L. Scott Mills

Personal Summary

Dr. L. Scott Mills is a Professor at the University of Montana (Wildlife Biology Program in the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, College of Forestry and Conservation). His research across normally disparate scientific disciplines has led to key advances in applying ecological science to wildlife conservation, including new insights into how genetic variation affects persistence of wild species, new methods for non-invasive abundance estimation and monitoring of population trend, computational measures of the relative importance of various management actions to efficiently affect population growth rate of target species, and direct field measurements of how wildlife respond to climate change and other factors.  His  research species and systems range from marmots and coyotes in Olympic National Park, to endangered bighorn sheep in the California Sierra Nevada, to fruit bats in the Philippines, to snowshoe hares across North America, to snow leopards and tigers in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Early in his career at University of Montana, Dr. Mills was awarded one of the most prestigious awards given by National Science Foundation to junior faculty: A Faculty Early Career Development award.   Since then he has published over 90 scientific articles and has given over 100 professional presentations, including testimony to the U.S. Congress on the role of ethics in conservation science.  

Dr. Mills was a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.  He has also served on invited committees for the National Science Foundation, National Park Service, National Forest Service, the International Whaling Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service.  He was a member of the Board of Governors for the Society of Conservation Biology, served on the Western Governor’s Association Policy working group on Climate Change Effects on Wildlife, and was a Contributing author to the North America section of the Nobel-Prize winning report from the 2007 International Panel on Climate Change. 

*** NOTE: AS OF JULY 1, 2013, I will be moving to a faculty job at North Carolina State University ***

BOOKS -- Other books listed under the publications tab

Conservation of Wildlife Populations: Demography, Genetics, and Management (2nd Ed.)

Wiley / Blackwell Publishers
Available December 2012  (at www.wiley.com/buy/0470671491)
[enter code “LS13” at checkout for 20% discount]

Education

PH.D., Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz Ph. D., Biology July 1993
Advisor: Michael Soulé

M.S., Wildlife Ecology
Utah State University, Logan M. S., Wildlife Ecology July 1987
Advisor: Fred Knowlton

B.S., Zoology
North Carolina State University, Raleigh B. S., Zoology May 1983

Courses Taught

CURRENT COURSES

Wildlife Population Ecology (WILD 470) (Senior undergrads and beginning graduate students)

Advanced Applied Population Ecology (WILD 570) (Graduate)

PAST COURSES

General Ecology

Foundations of Wildlife Biology: Techniques and Core Concepts

Frontiers of Conservation Genetics (Graduate)

Conservation Biology (field course at Mountain Lake Biological Station, VA)

Research Interests

My research interests are in the area of applied population ecology.  My students and I use population models and genetic tools, coupled with field experiments, to understand population and community-level effects of human stressors.  I am also active in developing more efficient and rigorous approaches to population assessment, monitoring, and conservation decision-making.

Currently, much of my work focuses on projects in mountainous landscapes.  I am heavily involved in helping to build local capacity for wildlife biology research in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, where two of my graduate students are using non-invasive genetic sampling and remote cameras to study snow leopards and tigers.  We have a book coming out summer 2012 providing practical, 'how-to' overviews of wildlife research techniques in mountainous Asian landscapes.  

In mountainous landscapes closer to home, my students and I have studied a number of species ranging from marmots in Olympic National Park confronting invasive coyotes, to Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep whose recovery we have helped guide with population models and genetic analyses, to small mammals along forest edges.  I am also continuing my research on snowshoe hares that has been continuous since 1998.  Having spent more than a decade understanding hare population dynamics and response to logging (and the powerful role of predation), my primary focus now is on whether hare camouflage can adapt to climate change.  Hares change from brown to white seasonally to match their background, and are confronting the single largest signal of climate change in temperate regions: a reduction in duration of snow during winters.  My research team is using a multi-disciplinary approach: from climate downscaling, to radiotelemetry and field studies, to gene expression and hormone assays.  The goal is to understand how the seasonal coat color change happens, and whether the timing of coat color will be able to shift as the snow season shrinks.

Here are some popular media descriptions of my work:

Snowshoe Hare Chronicles -- our research lab blog

The Color of Bunny.  High Country News, 2/6/2012

Tools that leave wildlife unbothered widen research horizons.  New York Times, 3/10/2009

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow? - The snowshoe hare may become a climate change poster child (VISION - The University of Montana)

The Case of the Climate-Challenged Hare
-- You Tube -- Research by Scott Mills, Professor of Wildlife Population Ecology

 

Field of Study

Broadly, my field is Wildlife Population Ecology.

But that doesn't capture half the fun! 
 

