Wildlife and habitat

Wildlife and Forestry Research

Learn about wildlife and forestry research

Staff Information

Meet the staff

Banding an Eastern Meadowlark.

Setting up for understory measurements.

Radio-collared adult female white-tailed deer being released from a box trap.

Creating canopy gaps may lead to development of old-growth structure while allowing timber harvest.

Female Blue-winged Teal fitted with a radio transmitter to estimate production and survival in southern Wisconsin.

Radio-tagged American badger being returned to its den site post-surgery.

Wildlife and forestry research

Wildlife and forestry research provides technical expertise to meet department needs for science-based decision making. This is achieved by providing a balance of research on landscape-scale ecosystem projects, socially and economically important species, and species and habitats that are rare, threatened or endangered. Our findings inform DNR policymakers, stakeholders, and partners. We also investigate emerging issues such as climate change, biomass, toxicology and restoration to address issues as they develop.

Research is funded primarily by state, federal and nongovernmental grant funding to implement and complete priority research activities and transfer information to managers, policymakers and administrators.

Wildlife and forest research involves many aspects of our natural environment. These include:

• Birds
• Ungulates
• Carnivores
• Wildlife surveys
• Forest ecology, social science, and economics
• Toxicology
• Habitat
• Citizen monitoring
• Former research projects

Current staff

Wildlife and forestry research staff are located at two research stations: Science Operations Center-Madison, and the Northern Forest Research Unit, Rhinelander.

Former research directors/section chiefs, 1946 - present

• Irvin Buss 1946-1948
• Cyril Kabat 1949- 1960
• James Hale 1961-1978
• Jim March 1978-1981
• Bob Dumke 1981-1992
• Jerry Bartelt 1992-2007
• Karl Martin 2008 - Present