Ruth Shea – Our conservation and science advisor for eastern WA RMP swans

After studying the causes of Trumpeter Swan nesting failures in Yellowstone National Park in the 1970s, Ruth dedicated her career to the conservation of Rocky Mountain Trumpeter Swans.  Ruth earned her MS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 1979, worked as a biologist for a several federal and state  agencies (U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game) for over 30 years and served as Affiliate Faculty for the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID.

Ruth Shea – Our conservation and science advisor for eastern WA RMP swans

She served as the first Executive Director of The Trumpeter Swan Society (Plymouth, MN) 1999-2007 and served on their Board and as their Greater Yellowstone Coordinator for many years. During her 40+ years of work in Trumpeter Swan restoration, research and management, Ruth has contributed to numerous research projects, management plans and publications on the Rocky Mountain Trumpeter Swan population. Ruth left TTSS in 2015 and is now building a new regionally-based conservation program, Northern Rockies Trumpeter Swan Stewards through the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative (Jackson, WY), that focuses on developing lasting private-public partnerships and collaboration to ensure the secure restoration of nesting populations in the western US and expansion of important migration patterns and wintering distributions.

Ruth was a founding member and supporter of Northwest Swan Conservation Association. Like NWSCA, she believes that locally-based networks of informed and involved citizens are crucially important to create a secure future for our native swans.