How to help

You can help the Department achieve its goal of becoming an outstanding resource for our students, the University, the State and the Profession. Your tax deductible gifts can be part of this. Gifts can be earmarked to support a specific project, or they can become part of the general fund that supports all our activities. It's easy, just make out a check to the New Mexico State University Foundation and send it to the Department. Be sure to include a brief note indicating how you would like the gift used. Even small gifts can have a big impact in helping us serve you better.

Chair in Conservation Biology

Our Department is far too small to adequately address the teaching and research needs in Natural Resource Management that are important to the people of New Mexico. It our goal to develop funding for an endowed chair in Conservation Biology/Game Management and fill that position with an individual of national stature.

This approach will not only add significantly to the human resource available in our Department, but a national figure will lend a new impetus in our efforts to address many of the important regional problems in natural resource management that we face today. It will take approximately 1.5 million dollars to achieve this goal - that's a lot of money, but it can be done.

Scholarship Fund

Our students are important to us and because of this our scholarship fund is important. Most of our students work while they attend school so even a modest scholarship can have a large impact on how much attention they can devote to their studies. Scholarships also play a very important role in student retention, a serious problem throughout the University. Financial concerns are the most frequently cited reason students give for dropping out of school. Need-based scholarships often mean the difference between finishing school and leaving. Our goal is to develop this fund to a level that insures no successful student in our program ever drops out of school because he or she can't afford to continue.

Wildlife Health/Genetics Laboratory

The Department of Fishery, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology has been working for several years to develop a state of the art wildlife health/genetics laboratory in newly acquired space in Gerald Thomas Hall. Our students and faculty need a modern facility to address some of the most pressing wildlife problems in the region. This laboratory will be important as the department takes up many pressing conservation issues like sorting out genetic relationships among populations of Rio Grande cutthroat trout. It will also play a key role in studies of wildlife health including chronic wasting disease in our deer herds, whirling disease in trout and the effects of West Nile virus on our bird populations. These and many other studies will benefit form the tools and techniques that our proposed laboratory can provide.

Currently, space is available for the laboratory and some of the rudimentary laboratory equipment has already been acquired, but we have a long way to go. We expect that an additional $300,000 to $350,000 will be necessary to provide the equipment and furnishing to finish the laboratory.

Field Station Fund

The Department has been working for several years to develop a field station where our students and research faculty can work in a supportive setting. The field station is on state land leased to the University in a remote section of the Sacramento Mountains. The site was formerly part of the college ranch, but was largely abandoned over a decade ago when changes in land use in the area required that the college give up ranching operations in the area.

There are two buildings on the site, a small house and a bunkhouse/laboratory. Both are useable, but substantial maintenance and upgrading is needed. We are currently using the facility to support both research and teaching activities. It is used as a headquarters for a research project on the Rio Bonita, and the Department teaches a new field course (Field Techniques) there. Students in this course live in the bunkhouse, conduct fieldwork at and near the site and process their samples in the laboratory. You can click here to see last year's class in action. This course, which represents an important part of our new curriculum, wouldn't be possible with such a facility.

The Field Station Fund is used to maintain the facility and perform upgrades as funds become available. The most pressing current need is to replace unprotected plumbing in the bunkhouse. This would end the danger of freezing in winter at times when the facility is unoccupied. Also, the kitchen facilities, while useable at this time, need to be upgraded to better accommodate large classes. There are many other needs including furnishings and laboratory upgrades. These and other tasks will be undertaken in the future as funds become available.

Research Fund

This fund also is important for faculty trying to develop a new project or beginning work in a new area. This is because many funding agencies require some initial data before there is any real chance for a grant. Having the Research Fund available to support such needs can be crucial in developing such preliminary information.

The research fund is used to support faculty and student research projects. We view these funds as "seed" money because their main use is to help get new projects or new ideas underway. This is particularly important to graduate students who may be developing a project that is not directly supported by their advisor's research.

General Fund

The General Fund is used in a large variety of ways including all of the uses above when those funds can't meet a particular need. One of the most common and important uses is to support travel to meetings by graduate and undergraduate students. Many of our students aren't associated with specific grant supported research and otherwise would have a very difficult time getting to meetings on their own.

This fund also supports many of the social functions in the Department like our annual department picnic, retirement gifts for faculty and staff, and memorial gifts when a department member looses a loved one. This fund provides much of the "glue" that holds the department together by encouraging the kind of cohesiveness that can make the department strong while providing favorable experiences for everyone.

Volunteering Your Time

Some individuals prefer to help by participating in the work of the Department. There are many different ways to do this, but providing labor to research projects is among the more rewarding. If you have time on your hands and would like to work with the Department, just send us a brief note indicating your interests and any special talents or skills. When opportunities arise, we will do our best to include you.