About Us

Come join us for our first episode of the Our Wild Lives podcast, where we dive into the roots of The Wildlife Society. Ed takes you back to the 1920s and Aldo Leopold’s influence on the early days of the organization, and we follow its journey to becoming a leading professional society with over 10,000 members. You’ll hear about the creation of the Journal of Wildlife Management, the growth of sections, chapters, and working groups, and our own stories of finding our way into wildlife conservation. We talk about how TWS has shaped our careers, why communication is so important in science, and the power of professional networks. 

Transcript

About Us

Ed Arnett: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Our Wild Lives Podcast. I'm Ed Arnett,

Katie Perkins: I'm Katie Perkins and we're your co-hosts for this show. Each week we'll bring you compelling stories and entertaining discussions with real wildlife professionals and students, the people that are on the front lines of conservation every day. But first, we thought we should tell you a little bit about who we are.

Katie Perkins: So Ed, why don't you tell us about the history of the Wildlife Society?

Ed Arnett: Well, Katie, I think to tell the history of the Wildlife Society, we kind of need to go back to the beginning of the profession, and this all started out in about the mid, late, mid to late 1920s when Aldo Leopold, one of our founders, and a very key figure in conservation. Even today, started lecturing with, you know, this about this emerging concept of wildlife management to some of his colleagues and peers, and what resulted from that was a request from the colleagues to put together what is now known as our, as the first policy on wildlife management.

Ed Arnett: At that time, the discussion centered largely on game management. That policy came out in 1930. Leopold chaired a committee with other colleagues and they wrote the First American game policy. Not so long after that, Aldo Leopold became the first professor of game management at the University of Wisconsin. So this was really the birth of the profession that we now know as wildlife management. And Leopold, of course, is a key figure, in conservation. He's a key figure for us being a founder. He was also our third president, but our highest most distinguished award; The Aldo Leopold, Memorial Award, obviously bears, his name. So, Leopold and colleagues at that time, largely living in the Midwestern states, they were contemplating a need for a professional organization. We have this emerging discipline called wildlife management. We're starting to gather information and they also were contemplating the need of a journal where they could publish all this information. So, In 1936 at the very first what's, called the North American Wildlife Conference, and it was held in Washington, D.C. Leopold and others brought forth this idea to a larger, larger audience of conservationists and, that formed the Society of Wildlife Specialists. The very next year, In 1937, the second annual, conference of the North American Wildlife Conference, uh, we changed the name to The Wildlife Society and it stuck ever since. 

Ed Arnett: What also spawned that year was the Journal of Wildlife Management, and that's our flagship scientific journal. And we started publishing all this new information that was coming out. fast forward to today. The Wildlife Society is now the largest society of wildlife professionals. 

Ed Arnett: We've been holding steady,over the past several years and over 10,000 members up to around 11,000. We've got eight sections that are geographically located across North America, one in Canada, and seven in the United States that represent kind of our voting districts regionally. And then state chapters, uh, and provincial chapters. We have 56 of those across U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Ed Arnett: And importantly, this is really key; Over 150 student chapters. These folks represent the next generation, and we've got student chapters at universities all over the country. We keep adding them seemingly every year. Uh, more and more interests by our young professionals. We also have a number of different working groups, and these are subject matter experts on topics like biological diversity, wildlife disease, human dimensions, just to name a few.

Ed Arnett: our current mission is,that was recently derived from a strategic planning effort. Is to empower wildlife professionals to advance conservation through science, community, and professional excellence. We do quite a number of things, at The Wildlife Society. We still publish the Journal of Wildlife Management, have since 1937, but we've added two other scientific journals where, where our members and others publish. We hold an annual conference each year. And that's to bring, wildlifers together students and professionals of all state or stages of their career to present their science, to network, to talk about problems of the day and develop solutions, and also just to get together and. And, see each other and have a good time.

Ed Arnett: And we also offer training opportunities at those as well as the networking and mentoring opportunities. The idea there is, is to present career long, engagement and training opportunities for our professionals, and I think people can think of us as the trade association of wildlife professionals.

Ed Arnett: And we also engage in policy work at the national and state levels to educate decision makers, you know, trying to interface that science with legislation and administrative policy. So The Wildlife Society has come a long way since the beginning and it remains strong and poised to, you know, prepare our professionals to meet today's challenges of conservation.

Katie Perkins: Definitely. I always like to tell people that the Wildlife Society is your professional home, your community, your network, and with that you get a lot of professional development. Just building these groups of, contacts that stick with you throughout your career. So that's a really great thing about The Wildlife Society, is that there are many opportunities to get engaged with us at all the way from the university level up to the national level.

Katie Perkins: So, ed, tell us about you. What was your first exposure to The Wildlife Society?

