Jack Ward Thomas is the first recipient of the Elk Foundation’s annual Olaus J. Murie Award.

Those words could very well describe the goals of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. But they were written by Olaus J. Murie in 1951, long before the Elk Foundation was conceived. Those words are, in fact, the final passage of Murie’s ground-breaking book, Elk of North America.

As a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Biological Survey (now the Fish and Wildlife Service) from 1920 to 1946, Olaus Murie’s field work took him to the most remote areas of North America, from Hudson Bay to the wilds of Labrador. An accomplished field biologist, writer and artist, he also founded the Wilderness Society and served as its first president. But he is perhaps best known—particularly among elk aficionados—for his intensive, keenly perceptive study of elk and elk habitat at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. He was the first to conduct detailed research on elk, and is now widely regarded as the father of modern elk management.

So it seems fitting that the Elk Foundation recently established an annual award in his honor. The Olaus J. Murie Award recognizes a wildlife or land-management professional who has made significant contributions to the betterment of wild, free-ranging elk. The award honors Murie’s tremendous accomplishments, while recognizing those who have followed his lead and have become leaders in their own right.

It is equally fitting that the first annual Olaus J. Murie Award be presented to Jack Ward Thomas, the man who led the effort to write and edit, Elk of North America: Ecology and Management, the Wildlife Management Institute’s monumental successor to Murie’s book.

Currently the Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Management at the University of Montana, Jack Ward Thomas has had tremendous influence on the wildlife profession, dating back to the 1960s. He came to the forefront in the 1970s when he directed the publication of a notable document entitled, Wildlife Habitats in Management Forests. At the time, consideration of wildlife habitat on national forests took a back seat to logging, grazing and mining. Through his writing, and his force of logic and persuasion at hundreds of symposiums and Forest Service meetings, Thomas helped create tremendous changes in land and wildlife management.

Due in large part to his passion, wildlife habitat—particularly elk habitat—became a primary concern in forest management. Thomas developed guidelines and models to help resource managers incorporate the protection and enhancement of habitat for elk and other wildlife into management plans. Emboldened by Thomas’s vision, hundreds of wildlife biologists and land managers within state, federal and tribal agencies, and private corporations, applied his habitat models to local situations throughout the West.

Thomas also helped originate, and see to fruition, key concepts such as elk security and habitat effectiveness. He initiated management efforts to protect and enhance elk security which have, in many places, helped to sustain healthy, balanced elk herds—with good bull-to-cow and age-class ratios—while maintaining, and even improving, hunting opportunities. His research helped unite land managers, wildlife managers, hunters and others to cooperatively manage habitat, wildlife and hunting.

Over the course of his career, Thomas served as principal research wildlife biologist and project leader for the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. He initiated the Starkey Project, a comprehensive research project that has added, and continues to add, to our knowledge and understanding of elk, other wildlife and their habitat—and how we can be better stewards of both wildlife and wildlands. Appointed by President Clinton to head a task force dedicated to resolving conflicts between logging, recreation and wildlife in the northwest, Thomas went on to become the first wildlife biologist to serve as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. A past president of the Wildlife Society, he received the Society’s highest honor, the Aldo Leopold Medal.

“Jack Ward Thomas has helped stimulate an entire generation of wildlife biologists to more deeply examine and understand how they can provide positive input into our system of wildlife management, to go beyond mere publication and make a real difference on the ground,” said Elk Foundation President Gary Wolfe, while presenting the award to Thomas in September at a meeting of The Wildlife Society in Austin, Texas.

“Through his research, ideas, presentations, personal influence and publications, he has led the way in showing us, in the wildlife profession, how to be more effective,” Wolfe said. “No other individual is as responsible as Jack Ward Thomas for the success of elk and elk habitat management in North America. He is, in a sense, the father of modern elk habitat management.”

As recipient of the 1999 Olaus J. Murie Award, Jack Ward Thomas receives a bronze of Murie and a cherry plaque engraved with one of Murie’s elk sketches from Elk of North America.

“It has been my privilege to have been part of the Elk Foundation since its beginning,” says Thomas. “I can think of no greater honor than to be the first recipient of the Olaus J. Murie Award, named in honor of a man who was a hero to all biologists with an interest in elk. My cup runneth over.”