Combining Computing and Community for Conservation

The temperature hovers just above freezing in remote Alaska. Two University of Montana wildlife biology graduate students trek toward camp after a day of fieldwork. The wind howls, it’s raining hard, and the thick fog makes it difficult to see. It’s absolutely miserable, and there are still five miles to go.

Michelle Kissling’s colleague, Molly McDevitt, shouts into the storm, “So Michelle, tell me about your grandma. I've heard you mention her several times, and she sounds like a fascinating woman.”

“I could barely hear her over the roaring wind! I started laughing so hard,” said Kissling, now a Fullbright scholar studying in Zambia.

“It was so Molly to accept that we were miserable but make the most of it and try to connect in a very genuine way with me. She has drive and grit, yet is also very compassionate and caring. It really showed in that moment.”

McDevitt, a Boone and Crockett Fellow, will graduate with a doctorate in fish and wildlife biology from the University of Montana (UM) in December. As a quantitative ecologist, she uses advanced mathematical tools and statistical models to help tackle tricky conservation issues. While that might immediately conjure up images of a lone scientist hunched over a computer, McDevitt’s colleagues say it’s her keen scientific reasoning combined with a love of and talent for building community that truly makes her shine. 

Molly doing sea bird surveys in Northwest Alaska.

“Molly is a whole person and scientist. She has all of the field and analytical skills as well as all the personal skills like diplomacy, problem-solving, and effective communication to succeed in her career and life,” Kissling said. “It is rare to find someone that is so well-rounded and capable in all of these aspects.”

That juxtaposition of skills shines through in McDevitt’s approach to science. Through her research, she weaves two seemingly conflicting disciplines. McDevitt conducts rigorous, mathematically-based studies. But she also acknowledges the complexity of conservation issues—and the fact that science alone isn’t enough to address them. 

“Generally, I’m really interested in understanding dynamic socio-ecological systems,” McDevitt said. “Understanding what makes up hard, messy conservation issues—and pushing the way we approach those issues—are what I want my research to be focused on in my career.”

McDevitt’s doctoral work, which she successfully defended in September, narrows in on one facet of the complex Western conservation tapestry by exploring how changing landscapes drive changes in pronghorn populations. Her findings change the way we think about pronghorn survival and life history and have the potential to help managers better care for this species.

Studying Pronghorn

RIGHT: Molly presenting at a pronghorn workshop.

Pronghorn are symbols of the American West. They’re managed similarly to other ungulates, like elk and mule deer, but scientists are beginning to realize just how distinct they are. For example, pronghorn have a dynamic life history. Population levels can fluctuate dramatically—and sometimes seemingly randomly—over time, much more so than other ungulates.

“It’s a really cool time to study pronghorn,” McDevitt said. She wants to understand if they really are different from other ungulates and how. She does this by looking at their population dynamics along with landscape characteristics impacting those population dynamics. 

McDevitt used three approaches to understand pronghorn population dynamics in Montana and South Dakota for her dissertation work. She utilized statistical models, aerial population surveys, and data from over 1,300 collared pronghorn. McDevitt first examined how changes in the landscape drive where pronghorn go over time and how their population sizes change over time. 

“Pronghorn are a highly mobile species,” McDevitt said. “When we see their populations go down in an area, we’re always trying to figure out did they die, or did they just go somewhere else.”

Snow accumulation plays a big role. McDevitt found that pronghorn tend to avoid snow, leaving areas where there’s more of it on the ground. For this study, McDevitt used population data gathered from aerial surveys combined with satellite imagery, creating a new, affordable technique managers can use to better understand big game populations.

Next, McDevitt examined pronghorn demographics. She found that while pronghorn survival rates were generally steady across both time and the full extent of their range, they were much lower than other ungulate species. Adult female survival is an important demographic for big game wildlife, McDevitt said. As long as it stays high and constant, so does the population. “What we found was that adult female survival rates for pronghorn are not very high nor very constant,” she said. “That’s challenging this dominant paradigm for how we think about demography for these big game species.”

In her third study, McDevitt explored what factors in the environment drive those population demographics. McDevitt teamed up with University of Montana alum Anna Moeller to test run a new statistical tool, the Survival and Habitat Quality Model, which Moeller created to quantify habitat quality along a gradient. McDevitt used the tool to measure how different habitats impacted adult pronghorn survival rates. 

Pronghorn survival greatly increased on steeper slopes—those gently rolling, windblown hills found in prairie landscapes. These slopes likely provide access to forage and also allow pronghorn to avoid snow accumulation and move around more easily, McDevitt said. Survival also decreased in low-quality habitat areas dominated by annual forbs and grasses. That’s likely invasive weeds, like cheatgrass.

