Ryan Nielson

Ryan joined Eagle Environmental, Inc. in 2018.  He brings more than 20 years of experience in designing, conducting, and analyzing data from wildlife research and natural resource monitoring programs. Ryan has overseen teams of biometricians, biologists, GIS specialists, and data wranglers to complete projects on time and within budget. Ryan’s projects have involved many wildlife species, but most of his work has focused on ungulates, bears, raptors, and salmonids. Ryan has collaborated on a variety of inter-agency initiatives that resulted in scientific publications and that directly influenced wildlife management decisions. He has taught statistical techniques to students and professionals across the U.S. and abroad. He also has been engaged in The Wildlife Society by organizing workshops and symposiums and has held the positions of Board Member and Chair of the Biometrics Working Group. Ryan is an author on more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. He has held affiliate faculty positions at the University of Wyoming, Oregon State University, and CONICET in Mendoza, Argentina, and is an Accredited Professional StatisticianTM of the American Statistical Association. Ryan’s goals are to develop achievable study designs, apply the most appropriate analytical approach to meet study objectives, and provide thoughtful reviews and recommendations on statistical methods. Ryan believes that biometricians should experience the field work and conditions under which wildlife data are collected. 

Personal areas of interest and expertise

• Estimating wildlife occupancy, abundance, distribution, and detectability across large spatial scales

• Modeling wildlife resource selection and habitat use

• Comprehensive meta-analyses

• Hierarchical, multi-scale models

• Critical thinking in a collaborative environment with partners to identify the most pressing resource management questions and address such via robust, cutting-edge methodologies