Each year, the Palouse Audubon Society awards two grants to fund research that supports the chapter’s mission of promoting education, conservation, and restoration of natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. One grant is available for a graduate student at Washington State University (WSU) and the other for a graduate student at the University of Idaho (UI). The grants are $1500 each with no restrictions on how the funds may be used.
In order for us to share in activities supported by the grant and for the student to share some of their findings, we strongly encourage the recipients to present their research results at a future program meeting.
The 2025 grant cycle is open through March 31, 2025.
Download grant application here.
For questions, contact any of the chapter officers.
Previous grant winners:
2024
Aurora Schermbeck, WSU. Habitat use and territory size of black capped vireos.
Shelby McCahon, UI, Insecticide exposure and habitat quality for migratory shorebirds.
2023
Katherine Burgstahler, WSU
Fiona McKibben, UI
Neil Paprocki, UI
Sam Owens, UI
2021 and 2022
No grants awarded.
2020
Aaron Young, UI Conserving sagebrush species in a changing landscape: How habitat structures influence community composition.
Kevin Jones, WSU
2019
Jessica Tir, Washington State University and Guedry Faust of University of Idaho.
Ms. Tir predicts that birds alter their vocalizations in response to changing food availability and she will test this by evaluating the vocal response to reduced food availability using captive wild-caught pine siskins.
Ms. Faust is studying the vascular flora of the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho with a focus on the contemporary use of floras.
2018
Nicole Krauss, WSU, Exploring Effects of Two Major Environmental
Pressures–Predation Pressure and Food Availability–on Female State,
Reproductive Decisions, and Maternal Effects
Carl Lundblad, UI, Does Nest Microclimate Constrain the Reproductive Success of
Burrowing Owls Breeding Along a Latitudinal Gradient?
2017
Laura Ehlen, UI, “Shrub Encroachment and Grassland Bird Communities”
Olivia Smith, WSU, “Roles of Wild Birds in Agroecosystems”
2016
Lindsay Welfelt, WSU, “Using Stable Isotopes to Inform Bear Management and Education”
Korey Lynn Southerland, WSU, “Palouse Basin Model”
2015
Jamie Jarolimek, UI, “Aspen Vulnerability and Effects on Wildlife”
Steven Edward Woodley, WSU, “Environmental Factors Triggering the Emergence of Eustenopus villosus and Larinus curtus within Centaurea solstitialis population on the Kramer Prairie in Southeastern Washington”
2014
Douglas Barron, WSU, “Differential Allocation Toward Attractive Males is Offset by Decreased Reproductive Costs” (in Australian Red-backed Fairy-wrens)
2013
Stephanie DeMay, UI, “Noninvasive monitoring of the endangered Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit”
Sarah Wannamaker, WSU, “Chemical communication in songbird reproductive behavior”
2012
Brian Connolly, WSU, “Invasive Plant Effects in Palouse Prairie and Ponderosa Pine Forests”
Andrew Mackey, UI, “Venrenata Infestation Effects on Wildlife in CRP”
2011
Bobbi Adams, WSU, “Genetic Characterization of Historic Upper Columbia Chinook Salmon”
Patrick Adam, UI, “Characterization of Animal Habitat Using Forest Structural Information Derived from Satellite and Airborne LIDAR”
2010
Kristy Bellinger, WSU, “Environmental impacts on salmonids”
Teresa Lorenz, UI, “Cavity nesting birds in post-fire communities”
2009
Marisa Olson, WSU, “Avian Immunology”
Jody Vogeler, UI, “The use of LiDAR to evaluate the relationship between forest structure and bird species richness on Moscow Mountain”