UM to launch waterfowl, wetlands center with $5.5M gift
(Missoula Current) The University of Montana this week landed a $5.5 million gift to establish a new academic and research center at the College of Forestry and Conservation focused on waterfowl and wetlands.
The contribution from Jim Kennedy, chair of the James M. Cox Foundation, will advance the school's effort to construct a campus hub for conservation research and education. The James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Center will strengthen UM’s nationally recognized Wildlife Biology Program and expand its leadership in research, innovation and stewardship.
“The creation of the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Center will elevate UM as a world-class institution for waterfowl and wetland research and management,” said Libby Metcalf, dean of the College of Forestry and Conservation. “It reflects exactly the kind of transformative investment that strengthens our college, serves Montana and extends our impact nationally by providing a dynamic new facility to support the programs and expertise we have built here.”
Kennedy's gift will support the new center’s groundbreaking operations and secure its place within the university’s new home for the College of Forestry and Conservation.
According to UM, research at the Waterfowl and Wetlands Center will be vital in securing healthy wetlands and waterfowl populations, ensuring the future of Montana’s natural resources and sustaining recreational opportunities in the state and beyond. The center’s work will have profound environmental and economic impact throughout the region.
“More than half of North America’s wetlands have been lost over the last two centuries,” said Thomas Riecke, the James K. Ringelman Chair in Waterfowl Conservation at UM. “The center will work to map and monitor wetlands across North America and model the linkages between wetlands and waterfowl population dynamics.”
An avid nature enthusiast, Kennedy has a long history of living and working in the West. After attending college at the University of Denver, he began his career in media working for newspapers in Colorado.
Since 2008, he has endowed waterfowl and wetlands conservation programs at several universities. The Waterfowl and Wetlands Center at UM aims to provide managers with science-backed strategies needed to secure the future of North America’s migratory waterfowl.
“The Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana has a great reputation,” said Kennedy. “When I talk to the folks there, I sense their passion and commitment. I really think the University of Montana has earned this program, and I wouldn’t have committed to it if I didn’t feel very strongly that it was the right place to invest in work I care so much about.”