International Scholars & Fellows at the Leopold Institute

Leopold Institute scientists welcome opportunities to share knowledge with international visitors, whether it is for a few hours, a few days, a few months, or longer. Whether the topic is wilderness protection, monitoring, restoration, sustainable development decision-making, or environmental change vulnerability assessments, our staff and community are eager to discuss opportunities for your visit.

Recently, the Leopold Institute hosted Seok Seung Lim of the Korean Forest Service for a two-year Fellowship to study sustainability decision-making models and fire restoration. Another visitor to the Leopold Institute, in 2017, for four months was Mdodi Florence of Tanzania, also interested in restoration, protection of threatened landscapes and sustainability of ecosystems. Mdodi was a Community Solutions Program Fellow, sponsored by the US State Department.

ZhangDuan and HuangHe from China spent just a week visiting the Leopold Institute, but in that week covered over 2000 miles visiting with managers of Wild & Scenic Rivers (and logging a few river miles floating on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, too). A long term project between the Leopold Institute and Yunnan University in China is aimed at sharing knowledge about designation decisions, research to support river managers, and evaluating river management techniques used to protect the river environment and provide access to visitors.

A visit in 2017 by Mikhail Yablokov, of the Russian Ministry of the Environment continued an on-going exchange between the Leopold Institute and Russian Protected Area managers. In both Russia and the US, Dr. Yablokov and Dr. Watson have explored the many changing influences on conditions, use, and local communities associated with the most strictly protected areas in Russia and the US. Dr. Yablokov also learned to fly fish in Montana.

The Leopold Institute has hosted international scholars, Fellows and students from Germany, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Burma, Laos, the UK, France, Spain, Australia, Sri Lanka, Finland, Austria, Russia, China, Tanzania, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and other countries. There are high prospects of additional scholarly exchanges in the near future.