Bill Adams

Bill Adams, MS
Associate Director of Operations
Sul Ross State University
RAS 115
PO Box C-21
Alpine, TX 79832
Office phone: (432) 837-8406
Fax: (432) 837-8822
Email: bill.adams@sulross.edu

BILL ADAMS, MS

As the Associate Director of Operations at Borderlands Research Institute, Bill’s role is to work closely with staff, faculty, and students to promote, facilitate, and support research, education, and outreach. Specifically, Bill works to maximize operational efficiencies, ensure effective communication, assist with administrative processes, and direct various student programs.

Bill earned a BS degree in Wildlife Ecology from Texas A&M University in 1998 and a MS degree in Range & Wildlife Management from Sul Ross State University in 2003. His thesis work involved modeling mountain lion use of prey and habitats in southern Texas. Before graduate school he served as a research technician trapping and collaring Louisiana black bears for the University of Tennessee.

Bill began his professional career in 2001 as a wildlife management area (WMA) biologist with Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. In this role, he conducted a variety of land-based and aerial wildlife surveys, hired seasonal staff to operate deer check-stations, and responded to nuisance black bear calls. Bill accepted the research biologist job for Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Panhandle Plains Ecoregion WMAs in 2002. His research focused on the economic benefit of quail hunting on local rural communities, and the impact pasture-level quail densities had on quail hunting success. In 2004, he was hired as the lead WMA biologist on the Middle Trinity River Ecosystem Project where he oversaw and implemented habitat management projects, public hunting opportunities, outreach and demonstration events, and various University research projects on Gus Engeling WMA. There he initiated a 2,000-acre post oak savannah restoration project to demonstrate historic functional habitat to landowners in the area. In 2006 he was hired as the founding project leader for the Pineywoods Ecosystem Project. He, his team, and partners managed ~275,000 acres of habitat supporting wildlife populations, public hunting opportunities, and research projects scattered among 8 WMAs in east Texas. In addition to on-the-ground conservation, Bill was responsible for a wide variety of operational and administrative processes.

Bill’s practical career experiences support Aldo Leopold’s notion that wildlife and habitat can be “restored by the creative use of the same tools which have destroyed it–axe, cow, plow, fire, and gun.” However, restoration can only be accomplished by willing and informed landowners; therefore, Bill’s goal is to support BRI’s operational mission to strategically, expeditiously, and accurately provide technical guidance to land stewards in west Texas.