Featured Scientist

Senior Environmental Scientist Kent Laudon is a wolf specialist with CDFW’s Northern Region, based in Redding. As gray wolves recolonize northern California, he is working to conserve and manage them and to work collaboratively with many citizens representing diverse interests. Laudon monitors California’s small wolf population by conducting ground surveys, as well as trapping and collaring wolves. He works with livestock producers on the ground to help deter conflicts, communicates important information about wolves to the public and strives to develop relationships with people and communities that have an interest in wolves.

Laudon earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife, Biology and Resource Management from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He has worked as a field biologist for 28 years with several state, federal and tribal agencies throughout the western United States, including studying wolves specifically for the last 21 years in Idaho, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico. He started his current position with CDFW about a year ago.

What inspired you to become a scientist?

I was fortunate enough to grow up in Wisconsin in a conservation-minded family that camped, hiked, hunted and fished. Both of my parents were active in conservation organizations. Not surprisingly, I grew up running through the forests, meadows and creeks, for adventure and to learn. It was little wonder that I ended up pursuing a degree in Wildlife and Natural Resources, and while in college, I began to enjoy the more technical aspects of the field. Because of all that, somehow, someway, I have had an amazing career – one I could not have dreamt up in a million years!

What is a typical work day like for you?

While I have been extraordinarily lucky to spend most of my 28-year wildlife career in the field, my career evolution has gravitated more toward working with people in recent years. A lot of the effort and time goes towards building a new wolf management program for CDFW and implementing the Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California. Besides creating the administrative “infrastructure,” including processes and protocols for data, public relations, etc., it includes a ton of relationship building. Relationships really begin with reducing barriers and trying to find a place where I may fit within the various communities of wolf stakeholders around California. Because of the high profile and controversial nature of wolves, and especially when the subject is new to people, the work can be extraordinarily difficult. Therefore, I spend a lot of time learning “who’s who” in areas with or likely to have wolves and then meeting and developing relationships with those individuals. Ultimately, deep, long-lasting conservation happens best through people who live and work amongst wolves. That is the long answer for, “I talk to people a lot!”

What is the most interesting aspect of working with wolves?

While the people component is the most important aspect of making wolf conservation work, the wolves themselves are the more interesting aspect. A lot of biologists get into the field because we like the outdoors, and we want to pursue the wildlife adventure to both learn and feel free. Now for me, acquiring data that helps to understand the ecology of the species on a given landscape is what I find most interesting. In addition, there are also necessary steps to that process that are interesting in and of themselves – for example, population surveys in remote mountainous landscapes that includes finding pups to document reproduction, and trapping adults to attach radio collars. All of this takes a methodical process often over 200-mile (or more) areas, and each component of the effort is technically complex.

How do you address the concerns of members of the public who worry that wolves might attack their livestock or pets?

Presently, wolves are new to people in California. All that people really have to refer to is what they read in the newspapers. While newspapers can do a great job of reporting the basic facts of livestock depredation events, they generally do not place those events into a context that includes depredation rates, statistical chances of depredation, and other depredation risk levels under different scenarios. Therefore, I try to give some context to help people better understand the risk of their livestock being attacked by wolves. The other part of that equation is that members of the public teach me about their livestock and their own management practices that work for them. Through such conversations, I hope that together we come to creative solutions to help reduce risk. Pet dogs are a different matter. I just let people know how I manage my own dog in wolf country. My scenario is a little extreme as my dog has worked in the field with me for years in Montana and Idaho – that part can get tricky as I may occasionally have the need to get close to wolf pup-rearing areas and wolves are territorial towards other canids.

Now that wolves have returned to California, how are they interacting with another apex predator, the mountain lion?

It is too early to tell in California how one species may influence the population of the other. However, we know that the two predators at times interact directly by killing each other, and indirectly where, for instance, wolves (like bears) can take over mountain lion kills to scavenge them. One advantage for mountain lions is they are able to climb trees to get out of harm’s way, while wolves cannot.

What is most challenging aspect of your job?

