By Jean Thomas
Well, maybe not lions and tigers, but we sure have bears and coyotes and beavers. There’s a professor at Cornell who has more information about the wildlife of New York State than anyone I’ve ever met. His title is “Professor and Department Extension Leader, Natural Resources and the Environment.” His core programming has to do with reducing negative impacts associated with wildlife. Many of the bulletins and brochures available from your local county’s Cornell Cooperative Extension were written by or with Paul Curtis. If you have had to seek the assistance of your local Extension or a nuisance wildlife control professional for a problem with wildlife, you have benefitted from Professor Curtis’s work. He co-authored the National Wildlife Control Training Program for certification of wildlife control professionals, necessary for licensing and certifications required in New York and other states. He, himself, is additionally a Certified Wildlife Biologist with The Wildlife Society.
The reason I’m writing about Professor Curtis today is that I had the honor this past summer of interviewing him for the podcast, “Nature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley,” What had been planned as a half hour episode became a two part conversation as well as a promise from Paul to speak with us again. The episode numbers are 113 and 114. The guy knows a fabulous amount of information about probably every wild animal in the state. The two episodes drop on March 21 and 28 and are wonderfully entertaining. He has anecdotes about everything from deer to feral pigs and the fascinating weasel family. If an animal is a nuisance to anybody, urban or suburban or forest or farm, Paul Curtis will know all about it, and has probably written the manual for control of the furry pest.
Currently, he is involved with urban research about the negative impacts of deer, with the Cornell Integrated Deer Research and Management Program. This combines research and field work. The goal is multi-faceted, including population control methods, monitoring deer impact both qualitative and quantitative, and trials of systems to assess ways to regenerate forests from deer damage. The deer problem is so vast it affects biodiversity of native plants and animals. Among the issues considered is climate control and the influence it exerts over all the flora and fauna. In the time between all the teaching and research, Professor Curtis travels the state directly addressing those professionals and the public who are invested in dealing with nuisance wildlife. Listen to the two podcast episodes and find out how interesting our wildlife neighbors are when they’re not eating our chickens or stealing our veggies. There will be great stories about deer and coyotes and bears, and you can’t help but hear his affection and respect for our furry foes. If you have a particular four legged enemy, you might find a fact sheet to help deal with it at Columbia Greene Cooperative Extension: http://ccecolumbiagreene.org/climate-change-and-the-environment .
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