Dennis Jorgensen has worked for World Wildlife Fund as a Program Officer in the Northern Great Plains since 2007. Hired as the programs first field biologist he was based in the northern Montana prairies for 5 years where he gained valuable knowledge of the place, the people, and the wildlife. Before coming to WWF, Dennis worked for 7 years as an environmental consultant for the provincial government and the oil and gas industry in Alberta, Canada. In 2009 Dennis completed his Master’s thesis at the University of Calgary studying the migrations of prairie rattlesnakes in Alberta.

Dennis manages WWF’s bison restoration initiative in the Northern Great Plains, which will support the establishment of five herds of at least 1,000 bison on tribal and public protected areas by 2020 to ensure the conservation and long-term health of the species. In 2013 Dennis was elected Vice-Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) North American Bison Specialist Group and is currently participating in the IUCN Red-List assessment of the status of NA Bison. Dennis has published peer-reviewed research on the migrations of prairie rattlesnakes and long-billed curlews and is involved in research on the migrations of pronghorn and mountain plovers tagged in northern Montana.

Among his distinctions while at WWF, Dennis’ rattlesnake research was featured in the November 2010 “Great Migrations” issue of National Geographic magazine and he was recently interviewed by Dan Rather in the production of a documentary on bison restoration in Montana.