I really see components of the position as a dichotomy: people and wolves. Both are challenging, but of course in very different ways. The sociopolitical aspect is complicated and much of it is about the nuance. On top of that, there really is no “one size fits all” as every community has its own mix of personalities and politics. On the wolf side of things, wolf biologists are typically working in incredibly large landscapes monitoring packs that hold territories covering hundreds of square miles. That means a lot of “needle in a haystack” kind of work. This can be physically challenging, but it is an incredibly interesting pursuit. Either way, whether it is developing relationships and friendships, or finding the wolf in the haystack (I mean needle), both are profoundly rewarding!

If you had free reign and unlimited funding, what scientific project would you most like to do?

Easy. I would conduct research to better understand wolf/livestock conflicts and, ultimately, to better deter them. While there has been a good amount of effort directed toward this over the years, it falls far short compared to scientific efforts towards understanding wolf/native ungulate relationships. If we can figure out how to do a better job to reduce wolf damage to private property through the use of a series of deterrent tools and husbandry practices, a lot of us, despite our diversified interests, should be able to get behind both wolves and livestock and maybe finally behind each other. This includes research on various range-rider techniques (a method of riding the range to check on cattle for problems, and potentially moving or working with herds to achieve different objectives including reducing conflicts with wolves), livestock-stocking regimes, creative deterrent tools, and pasture and allotment management. Further, a study of the efficacy of the methods and their economic impacts is also important. I would like to keep everybody moving forward, creating, measuring, analyzing and evolving.

Do you have any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

First off, people should understand that it is a challenge to successfully achieve a career in fish and wildlife because the competition is stiff. Secondly, while wolves may be an extreme case, often wildlife work is really a lot of people work. Talk to many professionals from a diverse array of positions to get their perspective to help guide your path. It will take a lot of work to get to where you wish to go. Along the way, I believe it imperative to remember that we work for the citizens as managers of the public trust of our remarkable and rich natural resources.

CDFW Photo. Top Photo: The breeding female of the Lassen Pack.

In 2013, Stuart Itoga became CDFW’s deer program coordinator, which means he is responsible for understanding, managing and conserving California’s deer populations. An avid outdoorsman, Stuart was born in Chicago and raised in San Jose. He holds a degree in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University.

Stuart first joined the department in 1995 as a scientific aide at the Butte Valley Wildlife Area in Siskiyou County after holding fisheries and wildlife positions with the U.S. Forest Service. He is now a senior environmental scientist.

California is home to both mule and black-tailed deer, both resident and migratory herds that wander more than 70 percent of the state and number about 500,000 animals. At the dawn of the state’s 2017 deer hunting season (the general season opens Sept. 16 in many parts of the state), Stuart shared some personal background and his professional outlook on the state of deer management and deer hunting in California.

Who or what inspired your love of natural resources?

I always liked being outside, but hunting and fishing with friends really did it for me.

What do you like best about your job?

I get to work with so many great people. I work with scientists from other state agencies, and it’s enlightening to discuss different conservation approaches with other agency staff. But working on deer projects with our scientists is the best part. They really care about conserving deer and our other natural resources. It hasn’t all been good, but working together, we’ve been able to do some really good things over the past few years. I like the direction we’re headed.

Are you a deer hunter yourself?

I am – or I used to be, at least. When I started this job as the deer program coordinator, I thought it might help me figure out where the best spots were, but this job keeps me so busy I just haven’t made the time to get out deer hunting the past few years. It doesn’t look like I’ll get out there this season either.

Hunters often remark that California’s deer seasons start too early, and that overall hunter success would be much better if the seasons started later in the year, closer to the rut as is the case in many other states. What do you think?

We could start seasons later, which likely would result in greater levels of harvest that couldn’t be sustained over the long term. This would mean fewer tags for hunters. Having some early seasons allows us to provide tags to a greater number of hunters. Our hunter survey overwhelmingly indicated that hunters prized just the opportunity to get out and hunt deer. So we try to provide a balance of opportunity and high-quality hunts. You may not get the hunt you really want in a given year, but you will be able to get a tag to hunt somewhere.

