“We are extremely pleased to benefit from the expertise of such a strong technical advisory team,” said Dr. Taber Allison, AWWI’s Director of Research and Evaluation. “Impartial review is key to the success and authoritativeness of an organization like ours, which believes that decision-making should be based on sound science. We thank each one of our technical advisors for their involvement and dedication, as we work together to strengthen the science and provide effective solutions.”

 

AWWI adopted in July a national research program plan to guide and prioritize its research activities over the next five years. AWWI is also developing a centralized database or "research information system" to collect and organize wind-wildlife data; refining a landscape-level assessment tool; and identifying mitigation best practices. AWWI’s technical advisors provide guidance and impartial review for key components of these initiatives.

 

AWWI’s Technical Advisors currently include:

 

Dr. Arnett received a Ph.D. in Forest Science from Oregon State University, an M.S. in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University.  Dr. Arnett has studied bats since 1995 and joined BCI in 2004, where he leads research efforts on bats and wind energy development, both nationally and internationally, and provides expertise and guidance on science and policy issues. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America, The Wildlife Society (National and Texas Chapter) and is a past president of the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Dr. Arnett serves on the federal advisory committee that developed recommendations for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines for wind energy and wildlife, and chaired The Wildlife Society’s technical review committee on wind energy impacts on wildlife. He has published nearly 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and popular articles.

 

Dr. Gauthreaux received his B.S. from the University of New Orleans, his M.S. and Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia. He retired from Clemson University where he was a faculty member for 37 years, and joined GeoMarine, Inc. (Plano, Texas) as Senior Scientist in the area of Remote Sensing and Technology. He also holds a part-time faculty appointment at the Center of Excellence in Airport Technology (CEAT) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he works on the assessment of avian radars for airport applications. His primary research interest is in bird migration, and he has used a combination of direct visual techniques and radar to assess the collision risks of birds to man-made structures such as transmission lines, tall towers, and wind turbines. Dr. Gauthreaux is a fellow and past president of the Animal Behavior Society, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Ornithologists' Union, and a member of several ornithological societies. 

 

Dr. Hale received a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Miami, and an M.S. in Ecology and a B.S. in Biology from Purdue University.  She is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.  Dr. Hale’s areas of expertise include ecology and evolution, genetics, and conservation biology, and she has field experience in a wide range of habitats across North America and Costa Rica.  In addition to her current research on wind-wildlife interactions, Dr. Hale is collaborating with colleagues at TCU, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Fort Worth Zoo on a conservation genetics study of the threatened Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum.  Dr. Hale is a member of the American Ornithologist’s Union, Animal Behavior Society, Association of Field Ornithologists, Botanical Society of America, Cooper Ornithological Society, Horned Lizard Conservation Society, The Wildlife Society, and Wilson Ornithological Society.

Manuela Huso earned an M.S. in Statistics from Oregon State University, an M.S. in Evolutionary Ecology from the University of Oregon and a B.A. in Biology from Whitman College.  She recently (April 2011) joined the US Geological Survey (USGS) Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) in Corvallis, Oregon as a Research Statistician addressing statistical issues involved in determining the effects of wind power development on wildlife and habitats.  Before coming to the USGS she spent more than 20 years as a statistician at Oregon State University, teaching statistics to students in natural resources and collaborating with faculty and students in the College of Forestry to design research studies, develop appropriate statistical models, analyze data and interpret results.  Since 2004, she has been involved in pre-construction study design and analysis as well as post-construction deterrent and curtailment study design at several wind power generation facilities.  Her recent research has focused on improving estimators of fatality in order to better assess the effects of wind power generation facilities on wildlife and the potential for mitigation of these effects through deterrent or management techniques.  Ms. Huso serves on the National Wind Coordinating Committee's Wildlife Working Group, and the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy Wind-Wildlife Federal Taskforce.  She is a member of Sigma Xi, The International Environmetrics Society, The Wildlife Society and the American Statistical Association, for which she has served as treasurer, vice president and president of the Oregon Chapter. 
 

Dr. Johnson received a Ph.D. in Zoology from North Dakota State University, an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin, and a B.A. in Mathematics and Psychology from the University of Minnesota. In 1972, Dr. Johnson joined the USGS’s Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWR), where he is now Research Statistician and Senior Scientist. Dr. Johnson’s expertise is in the field of statistics, monitoring and inventory, quantitative ecology, and birds.   Current projects at NPWR include the influence of wind turbines on breeding grassland birds, the use of Conservation Reserve Program Fields by breeding birds, and inventory and monitoring.   He has published numerous articles, and is a member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, Biometric Society, Royal Statistical Society, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Ecological Society of America, Wildlife Society, American Ornithologists' Union,  Cooper Ornithological Society, Wilson Ornithological Society, Society for Conservation Biology, Society for the Study of Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences, and the North Dakota Natural Science Society (past president).

 

Dr. Strickland received a PhD in Zoology from the University of Wyoming, and an M.S. in Wildlife Management and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Tennessee. He is President and Senior Ecologist with WEST.   Dr. Strickland has over thirty-five years of experience in ecological research and wildlife management. He is author of more than 100 papers and technical reports in the scientific and popular literature on wildlife research and natural resource conservation and management.  Dr. Strickland is a member of the National Wind Coordinating Committee's Wildlife Working Group, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Communications Tower Working Group, and he served on the National Research Council, Committee on Environmental Impact of Wind Energy Projects and the Wildlife Society's Committee reviewing the wildlife impacts from wind power development. Dr. Strickland is a member of the American Statistical Association, The Ecological Society of America, The Wildlife Society and past president of the Wyoming Chapter of the Wildlife Society.