Robert Crabtree

About Robert Crabtree

Robert (Bob or Rob) is a systems ecologist who has dedicated the last 36 years to understanding the living systems of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Learning from large-scale natural and policy experiments over time, he developed an Ecological Forecasting program to drive adaptive decision-making to sustain healthy ecosystems. A field ecologist at heart, he was first fascinated with bird communities and the process of predation as a teenager. He first worked on a great-horned owl study as a high school student. He published his first paper as an undergraduate at the University of Idaho on competition between two species of flycatchers. After two positions working for state fish and game agencies, he studied skunk, weasel, and fox predation on waterfowl nests at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Utah. He then worked for Battelle PNL (PhD) and led the first study of an unexploited coyote population at the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve in Washington. After a post-doc at UC-Berkeley on animal movement modeling, he was awarded two grants in Yellowstone National Park to (1) build a social-structured population model for Yellowstone wolves as part of the EIS process, and (2) initiate the 20-year Canid Ecology Project (CEP). In 1993, he then founded the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center based on:(1) long-term research and monitoring,(2) conservation science from genes to large-ecosystem spatial scales, and (3) collaborative partnerships with stakeholders. He also embarked on a career as a landscape ecologist, utilizing remote sensing fusion and data assimilation modeling to investigate the causes and consequences of population responses to habitat and climate change across large landscapes. He continues to strive to translate the results of ecological research and monitoring into informed decision-making and on-the-ground conservation action, which is captured in a new organization called Incline Conservation. Rob continues to mentor field interns, employees, graduate students, and post-docs at YERC\'s Geospatial Dynamics lab in Montana.

Experience

1. Chief Scientist and Co-founder

   Yellowstone Ecological Research Center

   Apr 1993 — Present

Education

• Utah State University

  Master of Science (MS), Wildlife Ecology

  1981 — 1983

• University of Idaho

  B.S. and Ph.D., Wildife Ecology

  1984 — 1988