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David Gaillard
Northern Rockies Representative
Areas of Expertise: Carnivore conservation in the Northern Rockies, including lynx, wolverines, fishers, wolves and grizzly bears.
David works to protect and restore imperiled carnivores and their habitats in the U.S. Northern Rocky Mountains, with an emphasis on “mesocarnivores” (medium-sized wild hunters), especially lynx, wolverines, and fishers. David joined Defenders in October 2007 with the opening of our field office in Bozeman, Montana, and his focus is to gain, enhance and maintain federal and state protections for these rare and little-known species, plus their more famous brethren, grizzly bears and wolves. His conservation work focuses on the Northern Rockies because this region represents the best hope for the long-term survival of North America’s great predators. With the restoration of the wolf in the past decade, the Northern Rockies is one of the few areas left on the continent that still supports its full complement of native predators, which also include grizzly bears, mountain lions, lynx, wolverines, fishers and martens.
David has worked to protect and restore carnivores in the Northern Rockies region since 1991, with organizations that include Predator Conservation Alliance (now called, Keystone Conservation), the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, and Greater Yellowstone Coalition. In his career, David has combined “policy” work with government agencies to influence policy with “social” work at the local level to increase understanding and appreciation of predators. It takes this combination of work at the federal and state policy level, and work at the local community level to ensure that public sentiment shifts from ignorance and fear to tolerance and appreciation of predators across suitable landscapes. David is committed to helping people successfully coexist with predators, because he believes this is the best hope for long-term restoration of biological diversity throughout the Northern Rockies, which can serve as a model for reversing the global extinction crisis.
David holds a Masters of Environmental Studies degree from the Yale School of Forestry, where he focused on the policy of large carnivore conservation, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Williams College in Massachusetts.
Contact Information
Phone: (406) 586-3970