There are very limited doe hunting opportunities in California compared to other states. Wouldn’t providing more doe hunts not only improve hunter success but also help improve the overall health of California’s herds by removing some older does no longer able to reproduce?

Doe hunts are typically conducted to reduce deer density and negative impacts to the herd and the habitat that result from too many deer. We are currently updating our baseline population data with new methods that allow us to estimate deer populations with a greater level of precision and accuracy. We are assessing where we might be seeing high-density impact at work. There are some areas where the densities are around 12 deer per square kilometer and others about four. The question we’re looking at now is how many deer are sustainable over the long term and what the appropriate levels of harvest – male and female – need to be.

Going back to our survey, 85 percent of hunters supported a doe hunt if data indicated it was warranted. However, having the supporting data and the support of hunters is only part of the equation. In California and other Western states, doe hunts are not widely supported by the non-hunting public, and 37 of California’s 58 counties can veto the department’s recommendations for antlerless hunts.

Mountain lions are another sore subject for many deer hunters. They often get blamed for suppressing California’s deer numbers. To what degree are mountain lions impacting California’s deer herds?

Mountain lions are deer predators as are bear, coyotes, bobcats and people. We’re updating our baseline deer population numbers, which will help us determine the level of significance associated with lion and other predation. Without a good starting number, it’s impossible to tell what impact lions – or other predators – are having on deer populations. In addition to our population study with deer, the department is assessing the mountain lion population, which will also provide valuable information on deer-lion interactions.

I personally think the number of people in the state may be the biggest stressor on deer populations. A population of almost 40 million people has quite an impact on the state’s natural resources.

What’s one message you’d like to share with deer hunters as they prepare to head out this season?

One thing I hear with some consistency is, “There are no bucks.” Our trail cameras and fecal DNA studies, however, are showing us there are.

We conducted a hunter survey a couple of years ago as part of an update of our California Deer Conservation and Management Plan. That survey, combined with the level of effort information we get from the harvest reports submitted by hunters, tell us the average California deer hunter spends about eight days in the field. That’s a good deal of time and effort. So I’m not saying it’s easy to get a buck, but hunters that are consistently successful put some effort into their hunt and also spend time scouting beforehand. If you can get out before your trip and pattern the deer, you’re going to increase your chances of being successful.

Good luck to all of our deer hunters this year! If you’re successful, send me a photo at stuart.itoga@wildlife.ca.gov. (Don’t forget to tag it first!)

Joe Croteau is an environmental program manager with the Timberland Conservation Program in CDFW’s Northern Region. He oversees a team of scientists and administrators responsible for conservation and regulatory compliance on approximately 5 million acres of non-federal timber production lands in the Northern Region. The team includes dedicated people working in Fort Bragg, Eureka, Yreka and Redding. Joe’s office is in Redding, but his job takes him to all corners of the region, occasionally headquarters in Sacramento, and to the hidden forests in between.

An avid outdoorsman, Joe has been a member of The Wildlife Society, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The Wild Turkey Federation and the California Licensed Foresters Association. He served as President of a local unit of the Backcountry Horseman’s Association and is a Hunter Education Instructor.

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

The “who” is my mother. She made sure I could go fishing, play in the poison oak and bring home lizards and snakes … and she took me to the doctor’s office when I was reckless. She turned me on to Wild Kingdom where I latched on to Marlin Perkins’ conservation movement. I immediately connected with Marlin and his friend Jim Fowler as they explored all critters, both safe and dangerous.

The “what” is just an innate curiosity and admiration of fish and wildlife … and my mom informing me I could actually earn a degree and have a career doing this kind of stuff.

How did you come to work for CDFW?

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University in 1990, and came to CDFW’s toxicology laboratory in Elk Grove in 1991 as a scientific aid. The Cantara spill happened in July 1991 and so I participated in the evaluation of that ecological disaster. A train car fell into the Upper Sacramento River spilling about 19,000 gallons of the herbicide metam sodium. I was part of a team that was responsible for evaluating the damages and measuring lethal doses to aquatic species. After bouncing around a bit, I finally landed in in the Timberland Conservation Program.

