Contact: Sammy McDavid
A Mississippi State University training program in wildlife forensics is being honored by an international continuing education organization.
The Learning Resources Network recently selected the MSU Wildlife Forensics Certificate Program as one of four to receive a 1997 exemplary program development award. The competition drew more than 100 nominations.
The program received LERN accolades for being "unique in the world" and "an example of the types of programs that other colleges and universities should seek to develop."
LERN is a Manhattan, Kan.-based association in lifelong learning programming. Some 900 professionals from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom attended the recent conference and awards program in San Diego.
Alan F. Brown said the College of Forest Resources created the training program for crime-scene investigations four years ago as the result of "a specific need" cited regularly by wildlife professionals, investigators and conservation officers.
"As forensics capabilities improved, labs became swamped with requests for assistance," the college's continuing education coordinator said. The situation was compounded by the fact that most labs usually give higher priority to felonies like murder and kidnapping than to lesser wildlife cases.
"The net effect was that forensic lab services were either unavailable or too expensive for wildlife investigations," Brown said.
In its brief existence, the Mississippi State program annually has served about 40 state and federal conservation law officers in each of three training levels offered. Each level--basic, intermediate and advanced--involves an intensive curriculum spread over a three- or four-day period.
To date, participants have come from as close as the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and as far away as the states of New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, and South Dakota. "Our last offering earlier this year also drew a veterinary pathologist from Italy who had been attracted by the information on our web site," Brown said.
Wildlife officials have been very complimentary of the training. One, who was both a law enforcement officer and wildlife biologist, described the experience as "the single most productive course I have attended."
For these and other reasons, Brown said, "We feel that conservation officers who complete this program are some of the best trained wildlife forensic investigators in the world."
The next training sessions are planned in June. The basic course will be held June 10-12; intermediate, June 16-19; and advanced, June 23-26. [Ed. note: Registration fees are $325 for the basic level; $395 for intermediate and advanced.]