Julie Unfried has joined the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the Chinook office. The Oregon native is working as a Farm Bill Wildlife Biologist, a position funded primarily by Pheasants Forever with support from the NRCS and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Unfried will work with NRCS, Montana's FWP and local landowners to promote creation and preservation of upland game bird and animal habitat. There are two other similar three year funded positions starting this year in Scobey and Conrad.

Unfried completed a degree in fisheries and wildlife in 2013 at Oregon State in Corvallis. She said, "I wanted to work with avian habitat, to help landowners develop habitat for birds." Unfried, just prior to starting her new duties in Chinook last week, worked on a Sage Grouse project in the Trout Mountains of southeast Oregon-near the Nevada state line.

Her experience, after college, has been varied, but always focused on birds. For a year and a half she did research in Hawaii studying endangered waterfowl. She did a stint on a project in Alaska. Unfried spent nine months in New Zealand studying mallard ducks. She explained, "Mallards are not native to New Zealand but have become the number one game bird for hunters in the country."

Unfried, looking ahead after her three years in Chinook, opined, "Eventually I might like to go back to graduate school, maybe study something related to wildlife, like upland game birds..." She can certainly show an admissions committee an impressive array of varied research and field experience.

After only one week in Montana she said, "I'm still trying to learn my way around. I haven't had much time to explore the area but am excited to learn about all the upland birds that are found in the area. Some of my research involved sage grouse so that should be helpful here."

After starting several new jobs in far flung places, asked about her initial reaction to the prairie of Montana, she said, "I've already learned these prairie communities are very tight knit and people look out for each other. I learned while looking for a place to live, even before I got here, half the town was trying to help me find living quarters. That was nice."

The "Journal" welcomes Julie Unfried to the area and wishes her success in her new position with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.