Students:

Graduate Students

Current graduate students:

• Julie Betsch (PhD): Time, space, and spillover: Interpreting patterns of emergence to predict disease dynamics at the domestic-wild carnivore interface.
• Alex Kumar (MS): Effects of forest restoration on snowshoe hare vital rates, behavior and seasonal coat color phenology. 
• Tshewang Wangchuk (PhD): Monitoring snow leopard populations in remote Himalayan terrain
• Tshering Tempa (PhD): The Ecology of Tigers in the Intact Mountainous Asian Landscapes of Bhutan
• Marketa Zimova (MS): Fitness Costs of Seasonal Color Mismatch and Behavioral Plasticity of Snowshoe Hares

Completed graduate students - PhD Degrees

• Tammy Mildenstein: “Conservation of endangered flying foxes I the Philippines: effects of  anthropogenic disturbance and methods for monitoring.” (2012).
• Ellen Cheng: “Climate Change, gene flow, and the legendary synchrony of snowshoe hares” (2010).
• Heather Johnson: “Escaping the extinction vortex: Identifying factors affecting population performance and recovery in endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep” (2010).
• Sue Cox Griffin: “Demography and ecology of a declining endemic: the Olympic marmot” (2007; co-advised with Mark Taper).
• John Citta: “Metapopulation ecology using mountain bluebirds as a model system.”  (2005; co-advised with Mark Lindberg).
• Paul Griffin: “Source-sink dynamics of snowshoe hares in a fragmented landscape.” (2003).
• Michael Schwartz: “The influence of gene flow and landscape location on genetic variation in two threatened carnivores: the Canada lynx and San Joaquin kit fox.”  (2002)
• David Tallmon: “Genetic, demographic, and ecological effects of habitat fragmentation.”  (2001; co-advised with Fred Allendorf)

Completed graduate students - M.S. Degrees:

• Jesse Newby, MS: “”Puma dispersal ecology in the central Rocky Mountains.” (2011).
• Tshering Tempa, MS (non-thesis): “Teaching Wildlife Biology in Bhutan.”  (2008).
• Carly Walker: “Landscape structure effects on snowshoe hares in fragmented forests.”  (2005)
• Julia Witzcuk: “Predation by invasive coyotes on declining endemic Olympic marmots.” (2007).
• Jenny Woolf: “Effects of thinning and prescribed burning on birds and small mammals.” (2003)
• Tammy Mildenstein: “Habitat selection of large flying foxes using radiotelemetry: targeting conservation efforts in Subic Bay Philippines.”  (2002)
• Reesa Yale: “Do highways influence connectivity in small mammals?” (2002)
• Kevin Lair: "The effects of forest fragmentation and forest edge on Columbian Mouse and Southern Red-Backed vole demography."  (2001)
• John Citta: “An evaluation of demographic sensitivity analysis models.”  (1998)

Post-Docs

• Rebecca Taylor (2009-2011): Modeling sage grouse population dynamics to inform management decisions.
• Richard Fredrickson (2007-2010): Evaluating tradeoffs between disease risk and demographic benefits for translocating an endangered bighorn sheep.
• Cindy Hartway (2006-2010): Sensitivity analysis to inform efficient recovery actions for endangered species on military lands.
• Matt Kaufmann (2004-2006):  A critical evaluation of the trophic cascade hypothesis for wolves and elk.
• Karen Hodges (2000-2003): Snowshoe hare population dynamics and response to silvicultural treatments.

Undergraduates

Current Senior/Honors Thesis Projects

• James Goertz: Description of snowshoe hare mortality and survival sites
• Skyler Suhler: Photos and Phenotypes: Using Camera Traps to Quantify Snowshoe Hare Coat Color Phenology
• Brandon Davis: Plasticity of snowshoe hare flight response to a potential predation event.
• Jennifer Hernandez: Analysis of potential cyclic dynamics for southern snowshoe hares.

Past Undergrad Theses and Hall of Fame field and lab assistants
In preparation – 175 or so total students, 20 or so senior and Honor’s thesis projects.
 

Specialized Skills

•  John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 2009 [Lived in Bhutan for 5 months, building local capacity for conducting wildlife science to incorporate into local conservation decision making].
• Scientific Declaration (Invited) to U.S. District Court on genetic issues associated with delisting Northern Rockies Gray wolves (2008).
• Invited Member of Western Governor’s Association “Climate Change Working Group” (2008).
• Invited “Contributor” to North America section, 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCC).
• North American Section Board of Governors, Society for Conservation Biology (2002-04).
• Certificate of Appreciation Awarded by Cindy S. Swanson, Director of WWFRP (USFS) “For continued support, professionalism, and partnership with Region 1 of the Forest Service as related to the conservation of the Canada lynx”. (Spring 2002)
• Invited Testimony to U.S. Congress (House Committee on Natural Resources) regarding ethics in conservation science (National Lynx Survey). (March 6, 2002).

