SHANA DRIMAL
WILDLIFE PROGRAM MANAGER
Shana provides strategic leadership to GYC’s policies and programs to conserve, manage, and protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s iconic wildlife, with a specific focus on ungulates and the ecological and cultural restoration of bison. Shana strives to use a collaborative and science-based approach to advocate for policies, programs, and on-ground solutions to restore Yellowstone bison to Tribal and public ancestral lands, support migratory ungulates, landscape permeability and connectivity, and protect important winter habitat and corridor areas throughout Greater Yellowstone.
Shana has an extensive background in wildlife ecology and research. Before joining GYC in early 2015, she worked for more than a decade with various agencies and institutions researching some of our most iconic and controversial wildlife species and issues throughout Greater Yellowstone, the Northern Rocky Mountains, Alaska, and Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Utah, and a Master of Science degree from the Department of Ecology at Montana State University, studying wolf-ungulate dynamics in Yellowstone National Park. In conjunction with her graduate research, she worked for more than eight years studying wolf, grizzly bear, elk, and bison dynamics as a project lead for the Integrated Ecological Science Program in central Yellowstone. One of the primary objectives of this project was to contribute applied research to help resolve complex and controversial management and conservation issues throughout Greater Yellowstone. Shana is passionate about finding practical solutions to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and encouraging coexistence between local people and wildlife.
Shana has called the GYE her grateful home for over 20 years. As an avid outdoors woman, she is most happy exploring the backcountry with her husband and three kids, riding her horse, and running the trails with their dog, Alpine.
Favorite Greater Yellowstone Animal: Gray wolf and bison, I can’t pick just one :)
Conservation Hero: My undergraduate college professor and mentor, Dr. Fred Montague (Professor Emeritus, University of Utah)
Interesting Fact About Greater Yellowstone: Yellowstone is the only place where wild plains bison have continuously lived since prehistoric times.
