Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson joined the wildlife and fisheries sciences department as the Boone and Crockett Wildlife and Conservation Policy Chair at Texas A&M University.
The chair was established with a $500,000 gift from the Boone and Crockett Club and a matching $500,000 from the Texas A&M Development Foundation. The purpose of the chair is to help to close the gap between the knowledge of wildlife science and the implementation of wildlife policy, according to Dr. Robert Brown, department heat for the wildlife and fisheries sciences department.
Dr. Peterson was chosen for the Texas A&M position because of her academic background; her successes in teaching, grantsmanship, publication, and graduate student mentorship; and her enthusiasm and dedication to sustainable conservation and sound wildlife policy on private lands, Brown said.
Brown said Peterson is well aware of the challenges facing wildlife and wildlife habitat in Texas, the United States, and throughout the world on private land, such as the privatization of wildlife; public attitudes about hunting; private landowner conflicts over Endangered Species, Clean Air and Clean Water regulations; and the competition for water resources between urban, agricultural, industrial and wildlife/fisheries/recreational uses.
Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Idaho in 1976. She earned a master’s degree in speech communication in 1980 and a doctorate through the interdisciplinary program in environmental conflict in 1986, both from Washington State University.
Dr. Peterson has been principal investigator or co PI on grants totaling $ 4,844,288 from such funding agencies as the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, The Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas Water Resources Institute.
Peterson is the newest addition to A&M’s water resources faculty. Other faculty are Georgianne Moore of Rangeland Ecology and Management, Douglass Shaw of Agricultural Economics and R. Karthikeyan of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
