Nothing stands alone in the woods. Complex interactions between plants, soil, fungi, and wildlife are essential for a healthy landscape. Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants produce food and shelter for animals and insects, which repay the favor by helping plants reproduce through pollination and seed dispersal. Important nutrients are cycled through the food chain. All wildlife are affected by the structure and composition of the forest. A well-managed woodlands promotes a diversity of species, ages, and composition that will benefit the creatures that call it home.

Forestry and Natural Resources’ wildlife conservation efforts are mission driven, with vital programs in research, extension, and instruction. FNR partners with state and federal agencies to conduct research that is often associated with stream or forest wildlife species. Agricultural communities benefit from the wildlife damage research the department conducts. Recent FNR research has been devoted to studying human/wildlife interactions, habitat use and management, mole impacts on soybeans, black vulture damage in cattle, and wild pigs’ impact on the ecosystem and the agricultural sector.

The department provides support to woodland owners and agricultural producers through extension programs such as the Woodland Owners Short Course, various webinars, and volunteer community science programs such as Kentucky Master Naturalists.

Undergraduates majoring in forestry take courses in conservation biology and wildlife assessment. They can also minor in wildlife biology and management with courses in herpetology, mammals, and birds. A third of those enrolled in the wildlife minor are forestry students, but the option attracts those majoring in a variety of other disciplines, including natural resources and environmental science, animal science, biology, etc. Students graduating with a background in wildlife management have career opportunities in federal and state agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. They could choose to work in the nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector, with nonprofit conservation groups. Private consulting is a third career path available to students with a wildlife minor.