Jackson Biologist Honored By Peers

John Henningsen, Jackson Brucellosis Biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was honored by his co-workers this week with the “Peer Recognition Award” for the Game and Fish Department’s Jackson Region.   Henningsen began his Game and Fish career in Jackson as a contract employee working on the creation of elk and bison herd brucellosis management plans in the fall of 2005, and was promoted to his current position as the Jackson Brucellosis Biologist in 2008.  In addition to his brucellosis research, Henningsen has spearheaded research on the distribution and prevalence of the carotid artery worm, and its potential impacts in Wyoming moose.  He has spent several years coordinating chronic wasting disease sampling in the Jackson region, where monitoring for the disease has become a year-round activity since the 2008 discovery of a CWD-positive moose in Star Valley.  Henningsen has supervised several CWD technicians and facilitates frequent communication between Game and Fish, the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park staff, several meat processors, and the general public which resulted in the largest CWD sample size ever collected in the Jackson region in 2010; approximately 600 elk, 250 deer, and nearly 100 moose. He also assists with the Aquatic Invasive Species test stations in Teton County during boating season.