Ed Arnett: Well that happened a little bit later in my career. Background wise, I grew up in a small town in South Central Illinois, and you know how kids always say, oh, I wanna be a doctor, a veterinarian or lawyer, something like that... I always wanted to be a wildlife biologist. I just didn't know what it was called at the time.

Ed Arnett: And, you know, I'm of the era that grew up with the original, show called Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Marlin Perkins was associated with the St. Louis Zoo. I grew up about 50 miles north of St. Louis, so my mom took me there all the time and I just fell in love with animals. And my grandpa always took me fishing and, and hunting and, and just, I was outside a lot.

Ed Arnett: So that built the love for animals and the outdoors. And I actually got to meet Marlin Perkins when I was about eight years old. I ran up to him. My mom wasn't happy about that. I broke away from her grip on my hand and I ran up and met Marlin Perkins. And then later in life his co-host Jim Fowler, he actually attended an Oregon chapter of The Wildlife Society meeting. He was our dinner speaker and, got to spend some time with him. So what a thrill that was to meet kind of a idol and then, and then another idol later in life. But I, um, I moved out west right away. I, I got an Associate's Degree in natural resource management. Kind of started out, I still wasn't quite sure what this thing was, wildlife management until I moved to Montana State University where I got a bachelor's degree in fish and wildlife management.

Ed Arnett: And I was starting to get my mind wrapped around this profession and get a feel for it. So I walked into a professor's, office one day. A, a professor that ultimately became our president in 1991 and 92, Dr. Richard Mackey and I said, Dr. Mackey, I, I'm really, really interested in this profession. I want to succeed in it. What can I do to make myself more, more, exposed to the profession and more successful? And without any hesitation, he said, join your professional society. And I did, he reached over in his desk, handed me a brochure. There was no internet or anything digital in those days. And he handed me a brochure and I joined. Now the problem, and this is a tip for young professionals, students and such, it was pretty expensive back in those days. So. I got a little creative and, asked my mom to put that on the Christmas list.

Ed Arnett: It's like, I don't need any more jeans or sweaters and such, so invest in me and my profession, and I would encourage anyone to do that. Nobody needs another pair of socks for Christmas, so invest in your profession. She paid my dues for quite a while until I got on my feet and I started paying 'em myself.

Ed Arnett: So that was really my first engagement with TWS, was advice from a professor. I really didn't engage that much though until I moved to Oregon. I started my professional career in 1990. I worked for a couple different federal agencies, was a research scientist at, um, Patriot Timber Company, Warehouser Timber Company, and before I went back and got my doctorate, The interesting thing was the very first thing that, that literally, almost right out of the gate, uh, when I moved to Oregon, I was, I was engaged with people in the Wildlife Society and I, first annual meeting I went to in the Oregon chapter, I just watched those professionals and they just inspired me to engage.

Ed Arnett: You realize very quickly when you join The Wildlife Society, whether it's at, at, you know, at the headquarters level or all the way down to a state chapter, that this is a network of professionals. It's a family almost. And that's what's so important to me about it. But I went on to serve in the Oregon chapter with the board, of directors for nine years, including a term as president.

Ed Arnett: And you know, ultimately became CEO. And it's, uh, kind of an ultimate pinnacle of my career to be leading this organization after starting as just a member as a student so long ago. And it's been very rewarding and The Wildlife Society has, has been extremely important in my professional development, but also personal growth as well.

Ed Arnett: I think anybody that engages with TWS, whether you're a public citizen and just wanna visit our website and watch some of your great video work, or listen to these podcasts or you know, read our articles. Or some of our professionals that are just dabbling around whether to join or not. I can assure you it pays dividends that you can't even fathom until you're immersed in it. It it's that network, that collegial interaction and a group of people you can relate to and work with and solve problems. And we know we've got a lot of conservation problems, so we need to work together. That's what the strength of that Wildlife Society Network really manifests with our professionals.

Katie Perkins: Definitely, I always have really admired the all the different kinds of groups that you can get involved with at TWS, at the national level and at the lower levels as well is there really is a space for everyone. Like you said, our working groups, if you're into wildlife diseases or conservation dogs or something like that.

Katie Perkins: But we also have these communities Out in The Field for L-G-B-T-Q-I-A community or Women of Wildlife community. There's so many different options to find a spot and a group of people who you really connect with and, and can learn from and grow your network that way.

Ed Arnett: Well, Katie, you're fairly new to The Wildlife Society and, I'm so glad you, saw our announcement. Katie is our digital content manager, uh, fairly new position. we'd always had social media presence and such, but now we have a dedicated person. Uh, to doing this digital work for us. What excited you about The Wildlife Society when you kind of saw that. You've had some level of engagement with TWS before this, but what excited you about coming to work for us?

