Eric Atkinson

Research Associate

Eric Atkinson has over thirty-five years of experience in field-based conservation and ecology. He earned an MS from Boise State University working with raptors and shrikes, and now is amidst his doctoral work at the University of Wyoming. Simultaneously, Eric teaches across the Biology discipline coordinating that department at Northwest College where he continues to conduct field work involving young undergraduate students.  From metabarcoding western harvester ants, minimizing eagle mortality risk with site-specific wind turbine placement mapping, to surveillance of avian diseases such as malaria, coccidiosis, and West Nile virus, Eric takes students into the field where they can get cold, wet, and bitten by the bug of life-long-learning while attempting to understand how best to motivate young scientists and conservationists; to help them become native to the GYE.  He and his wife, Melonie, ever strive to organically and sustainable raise Galloway cattle in the shadow of the Beartooths making their farm an avian migratory stopover site and a home for mammals from white-tailed prairie dogs to grizzly bears.