Minnesota Moose Population

posted on June 9, 2014

Ecologists and biologists are concerned about recent data that shows that Minnesota's iconic moose seem to be vanishing. The decline in the moose population is being studied by MSI PI Assistant Professor James Forester (Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology). The College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences highlighted this research in the Spring 2014 issue of their journal Solutions (Sara Specht, "Now You See Them," Solutions, Spring 2014, online edition, downloaded June 2, 2014).

Professor Forester and his research group at MSI are developing a Decision Support Tool that will allow biologists and resource managers to make predictions about populations based on multiple sets of assumptions, evaluate the outcomes, and then make informed management decisions. They are especially interested in large ungulates, such as moose, and invasive biofuel crops. The work is computationally intensive, requiring the use of MSI.

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