AWA’s 2025 Volunteer of the Year Award Goes to Jeff Stetz
Jeff has been an overachieving wildlife biologist for over 25 years; he has a Bcs, MSc, and PhD in Wildlife Biology, is a certified Wildlife Biologist with The Wildlife Society, and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Wildlife Biology. For the past 20 years, Jeff worked primarily on large-scale studies for large carnivores in the American intermountain West. His work included the first population-wide abundance estimate for grizzly bears in northern Montana and the first density estimate for American black bears in the Glacier National Park area. He also helped develop new population monitoring methods for mountain lions and river otters in North America and two bear species in the Russian Far East, as well as rigorous evaluations of monitoring methods for black bears across northeastern North America. In Alaska, Jeff was the Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife Research Coordinator for Region 4 from 2018-2024.
In 2022, the Alaska Board of Game created a predator control program in western Alaska, which came to be known as the "Mulchatna Massacre". The program allowed the state to shoot every bear seen within the Mulchatna calving grounds (defined as a 40,000 square mile area) from helicopters and airplanes until 2028. As Research Coordinator for the Region, Jeff was shocked - the program lacked scientific and ethical integrity and was not vetted by research staff before it passed. AWA filed a lawsuit against the program in 2023. In 2024, Jeff left his position at Fish and Game to work at the Center for Wildlife Studies.
Since his departure from ADF&G, Jeff has tirelessly reviewed bear and caribou data in the Mulchatna area, testified against the program, and submitted a key affidavit in AWA's victorious lawsuit against the State for illegally shooting nearly 200 bears between 2023-2024. Jeff's expertise in bear management was essential to AWA's success in court, and his knowledge of bears and the Mulchatna region was instrumental in ensuring AWA's communications were accurate.
Thank you, Jeff, for all you do for Alaska’s bears!
