. According to Messmer, if a community wants to encroach on wildlife habitat or if it wants to conserve it, that is up to that community. This is not always easy, according to Messmer, who said a lot of people in natural resources feel that those resources are theirs. "I always imagined myself watching my rangeland with my ducks on my pond," Messmer said. But Messmer has become involved in more than just watching ducks on a pond. Messmer's formal higher education started at the University of North Dakota. He earned his first bachelors degree in 1977 in fish and wildlife management and his second bachelor's degree in 1979 in biology. He then went on to North Dakota State University to earn two master's degrees, one in natural resource management/botany in 1985 and the other in community and regional planning/engineering and architecture in 1986. He stayed at NDSU and in 1990 earned a Ph.D. in animal range and sciences. Messmer said he didn't want to just get through school. He wanted to get an education through work, as well as school. In between his formal education at the University of North Dakota and NDSU, he worked for several state and federal agencies. His work included: being an assistant curator at a mammal museum in Grand Forks, N.D.; working with the North Dakota Department of Transportation to monitor noise, water and air quality, and hazardous waste; and conducting teacher training workshops for elementary and secondary education teachers. Utah State University offered a challenge to Messmer. He came to USU because there wasn't an opportunity in North Dakota for research and teaching in the same job. He wanted to work with faculty and students as well as continue his own research experiences, so he took the job as assistant professor and extension wildlife specialist in the fisheries and wildlife department at USU in 1991. Some of Messmer's current work includes taking a multi-state survey on livestock/wildlife interaction, researching ways to reduce deer/automobile collisions, mule deer winter range use, and development and distribution of communication products about North American birds. "I don't know how he finds time to sleep," Audrey McElrone, one of Messmer's graduate students, said. Messmer said, "I'm not doing anything more than anyone else is doing." McElrone has worked with Messmer for over two years and started out as a secretary for him. She said there were always a lot of things to be mailed out to the various organizations. McElrone is working with Messmer on a master plan for wetlands education to be taught to students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Messmer is involved with more than 18 in-state conservation organizations ranging from Utah Wetland Conservation and Management to Hunter Education and Skill Enhancement Programs. As assistant director of the Jack H. Berryman Institute, Messmer is responsible for planning, developing, funding and administering Institute-based programs to manage human-wildlife conflicts. Through these and other experiences, he said, as he looked around his office with a chuckle, it was important to learn how to organize. Messmer's office ceiling seemed to be supported by bookshelves stuffed with books and environmental journals and filing cabinets full of research information-past and present. Piles of books on the floor seemed to support the shelves and cabinets. As he sat surrounded by these books and journals, he said if there was one book to read, it would be Stephen R. Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People." "It has some good principles to live by and it helps you look beyond your defined world," Messmer said. He reached for a folded up white T-shirt that laid on a two-and-a-half foot tall pile of books, cleaned his glasses off with it and then continued as he replaced the shirt to its original position. "I wanted to go to college, so I volunteered for the draft," Messmer said. He said the G.I. Bill was one of the few ways he could afford to go to school. His military experience began in 1972 as a military policeman. Through his military career, he became involved in journalism, both broadcasting and photojournalism, and was the publications editor responsible for a monthly National Guard newspaper. "Wildlife managers are generally not good communicators. Most are introverts. To communicate you have to learn to communicate," Messmer said. "When it comes to science, we need to use it [communication] more." Messmer was the editor from November 1979 to September 1991. Today he continues his service in the military at Fort Douglas, Utah, as a commander, 200th Medical Detachment, 96th Reserve Command. The detachment provides environmental and public health services for the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units in the western United States. Messmer said he learned discipline from his experiences with the military. "The military gives you discipline to see things through to the end, which wildlife needs more of," he said. Seeing something through to the end is important to Messmer, who emphasizes the idea that to continue effective work in natural resources, bright graduate students need to be involved. "I'm trying to find students who can give to the profession. I have more grad students than anyone in my department," he said. "If you can get the right grad student, it creates a strong marriage." Jamey Anderson, one of Messmer's graduate students, keeps about 13 wildlife web sites updated. Anderson recently went to Chicago with Messmer to an International Association of Fish and Wildlife Management convention. He said they put together a focus group at the convention and found that most of the managers there looked for information about their research in wildlife magazines, newspaper articles and other media from states bordering or close to their own. With this information Anderson and Messmer have decided to put together a database on mule deer, mule deer interaction and automobile/mule deer collisions. Messmer said he also wants to develop a news information system that would be an effective way for managers to get accurate information on their projects. He notes that there are a lot of science web sites on the Internet, but most are not regulated in any way. "To inform is power, but we need to have peer-reviewed information," Messmer said. One of the sites Anderson keeps updated is an interactive wildlife management web site. Anderson's goal with this site is to bring as much information from other web sites as he can into his own. Anderson said the site will contain peer-reviewed articles about experiments and research on wildlife so wildlife managers can look at the site, see how others have interacted with animals, and learn how they might go about interacting with them. Working with Messmer is enjoyable, according to Anderson. "He's incredibly energetic," Anderson said. "He's got a lot of enthusiasm about wildlife, which is refreshing for us (his grad students). You'd think most people that have been in it a while would get kind of jaded." Messmer said he's not in science, teaching or anything else for recognition. "You're in it to serve, not to make a name for yourself," Messmer said. He said if a person gives service that can be documented and gives others a better quality of life, then that person has done his or her job. Messmer said some teachers he has worked with have become discouraged in their professions because they've felt underappreciated. He said that if someone is having this problem, he or she should evaluate what they are doing. "Do the work that you love to do, and under-appreciation will deal with itself," Messmer said. Messmer didn't say this to start any kind of conflict, but it might bring an awareness to some who might have this problem. As for community based conservation, Messmer hopes it will help members of communities be aware of natural resource issues. According to Messmer, "Awareness leads to appreciation and appreciation is the first step to conservation."
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