From a management standpoint, this study provides two important action items. To thrive, pronghorns need access to areas with low snow levels, and the findings also bolster support for targeted invasive species management. This research will help inform wildlife managers who set hunting license regulations by providing new information on how pronghorn populations ebb and flow and the factors that influence those cycles, said Paul Lukacs, associate dean of the Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at UM. Lukacs co-advised McDevitt’s doctoral work alongside Joshua Millspaugh, professor of wildlife biology and director of the Boone and Crockett Program at the University of Montana.

Seasonal Migrations

Dynamic is a word McDevitt uses to describe her work, but it also describes McDevitt. Her interest in science started in childhood. Her parents, who worked in healthcare, would travel from New Mexico to Yellowstone National Park for seasonal work every summer for a decade, bringing McDevitt and her sister along.

“As a human, I was able to do this seasonal migration from the Southwest to the Northern Rockies. I think about that travel, the road trip as a family, as being what made me fall in love with Western landscapes and Western communities,” McDevitt said.

As a young adult, McDevitt headed to the University of Oregon, where she played tennis and studied science. After graduation, she worked as a technician for the Yellowstone Wolf Project. Working with carnivores showed her that conservation problems exist beyond the scope of just science, McDevitt said. That insight contributed to her Ph.D. work.

Later, McDevitt took a job with Idaho Fish and Game as a field technician studying sage grouse. That’s where she met then-UM graduate student Moeller, now a research assistant professor at Oklahoma State University. Moeller hired McDevitt as a technician on a project estimating animal abundance through trail camera photos, a project in the Lukacs Lab at UM. In a perfect swirl of events, Idaho Fish and Game eventually approached McDevitt about doing a mountain goat study in partnership with the lab.

“Molly just shines,” Moeller said. “It was really clear that she would be a successful graduate student and bring a lot to the lab.”

For her master's degree, McDevitt tested different ways to determine mountain goat population sizes. The best technique involved sending pairs of people trekking out into mountain peaks to count goats in predetermined plots and then extrapolating that data to estimate population numbers across a wider area. “How the heck do you count things that crawl around on mountains and cliffs?” Lukacs said. “You hire someone who can also climb around on the top of mountains and cliffs. That’s Molly.”

An avid trail runner and backcountry skier, McDevitt never backs down from a challenge—in science or in life. When she was diagnosed with cancer in October 2023, she continued her dissertation work while also undergoing treatment, including six months of chemotherapy. She wrapped up treatment in July and is now cancer free. She defended her dissertation work two months later. “Grad school is tough, and it can be such a solo process, but you’re part of a team,” McDevitt said. “In some ways, cancer was kind of like that, too. I have such a beautiful community alongside me, but only I can go through treatment.”

Mid-hike during the mountain goat surveys we found a rubber boa!

A Boone and Crockett Fellow

McDevitt’s doctoral work was funded primarily by project partner South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, with contributions from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and the Boone and Crockett Club.

As a fellow in the Boone and Crockett Club’s University Programs, McDevitt received consistent funding throughout her graduate program, helping fill in the gaps for things that are often hard to get funding for, like student fees and health insurance. Boone and Crockett also matched university funding and allowed McDevitt to attend the Western Conservation Leadership Development Program (WCLDP). This nine-month-long course helps natural resource managers build leadership capacity and better tackle Western conservation challenges, from increased recreation use to climate change. McDevitt considers it one of the highlights of her graduate school career and said the skills she learned ultimately helped her land a new job after graduation.

“My work with the WCLDP was a really great example of the importance of partner-based approaches to big research questions,” McDevitt said. 

Cultivating Science and Community 

When people talk about Molly, the word community comes to the forefront. “My favorite thing about Molly is that she is genuinely interested in people,” Moeller said. “When you’re with her, it feels like you’re the most important person in the world because I genuinely feel like you are to her in that moment.” It shows in McDevitt’s work.

“I think that what makes me care so much about the work I do is this deep love and connection to wild landscapes and the people and animals and the forests and rivers that make them up. I include people in that for sure,” McDevitt said. “I’m just so driven to understand and care for those Western lands.”

In January, McDevitt will begin a new role as the science director for the Blackfoot Challenge, a Western Montana nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of natural resources and rural life in the Blackfoot watershed. In this new position, McDevitt will oversee research, monitoring, and conservation planning, helping guide science to inform community-based conservation efforts. It’s the perfect blend of the quantitative and community work. 

“People want really good data, so quantitative scientists are up to their ears in work they could be doing. It’s not often, as a quantitative scientist, you get to step into the human component of conservation efforts,” McDevitt said. “I want to be in that space.”