Jeff Martin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, who has been conducting dissertation field research in the Wood River Valley since 2015. His project is concerned with wolf-livestock conflict and coexistence in and around Blaine County, focusing on state management, rangeland sheep production, and “New West” regional transitions.
Responding to calls for social science attention to the “human dimensions” of human-wildlife conflict, Jeff’s work uses mixed qualitative methods – ethnographic and historical – to speak to broader political economic concerns around public lands governance, urban-rural divides, and risk and adaptation.
Come hear more about his research, wolf and sheep issues in the valley, and his collaboration with the Regional History Department.
Photo credit: Robin Garwood, Sawtooth National Recreation Area