About Us
The mission of the Cooperative Research Units program:
- develop the workforce of the future through applied graduate education,
- deliver actionable science to cooperating agencies and organizations, and
- fulfill the training and technical assistance needs of the cooperators.
The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is part of a nation-wide cooperative program, initiated in 1935, to promote research and graduate student training in the ecology and management of fish, wildlife and their habitats. The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit, formed in 1991 by a merger of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit (est. 1950) and ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Fishery Research Unit (est. 1978), exists by cooperative agreement among the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Department of Fish and Game (ADFG), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ (UAF) and the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).
The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit sponsors graduate and post-doctoral research projects that range topically from productivity of fish and wildlife populations to effects of contaminants on coastal ecosystems, and geographically from southeast ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ rain forests to the tundra of southwest ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and the North Slope. A Unit Coordinating Committee, composed of ADFG, UAF, USFWS, USGS, and WMI representatives, oversees the mission and program of the Unit.
ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit staff consists of a Unit Leader, four Assistant Leaders, a Fiscal Officer, and an Administrative Assistant. Unit scientists hold positions as research faculty with the Institute of Arctic Biology, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, and have teaching appointments with the Department of Biology and Wildlife or the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit is housed in the Laurence Irving Building on the West Ridge of the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ campus in Fairbanks, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥.