University Honors Program Certificate Winner Mackenzie Shardlow Participates in Wilderness Research

UI Wildlife Student Finds Wilderness Internship Life-Changing

Dec. 7, 2005

MOSCOW/POST FALLS ­ University of Idaho wildlife student Mackenzie Shardlow grew up in Post Falls riding horses and hunting and fishing with her dad throughout Idaho and Montana. Becoming a veterinarian seemed ideal until she visited the UI and found a program that offered a way for her to combine her love for animals and the outdoors.

Shardlow, the first in her family to earn a college degree, came to UI to double major in wildlife resources and natural resources ecology and conservation biology. She said she chose a second major because she wanted a challenge that would stimulate her interest in wildlife but also emphasize policy.

She also had a desire to learn more about the environment and complete a senior thesis. As a top scholar, Shardlow knew her program would provide these opportunities as well as prepare her for graduate school.

“UI is known as one of the top wildlife schools, but it felt like home to me,” she said. “Associate Dean Alton Campbell hugely influenced my decision to come here. He, along with wildlife Assistant Professor Janet Rachlow, made an effort to know my name and meet with me one-on-one during a campus visit.“

Shardlow says that before coming to the UI, she was shy and did know have many friends at home who shared her interests in wildlife and spending time in the woods. Yet, she was unsure of her ability to meet the challenges of career as a wildlife biologist.

“Do I really love it? Can I cut it physically? Mentally? These were questions I asked myself, and I needed to find the answers to confirm what I wanted to do,” she said.

Her questions were answered when she completed the Bleak Taylor Ranch Wilderness Internship in the heart of the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho.

"Spending a summer at the Taylor Ranch Wilderness Field Station was the most life-changing thing I have ever done,” she said. “It was a real turning point that affirmed that I have what it takes to deal with the isolation, the physical requirements and the communications skills that are part of the job in wildlife biology.”

After graduation, Shardlow plans stay in the Northwest to work for a couple years for either an agency like the Idaho Fish and Game Department or in the private sector, and then attend graduate school.

She is mainly interested in studying elusive animals like wolverines, badgers and martins because they are not well studied and can be an indicator species for forest health and condition.

She is interested in studying the American marten and fisher, mainly carnivorous animals scientifically referred to as mustelids. Members of this family include weasels, stoats, polecats, mink, marten, fishers, wolverines, otters, badgers and others. Shardlow says she is attracted to these animals because of their elusiveness and increasing use as indicator species for forest health.