• One of 3 Professors Invited to Speak in 2009-2010 Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series (2009 November). Title of talk:“Wildlife Biology in a Changing World”.
• Bob Watts Communication Award from the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society for my textbook “Conservation of Wildlife Populations.” (Feb. 2009).
• Keynote Speaker for Academic Convocation, University of Montana. (2006 August)
• Keynote speaker for University of Montana Undergraduate Research Conference (2006 April)
• Commencement Speaker, College of Forestry and Conservation (2004 May)
• School of Forestry Montana Druids Faculty Service Award. Spring 2000.
• Most Inspirational Faculty Award (University of Montana Silent Sentinel student society, accompanied by $1,000 award from the University). (Spring 1998).

International Experience

Philippine fruit bat work with Tammy Mildenstein (MS and PhD student); 1998-present.
New Zealand collaborative research / teaching exchange.
NSF-supported exchange with Univ. of Porto, Portugal.
Capacity building in Bhutan.
See the 5/6/07 New York Times article on our Program.

Selected Publications

BOOKS

Conservation of Wildlife Populations: Demography, Genetics, and Management.  2007 (1st edition) and 2013 (2nd edition). Wiley /Blackwell Press.     

Conservation of Wildlife Populations: Demography, Genetics, and Management (2nd Ed.)

Wiley / Blackwell Publishers
Available December 2012  (at www.wiley.com/buy/0470671491)

[enter code “LS13” at checkout for 20% discount]     

Foresman, K. R., L. S. Mills, and Phurba.  2010. Procedures for Implementing Small Mammal Inventories in Bhutan.  Publication of Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and the Environment, Bhutan.





 

Mills, L. S., Tshering, T., Wangchuk, T.  editors.  Wildlife research techniques in rugged mountainous asian landscapes.  in final preparation for publication in bhutan. (summer 2011 target publication date)

Selected JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Mills, L. S., M. Zimova, J. Oyler, S. Running, J. Abatzoglou, and P. Lukacs.  2013.  Camouflage mismatch in seasonal coat color due to decreased snow duration.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:7360-7365. [widely covered by media, including Science News, ‘Research Highlights’ of Nature Climate Change, McClatchy Newspaper chain, Science Update].  ** See cover of April 30,2013 Issue of PNAS **

 Witczuk, J., S. Pagacz, L. S. Mills.  In Press.  Disproportionate predation on endemic marmots by invasive coyotes.  Journal of Mammalogy.

Newby, J. R., L. S. Mills, T. K. Ruth, D. H. Pletscher, M. S. Mitchell, H. B. Quigly, K. M. Murphy, and R. DeSimone.  2013.  Human-caused mortality influences spatial population dynamics: pumas in landscapes with varying mortality risks. Biological Conservation. In Press.

Tempa, T., M. Hebblewhite, L. S. Mills, T. Wangchuk, N. Norbu, T. Wangchuk.  2012.  Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan as a wild felid biodiversity hot spot.  Oryx.  In Press.

• Hodges, K. E., and L. S. Mills.  2005.  Snowshoe hares in Yellowstone. Yellowstone Science 13:3-6.
• Yale, R. and L. S. Mills.  2000.  “Do highways fragment small mammal populations?” Proceedings of the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation.
• Mills, L. S. 1996.  “Cheetah extinction: genetics or extrinsic factors?”  Letter to the editor.  Conservation Biology 10:315.
• Zager, P., L. S. Mills, W. Wakkinen, and D. Tallmon.  1995.  “Woodland caribou --a conservation dilemma.”  Endangered Species Update.
• Mills, L. S.  1995. “The use of population ecology approaches to assess re-introduction of endangered Selkirk Caribou.”  Final report, submitted to: a) Idaho Fish and Game; b) Washington Department of Wildlife.
• Mills, L. S.  1995.  “The role of population ecology in guiding wildlife translocations.”  Final report, submitted to U.S. Forest Service, Missoula, MT.
• Cassidy, K., E. O. Garton, W. B. Krohn, L. S. Mills, J. M. Scott, and K. Williams.  1994.  “National guidelines for assessment of reliability of GAP vertebrate distributions.”  National Biological Survey.
• Mills, L. S.  1994.  “Effects of forest fragmentation on small mammals in Southwest Oregon.”  COPE Report [(Coastal Oregon Productivity Enhancement Program), an educational non-technical publication for forest managers.]  7:6-8. 
• Mills, L. S. and M. Morrison.  1993.  “Final Report: Ecology of the Fresno Kangaroo Rat and associated small mammals at NAS Lemoore”.  Prepared for Lemoore Naval Air Station.
• Fredrickson, R.J., L.S. Mills, and B.B. Moorhead.  1989.  “Spotted owl surveys in Olympic National Park -- 1988 and 1989.”  Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA.
• Mills, L.S., R.J. Fredrickson, B.B. Moorhead, and D.U. Sharp. 1988. “Spotted owl distribution along elevation and vegetation gradients in Olympic National Park.”  1988 Progress Report.  Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA.