Western's Greg Green receives lifetime achievement award for leadership in conservation

Environmental Sciences instructor and noted ecologist Gregory A. Green received the Leadership in Conservation Award from the Washington Chapter of The Wildlife Society (WA TWS) at the organization’s annual meeting at Great Bear Lodge last month. The award, presented this year after a two-year pandemic-related delay, recognizes Green’s “career-long leadership in conservation and dedication to wildlife management in Washington State and beyond.”

Greg Green has devoted 50 years to wildlife ecology.

“I have had an absolutely wonderful wildlife career that began as a USFS biological aide in 1974,” says Green. “Now I’m teaching at WWU because, one, I really think it important to give back to my career and, two, it allows me to stay in the biological game. I am never bored.”

Green’s career spans the western U.S. and Alaska with particular emphasis on threatened and endangered species, forest and shrub-steppe ecology, temperate and arctic marine mammal and seabird ecology, climate change, natural resource management and mitigation plans, and conservation assessments. 

Green has published over 35 papers in research journals and five book chapters, with subjects ranging from marine mammals to desert lizards, burrowing owls to bats, leatherback turtles to red foxes, and beyond. He has also served as an associate editor for three different journals (Northwestern Naturalist, Journal of Wildlife Management, Herpetological Conservation and Biology), managing over 200 manuscripts submitted for publication. 

Eight years in the making, “Wild Lives,” a book celebrating the world’s wildlife, is slated for publication in October 2023. Alongside long-time friend and nature photographer Art Wolfe’s photographs, each of Green’s eleven chapters focuses on the state of wildlife in a specific biome. An accomplished landscape and wildlife photographer himself, students in his ecology and natural history courses can attest. You can see photos from Green’s travels near and far at greggreenphoto.com.

Active in the community over the years, Green is past-President of both the Washington Chapter of The Wildlife Society (WA TWS) and the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology (SNVB), a past board member for the Cascade Carnivore Project and Western Wildlife Outreach, and previously served as a member of the Whatcom County Wildlife Advisory Committee. In addition to the 2020 Leadership in Conservation Award, he received the 2016 President’s Award from the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology (SNVB).

This broad, eclectic experience is just one of the reasons Greg Green was recognized for this award. Reflecting on his career, he says, “I was born to be a biologist.”