Jonathan Proctor

Areas of Expertise: U.S. northern Rockies and northern Plains conservation issues, grizzly bears, black-tailed prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, bison, and swift fox.

Based in the Missoula office, Jonathan works to protect and restore grizzly bears in the U.S. northern Rockies and Cascades (Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming), and bison, swift fox, black-footed ferrets and black-tailed prairie dogs in the U.S. northern Plains (Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming).

Jonathan joined Defenders in 2005 and opened our Denver field office. In 2008 he moved to our Missoula office. Before joining Defenders, Jonathan worked for eight years with Bozeman, Montana-based Predator Conservation Alliance. During this time he helped form the Northern Plains Conservation Network and served as its part-time coordinator from 2001-2004. He began his conservation career as a wilderness ranger with the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and Montana.

Jonathan is coauthor of “Black-tailed prairie dog abundance and distribution on the northern Great Plains based on historic and contemporary information,” (Great Plains Research, 2002), Ocean of Grass: a Conservation Assessment for the Northern Great Plains (World Wildlife Fund, 2004) ), and “Prairie dogs: an ecological review and current biopolitics,” (Journal of Wildlife Management, 2007). He was the primary author of “Focal areas for conservation of prairie dogs and the grassland ecosystem,” a chapter in Conservation of the Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Island Press, 2006). Jonathan represents Defenders as a member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s black-footed ferret recovery implementation team. He also serves on the Prairie Dog Coalition executive committee, and is a research associate with the Denver Zoological Foundation.

Jonathan Proctor holds a B.A. in Geography from Wittenberg University and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana.