History
The long-term partnership between UM and FWP dates back to 1976, when Fred Allendorf (now emeritus) began his career at the University of Montana. Multiple fisheries biologists at FWP immediately sought Fred’s expertise on a variety of newly-emerging genetic questions concerning Montana’s native fish populations and hatchery broodstock. While a number of Fred’s students played an integral role in helping FWP use the best-available genetic data and theory, one of Fred’s PhD students, Robb Leary, was particularly influential. Together, Robb and Fred provided invaluable genetic expertise and advice on numerous topics and species. Robb was informally FWP’s fisheries geneticist for several decades while he worked at UM, before he was officially hired by FWP in 2007. From that point forward, the MFWGL has been officially a cooperative lab that aims to provide scientific decision support to FWP, while also advancing conservation genetic research.
After Fred’s retirement, Andrew Whiteley became the UM director of the MFWGL, and similarly, after Robb Leary retired, Ryan Kovach became the FWP genetic program manager. The use of genetic data and theory in fisheries management continues to grow in Montana. Currently, the lab provides data for over 20 different aquatic species, and annually analyzes approximately 10,000 unique genetic samples from aquatic species across the state. Over the nearly 50-year period that the lab has been in existence, more than 100,000 samples have been analyzed for cutthroat trout alone. These extensive, long-term data sets are invaluable for monitoring and conservation management of numerous species, and provide unprecedented resources for conservation genetic research projects. Indeed, there are over 70 UMFWGL publications focused on genetic topics for aquatic species in Montana (see below).
Starting in 2026, the FWGL expanded to address FWP’s current and future wildlife genetic need. [PERSON NAME] is the new wildlife conservation geneticist who will be working to develop the wildlife genetic program for FWP. Overall, much work has been done, and much work remains.
As part of the MFWGL, Andrew Whiteley also leads the Conservation Genetics Research Lab (see below). Students in the CGRL work on a wide-variety of research topics, many of which include direct collaborations with FWP, and use extensive FWP data sets spanning multiple decades.