The website for the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University has useful information for current and prospective students, lists of departmental faculty and research projects, and interesting news items.

Explore an interactive map of research projects currently underway by faculty, students, and research associates in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Media coverage of Epps lab research

Bighorn sheep research:

Los Angeles Times.  Can bighorn, bullet trains, and a big solar farm coexist in the Mojave Desert? 6 Feb 2023.

KTVZ News.  GPS tracking, OSU simulations show best spots to help desert bighorn sheep cross freeways.  31 January 2023.

NPR – Morning Edition.  Bighorn sheep count in California is canceled after a volunteer dies.  20 July 2021.

National Parks Service “Dare to Imagine” Women in Science series.  Christina Aiello.

National Parks Traveler.  Mojave Desert bighorn sheep showing resilience to respiratory disease.  24 February 2021.

Science Daily.  Researchers ‘cautiously optimistic’ about desert bighorn sheep recovery in Mojave Desert.  22 February 2021.

National Parks Service video seminar by Dr. Christina Aiello. Collaborative conservation of a fragmented metapopulation of desert bighorn sheep.  October 2020.  (1 hour, 5 minutes)
The webinar will introduce viewers to key features of desert bighorn sheep ecology, describing how the bighorn metapopulation functions and responds to challenges on the landscape. We’ll highlight the role our collaborative research plays in shaping our understanding of this system and in determining the best actions to promote population connectivity and persistence, as well as the diverse set of tools and partnerships we’re using to reach our goals.

Sierra Club California and Nevada – Desert committee.  Connecting the desert mountains.  Desert Report, pp 10-11, March 2020.

Atlas Obscura.  “When bighorn sheep decide to cross a highway.” 18 June 2018.

Oregon State University. “Desert bighorn sheep are crossing Interstate 40 in California.” ScienceDaily, 6 June 2018.

KTVZ News.  “Wildlife in central Oregon: Oregon’s bighorn sheep revival.” 18 July 2017.

Oregon State University Extension Service.  “OSU bighorn sheep research sheds light on path of killer disease.” 6 April 2017.

Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station.  “Counting sheep.” Oregon’s Agricultural Progress, Winter 2015.

Landscape genetics of beaver:

Oregon Public Broadcasting. Think out loud.  “Humans have been relocating beavers for a century.  We are only now learning some of the effects.”  9 September 2021.

Science Daily.  “Beavers are well established and moving through the Oregon Coast range.” 30 August 2021.

Use of lead ammunition:

Journal of Mountain Hunting. “Lead Bullets: Hunting for clarity in a controversy.” November 2017.

Oregon State University Extension Service. “OSU researchers release first analysis of complete beaver genome.” 13 January 2017.

Potential effects of proposed US-Mexico border wall on wildlife:

BBC News.  “What would Trump’s wall mean for wildlife?”  1 September 2016.

BBC World Service.  Science in Action.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045103p   26 August 2016.

Nature News.  “Trump’s border wall pledge threatens delicate desert ecosystems“. 16 August 2016.

Marten habitat use and movement:

“Study shows forest thinning changes movement patterns, habitat use by martens.” 7 April 2016

Pika – climate change and landscape genetics:

Mountain West News Bureau.  “What’s fluffy, squeaky, and interbreeding in the Rockies? Pikas.”  19 July 2018

University of Washington.  Conservation magazine.  “Pikas have some fight in them yet.” 3 February 2016.

Oregon Public Broadcasting.  EarthFix.  “Alpine pikas may survive climate change – depending on where they live.” 29 January 2016

Temporal considerations in landscape genetics:

The Molecular Ecologist.  “The biggest problem in landscape genetics and how to fix it.” 11 December 2015

OSU Fisheries and Wildlife mammal collection:

The Corvallis Gazette Times.  “Skin and Bones.”  27 March 2017