Wolf Ecology and Reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park
Presented by Dave Clendenen
[link at bottom]
After intro by MCAS president, Judy Neuhauser, Dave gives a presentation about wolf ecology and their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and the northern Rocky Mountains. The presentation also focuses on the wolf’s polarizing nature, and conflicts with human society arising from this species’ presence in the wild. It will also examine the critically important role that wolves play in maintaining the health and balance of the ecosystems in which they exist.
Dave Clendenen is a biologist and naturalist, living with his wife Sherryl in San Luis Obispo. He graduated from Cal Poly in 1981, earning a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management, with a concentration in wildlife biology. He worked for 15 years on the California Condor Recovery Project, and was the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s lead biologist for condor recovery in southern California when he departed the project in 1997. During those years he also participated in the reintroduction of bald eagles on Catalina Island, and worked on a bald eagle study in central Arizona. He was also a hack site attendant, releasing a group of peregrine falcons near Mono Lake in 1984. In 1997, he took a position with The Wildlands Conservancy as preserve manager of Wind Wolves Preserve in Kern County. In 2014 he came full circle, returning to Cal Poly, where he is a technician in the Biology Department. Dave is also currently the Land Manager for Morro Coast Audubon Society (MCAS), managing stewardship of Sweet Springs Nature Preserve and other MCAS properties. Since 2003, Dave and Sherryl have volunteered with Rick McIntyre and the National Park Service for two to three weeks each summer, assisting with observation of reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone.
