2019 Awards

The Raymond F. Dasmann Award for the Professional of the Year went to David J. Germano.

David has been a tenured faculty member in the Biology Department at CSU-Bakersfield since 2000 and has successfully mentored a number of graduate students. Dave has been a key contributor to research on rare species and conservation efforts in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere for over 30 years and was one of the original organizers of the SJV Natural Communities Conference, now going on its 20^th year. He has served as an instructor for a number of workshops (most organized by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter) on small mammals, blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and pond turtles. Dave stepped up after the untimely passing of Barry Garrison and served as the Associate Editor for the TWS-WS Transactions for 4 years. Dave then was instrumental in “reinventing” the Transactions and morphing it into Western Wildlife, which is now a thriving and slowly growing on-line journal

The Yosemite Conservancy started back in 1923, when the Yosemite Museum Association was established as the original nonprofit partner organization in the National Park Service, created to manage funds for the first park building constructed to serve as a museum. To date the Yosemite Conservancy has funded $119 million in grants for trail and habitat restoration, wildlife management, historic preservation and other high-priority efforts in Yosemite, resulting in more than 600 completed projects.

Among the many accomplishments in 2018, the Nevada Chapter held Bootcamps’ for learning R (statistical programming   platform) which was attended by 30 local wildlife students and professionals raising substantial funds for the Student Chapter. They also hosted a Migration and Movement Workshop, which helped improve knowledge, facilitate state funding for projects through the Department of Interior’s Secretarial Order 3362, and successfully raised funds for the Chapter. The workshop also included information and training on “Migration Mapper” R plugin to run Brownian bridge movement models on migration data. With logistical support from the Nevada Chapter, the Student Chapter assisted with registration at the twenty-eighth Biennial Western States and Provinces Pronghorn Workshop. They also held a Science Symposium attended by 51 individuals and included 21 presentations from a variety of professional backgrounds, including graduate and undergraduate students from UNR, biologists from UNR, state, and federal agencies, and an archeologist from USGS. Pronghorn Workshop Conservation Conversations

Cynthia has demonstrated her commitment to TWS-WS since early in his career. While student at UC Davis Cynthia was active in the Davis Student Chapter and volunteered at the annual TWS-WS conference each year. Cynthia has been a long-standing member of TWS-WS and has held numerous positions on the Board including Section Secretary 2001 – 2002, Professional Development Committee Chair 2002 – 2004, President-Elect 2004, President 2005, Past President 2006, Central Coast Chapter Representative 2007 – 2009, Newsletter Editor 2008, Section Representative to TWS 2014 – Present. In addition, she has been the TWS-WS Program Director 2009 – Present and a Planning Committee member for the 2001, 2009, 2011, and 2019 TWS Annual Conferences hosted by TWS-WS, and a Planning Committee member since 2005 for the TWS-WS annual conference.  She was instrumental in developing the first comprehensive TWS-WS Strategic Plan in 2014, which was adopted in January 2015, and she is currently helping develop a new strategic plan. She was influential in the creation of TWS-WS “Western Field Camp” Program. Students ranging from 1^st year undergrads to graduate are brought together for 7-10 days each summer to train in wildlife techniques. Finally, she has remained a long-term advocate for the Western Section and a significant influence in Executive Board development, communication and effectiveness.

Rich has been the TWS-WS Awards and Grants Chair since 2001. For nearly 20 years, he has developed annual announcements for grants and awards, maintained databases of distinguished Section members for possible award recognition, devoted countless hours to researching and drafting nominations for TWS-WS awards, evaluated and summarized all applications for TWS-WS awards and grants before sending them to the WS Executive Board for consideration, selected and ordered all award plaques, prepared the slide presentation for the annual awards banquet, made many improvements to the Section’s process for recognizing meritorious members, and provided valuable assistance and guidance to the Executive Committee in all matters related to awards, grants, and student and professional support.