Ed Arnett: And, tell us a little bit about your background and, and what you're bringing to TWS. 

Katie Perkins: Yeah, so I had my first engagement with the idea of wildlife conservation and stewardship when I was in high school or when I was in eighth grade, actually all the way back then. And I went to these camps called Texas Brigades. They're a, a youth leadership program in Texas where I'm from. And I, I walked away from that first week I was at the cattle one, so I was learning all about native plants and grasses and cattle production, things like that.

Katie Perkins: And I, I mean, my eyes were blown open to a whole new world that I didn't know existed. And that was such a turning point in my life where I, I kind of really saw a path forward for myself and working for wildlife and conservation and stewardship. But you know, that week didn't tell me how I was gonna end up in that field.

Katie Perkins: So as I progressed through my high school years and entered into college, I came in thinking that I was gonna be a traditional wildlife biologist. Uh, took a couple classes, realized I was not very good at doing the science, but I was really good at talking about the science. So I switched to a communications major and still have that minor in natural resource management from Texas Tech University.

Katie Perkins: And you know, from there I had a lot of opportunities to do field-based storytelling, which just really further solidified that I love to work outdoors. I love to be, you know, connecting with stories and places and people. And so when I saw this job opportunity for The Wildlife Society, I, I knew in my heart of hearts that it was for me and that I had to really give it a go.

Katie Perkins: And so, sent my application in, was so nervous for weeks, had our interviews, and I just really connected with you and the whole team. And so I'm glad that in the end I ended up getting this position and it's been an amazing year so far of meeting our members and telling our stories and trying out new things like this podcast and video production and things of that nature.

Katie Perkins: So it's a little bit about my background. But Ed, the idea for this podcast was actually your brainchild, so why don't you tell us kinda why you thought that TWS needed a podcast and needed a platform to share a member stories like this. 

Ed Arnett: Yeah, I, I certainly won't claim it as the original idea of mine for TWS. There have been a number of members that I think have talked about it for a while um and I was certainly privy to the need. I, uh. I, I basically have done podcasts in the past. I listen to 'em, of course, but I've never really thought that much in any other job that I've had about starting one, and it just seemed like an obvious fit.

Ed Arnett: It's a super saturated market, right? In fact, we had a hard time finding a name for our podcast 'cause there's so many wildlife related podcasts. I think we landed on a perfect one. Uh, the acronym for those,that hadn't put it together yet is OWL and an Owl is a key part of our logo, uh, past and, uh, future one that's coming forward. I think, the need was obvious to me because we wanna highlight our members. I wanted to bring, uh, opportunities to highlight our member research, the management efforts they're working on, and get that more out into the public. These are people, as you mentioned early on, they're right on the front lines of conservation science and actually managing our populations and, you know, dealing with some of these huge challenges like climate change, invasive species, wildlife disease, all these things that, we have challenging us every day. We want to tell those stories, and I saw a podcast as an opportunity. Um, not everybody listens to podcasts, but it's a great venue and many, many people do to get our stories of The Wildlife Society out the public and to our members and highlight their work.

Katie Perkins: Definitely.

Ed Arnett: Yep. So Katie, you're bringing all the communications kind of talent to, to us and I, I couldn't have done this without you, obviously, and it was a huge factor in bringing you on. Um, tell me what your vision is for the podcast and, you know, what excites you about all of our efforts that we've been putting together to roll this thing out?

Katie Perkins: Well, Ed, I always like to tell scientists when they're nervous about talking to me about things like this. It's that your science isn't completed until it's communicated. And so for me, that's the biggest, you know, hope and goal for this is giving our members this platform to share their science, to get it out there to show the impact of all the, you know, years and years of work that they do on these specific species or habitats and, you know, a lot of times, especially in today's age, it's, it's becoming harder and harder to trust what you see and what you hear. So we wanna give our members a place where they can, uh, be a trusted source for the public.

Katie Perkins: So not only is this show for our members and wildlife professionals, but it's for the public to learn more about their natural areas and, you know, their wildlife that they live around and, and what it really means to, to do science-based conservation. And so I think that's what just gets me the most excited about this show, is just getting so many awesome stories out there, able to be heard.

Ed Arnett: Well, folks, now you know a little bit more about Katie and I and, some of our background and a good bit more about The Wildlife society. So be sure to join us each week and you'll hear from wildlife professionals, students, and some key players in conservation and science as we tell their stories and the stories of wildlife and conservation.

Katie Perkins: Every wildlife has a story and we are here to tell it. Thanks for listening to the Our Wildlife Podcast, brought to you by the Wildlife Society. We'll see you next week.