Kerri VierlingView profile
Professor
Kerri Vierling is a Professor of Wildlife Resources and Director of the College of Natural Resources (CNR) Graduate Studies at the University of Idaho. She holds a Ph.D. in Biology (1998) and M.A. in Biology (1994) from the University of Colorado, along with a B.A. in Biology from The Colorado College (1990). Her research focuses on avian ecology, disturbance ecology, and the impacts of vegetation structure on wildlife distributions. Her work integrates remote sensing techniques (e.g., LiDAR) to investigate habitat relationships and land use effects on animal populations. Dr. Vierling has received numerous awards for teaching and advising, including the U of I Advising Excellence Award (2017), the CNR External Advisory Board’s Faculty Excellence Award (2017), and multiple College of Natural Resources Outstanding Teacher awards. Her advising mentorship has supported both undergraduate and graduate students in ecological and conservation fields. Her recent research emphasizes fire ecology, climate change vulnerability assessments, and avian biodiversity in temperate forests. Collaborative studies involve analyzing bird assemblages using remote sensing data and exploring pest control services provided by functional bird diversity in agricultural systems. Publications span topics from thermal ecology of tree cavities to landscape-scale habitat modeling. She actively participates in interdisciplinary projects linking ecological data with management strategies, such as optimizing LiDAR applications for wildlife distribution studies. Grants & Funding: Not explicitly listed in text, but inferred through research focus areas. Labs/Teams: Involved with CNR’s wildlife ecology and remote sensing research groups.










