Forest Faunal Systems

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1933, the author roamed the fields and forests of Virginia as a veterinarian's aide and boy scout. Early he won national awards in scouting for his conservation interest developed under Dr. Samuel B. Guss.

He received a B.S. in Forestry at Virginia Tech and then worked there with Dr. Jim Lindzey for a M.S. in wildlife biology. During that time he fought forest fires in Virginia, was president of the student body, hitchhiked across the U.S., built trail and chased smoke, and was a tower guard with the USFS in Oregon. He later qualified as a U.S. Army Ranger. He's been helped by his wife, Mary Wilson Burnette Giles. He has two daughters and three grandchildren.

As a state district game biologist on the George Washington National Forest, a cooperative activity, he learned much from M.L. Powell, district assistant, and enough to know he did not yet know enough to do the job needed for the forest, its wildlife, or its people.

He then went to Ohio State University and worked with Dr. Tony J. Peterle on a project culminating in a dissertation and Wildlife Monograph entitled, The Ecology of a Small Forested Watershed Treated with the Insecticide Malathion-S³⁵.

He taught techniques of wildlife management and big game management and did research at the University of Idaho, Moscow, for four years, then returned to his alma mater in 1967. There he taught a graduate wildlife resource management course, integrated pest control, systems ecology, a general environmental science course (College of Architecture), and a senior course in wildlife management. He retired in 1998 and continues to present via his web site a graduate course on modern wildlife resource management. He continues to investigate and write about an entrepreneurial approach to wildland management.

He edited two editions of the Wildlife Society's Wildlife Techniques Manual 1969, 1971), authored Wildlife Management, a textbook (1978), The Management of Wild Animals (in Chinese 1995), and has authored 200 articles and publications. He is a Certified Wildlife Biologist (Wildlife Society) and (until recently) a member of the Society of American Foresters and Ecological Society of America, the American Fisheries Society, and British Ecological Society.

His research and development work has been with graduate students, most working on some computer-based project related to wildlife mapping systems, population simulation, wildlife law enforcement, and improved decision making. He has been a consultant for TVA, the U.S. Wildlife Refuge System, and many others. He was an award-winning teacher.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision May 21, 2001.