You’ve been with the Timberland Conservation Program since 2001. What is the purpose of the program, and why is it important?

The California Forest Practice rules require an entity that wants to harvest timber on non-federal lands to first file a timber harvesting document. CDFW is the trustee agency that reviews and provides recommendations for the proposed harvesting plan. Our top priority is to ensure the conservation of fish, wildlife, and plants on land where timber harvesting is going to occur. We think of ourselves as a Swiss army knife and can tackle just about any conservation challenge.

What is a typical day like for you at work?

Personally, my typical day includes correspondence or a meeting to make sure our team has the funding, tools and inspiration to do their jobs. The better story is a typical day in the Timberland Conservation Program. Today, one of our staff members is probably walking in the woods with a forester to look at a timber harvesting plan, a proposed bridge and a meadow restoration project. A couple others are administering grants for Yreka Phlox and Townsend’s big-eared bats. Two or three others are working through the challenges of developing safe harbor agreements for Humboldt Martens, Great Gray Owls, Gray Wolves and Coho Salmon. Somebody is probably at their computer looking at multiple monitors to model wildlife habitat or a decision support tool. Somebody is thinking about how to incorporate drones and bio-dogs into our workplace. Somebody is working on regulatory rules to conserve sensitive plants. Several are involved with various working groups like the one dealing with barred owl impacts to northern spotted owls, or doing strategic planning. Certainly, somebody is preparing for, attending, or summarizing a meeting. The supervisors are looking forward, motivating and enabling their staff to challenge the system.

Every one of them is thinking about how best to monitor the effectiveness of everything we do. Oh, and there is the whole email thing … we call it “whack a mole.”

What is the most rewarding project that you’ve worked on for CDFW?

I would go back to the Great Gray Owl project that I was encouraged to tackle by my manager in 2008. The Great Gray Owl is a state endangered species we knew very little about. At the time, we were aware of breeding pairs in Yosemite and in Southern Oregon, but we weren’t sure if there were any in our region. I pursued a state wildlife grant that enabled us to look for breeding pairs, and nine different private and federal landowners allowed us to conduct surveys on their properties. We found two reproducing pairs during the study and have identified a couple more since. I remember getting a text message around midnight from a scientific aid in the first month of the study. It said, “If or when you wake up, call me. Male GGO!” That was an awesome moment.

Websites, conservation strategies and textbooks were later modified based on that work. Scientific aids from that project went on to become environmental scientists. Safe harbor agreements are being crafted because of our study. That’s the personal project that makes me proudest.

If you had free reign and unlimited funding, what scientific project would you most like to do today?

Wow, fun. I would like to create a fire-resilient landscape that enhances deer, elk, pronghorn and sage grouse carrying capacity. I would probably eliminate all but the few oldest junipers from the landscape, and I would work with our internal and external experts to return our cheatgrass-infested basins to support low sage and bitter brush habitat. I would try to bring our mountain meadows back to life by removing suppressed conifers and restoring hydrologic connectivity. I would then hire enough people to investigate and brag about all the good we are doing.

What is it about the work you do that you find most interesting or rewarding?

I often miss getting on the ATV, chasing down an owl or a fish, and just getting dirt on my clothes. But – and this is somewhat surprising to me – the best part of my job is probably not handling a fish, bird or plant. What I really enjoy is recruiting people to our team, helping somebody else prepare for an interview, and seeing people promote and move on to bigger challenges. Allowing people to seek training, explore new information technology and feeling safe to challenge the system is enormously rewarding.

I am most grateful to be associated with a team and a department loaded with hardworking, intelligent and dedicated people. This is what I brag about to family and friends.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

Remembering to strive to be an inspirational leader so that staff can embrace our most difficult challenges. Reminding myself what I represent, who I represent, and thinking forward with a vision … the ability to do that is not something anybody is born with. Those are learned behaviors, and it’s always a work in progress for me.

Do you have any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

Be persistent, and know that it is not for material gain that any of us do this. You need to be willing to move around a bit, embrace uncomfortable challenges, and strive to become really good at what you do.