Fred Provenza

Professor
Department of Wildland Resources
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-5230
(435) 797-1604
stan@cc.usu.edu

Fred Provenza was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and began his career working on a small ranch near Salida in south-central Colorado. In total, he spent seven years working on the ranch. After earning a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University in 1973, he became ranch manager. In 1975, he left the ranch to attend graduate school. As a research assistant and technician at Utah State University, he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Range Science. He joined the faculty there in 1982 and is currently a professor in the Department of Wildland Resources.

He has been recognized for accomplishments in research and as a mentor of students. In 1994, Fred received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Society for Range Management. In 1999, he received the W.R. Chapline Research Award from the Society for Range Management for exceptional research accomplishments that enhance management of rangelands. The same year, he also received the University Outstanding Graduate Mentor award from Utah State University. He has supervised 45 graduate - M.S. and Ph.D. students - and post-doctoral students from 19 different countries. He has also been named Professor of the Year for the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University twice, in 1989 and 2003.

Fred's research focuses on understanding behavioral processes, and using that understanding to inform management. For over two decades, his emphasis has been on understanding the role of learning in food and habitat selection by herbivores. He has written 51 synthesis papers for peer-reviewed journals, books, and proceedings, and he has written 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has been invited to speak on more than 40 occasions at national and international symposia.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has sponsored he and his colleagues annually for the past 12 years to teach a nationally acclaimed short course on behavioral principles that underlie plant-herbivore interactions. The course has been attended by NRCS employees, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty members from throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. It is consistently the highest rated course sponsored by the National Employee Development Training Program within NRCS. The number of people who attend this course annually ranges from 30 to 45. To help ease this backlog, he currently teach several 1- to 3-day workshops annually throughout the United States to audiences that average 50 people. In 2002, he taught 3-day workshops in Washington, Colorado and Nebraska. He also taught half- to full-day workshops in Arizona, Canada (Winnipeg and Calgary), Georgia, Missouri, Montana, and Washington.