Hi, I’m Keith Tidball. Welcome!
I lead SPEAR4 efforts and am proud of the team assembled. I am an environmental anthropologist and naturalist working in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at Cornell University, where I serve as a Senior Extension Associate member of the faculty. I also serve as Assistant Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and head up the Environment and Natural Resources Program Area. As you can tell, I care a lot about applied science, translational and transformational research, informal education and science outreach.
My focus is on better understanding how to amplify recruitment of citizen conservationists and how to facilitate the development of a 21st century land ethic. One important avenue to achieving this is ancient and timeless – hunting and fishing. I study societal acceptance of hunting and angling and care deeply about hunter and angler recruitment, retention, and reactivation. In my work, “hunting” spans all forms of the pursuit of wildlife and game.
My work features efforts to locate and explore portals and pathways into conservation behaviors. Grounded in cultural anthropology, disturbance ecology and environmental psychology, I approach this challenge via my integrated research and extension work exploring (1) the human dimensions of natural resources management and (2) ecological dimensions of security, understood from across the national security to human security spectrum, and through the lenses of social-ecological system resilience and conservation social sciences. Experiences in the military and in the field of international disaster response and relief inform my unique brand of applied scholarship, including stints throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. I also study how outdoor recreation contributes to and enhances resilience and recovery for veterans and others who have experienced trauma. To maintain balance, I am an avid outdoorsman and I love to provide mentorship in all things hunting, angling, and woodcraft. I live with my family on our farm overlooking Cayuga Lake in upstate New York.
My work is informed by my avocational pursuits as a citizen-soldier, hunter, angler, and part-time licensed Adirondack guide. I have been appointed to serve on the Biden Administration’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council. This Federal Advisory Council, chartered in February 2022 and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a federal advisory committee of subject matter experts that provide recommendations to the federal government regarding policies that benefit wildlife and habitat conservation, expand fair-chase hunting, safe recreational shooting sports, and wildlife-associated recreation opportunities, and policies that benefit national and local economies. I served on a similar advisory council in the previous presidential administration. I also serve as a member of the IUCN CEESP/SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group, as well as on many international and national boards of directors of organizations involved with conservation.
See a video slide show about what I do here.
Resume/ Curriculum Vitae:
Academic Sites:
Social Media Links:
- https://cals.cornell.edu/keith-tidball
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tidball/
- https://www.facebook.com/kgtidball/
- https://www.instagram.com/kgtidball/
Selected Lectures here
Creative Writing Pages here