Dr. Adam Janke
Adam Janke is the statewide Wildlife Extension Specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Adam is a trained wildlife biologist, having received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in wildlife conservation and ecology from three land-grant schools in the Midwest. He is also certified as an Associate Wildlife Biologist through The Wildlife Society and is active in regional and national efforts for wildlife conservation and education. Adam conducts research and education on finding opportunities for strengthening wildlife habitat conservation in working landscapes in Iowa and throughout the Midwest. He also coordinates and leads the Iowa Master Conservationist Program that partners with county extension offices and other regional educators to train local conservation leaders and champions throughout Iowa.
Picture a weed. Or better yet, a mess of them.
Now, what if I told you to turn to a stranger contemplating the same question and share your imaginings: do you think you’d have pictured the same place or plants?
My guess is no.
High schoolers representing 15 states from across the United States visited the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on the shores of West Lake Okoboji near Milford to compete in the 2023 4-H and FFA Wildlife Habitat Education Program National Contest, July 30 to August 2.
Known for singing their own name, the bobwhite quail is an iconic bird in Iowa and the Midwest.
White-tailed deer are as synonymous with the ‘acreage living’ experience as fences and ragweed. We find them everywhere in Iowa, thriving in urban forests and remote sections of cropland with little more than a ditch for cover.
Iowa’s Monarch Conservation Strategy seeks to add 160,000,000 new stems of milkweed to Iowa’s landscape by the year 2038.
When Sue Kuennen was named the Iowa Conservation Woman of the Year in 2016, she was surprised by the recognition.
The Master Conservationist program is a comprehensive educational opportunity through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
AMES, Iowa – As deer hunters head to the woods this fall, they are again reminded to be vigilant and active participants in the state’s efforts to fight chronic wasting disease.
Among the hundreds of wildlife species found in Iowa, few are so common that we can assert with relative confidence that each night, every person in Iowa would find themselves only a mile or two away from one. Perhaps deer rise to this level of ubiquity. Perhaps pigeons or mourning doves too.
The diversity and breadth of Iowa’s natural environment is captured in a new series of publications by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and the Iowa Association of Naturalists.
In January 1921 George Washington Carver traveled from Tuskegee, Alabama, across the Jim Crow south and into the segregated nation’s capital. He was there to extol the value of southern farmers’ peanuts as the House Ways and Means Committee considered tariffs on imports.
Adam Janke, assistant professor in natural resources ecology and management and extension wildlife specialist at Iowa State University, offers these special tips for getting rid of your live Christmas tree after the holiday season...
Everyone has learned a lot about the spread and control of infectious diseases in 2020. Although the important task at hand is to apply that knowledge in helping our neighbors and family avoid a Covid-19 infection, we would be wise to apply many of these lessons to help white-tailed deer fight a disease of their own.
Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, is a neurological disease affecting members of the deer family. The prion-based CWD that infects the central nervous system is a different type of disease from the virulent respiratory one we have become familiar with in 2020. But CWD and Covid-19 share many characteristics, including how they can be spread asymptomatically and the potential for high infection rates in the absence of intervention.
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa 4-H is partnering with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Agriculture and Natural Resources to bring a new youth program to the state.
New extension publication highlights the importance of forests for birds
August 26, 2020, 11:58 am | Adam Janke
AMES, Iowa – Forests provide critical habitat for Iowa’s wildlife, and that is especially true for birds.
Arguably, the most important innovation in agriculture technology for conservation and farmers in the last 30 years has been the growth and use of spatial data made possible by the Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Many different types of agricultural data can be captured with pinpoint accu
In my world, “diversity” often comes with a prefix. I remember learning the word early in my college days, having come to the wildlife ecology discipline not as a woke environmentalist but rather because of an obsession with ducks from a childhood spent hunting them.
No matter where you’re sheltered-in-place, nature is everywhere. A front row seat to the dramas of nature can pass the time in any season, but springtime is unrivaled.
Iowa’s Master Conservationist Program is working to “plant the seeds of conservation” through their recently redesigned educational curriculum on natural resource stewardship for adults learners.
This fall, over 100,000 Iowans will take refuge in the fields and forests of our state to participate in an annual ritual: deer season.
Over 80% of Iowa’s landscape was once tallgrass prairie – an ecosystem comprising over 300 species of flowering plants maintained through regular fires and grazing by herds of elk and bison.
In keeping with a theme from my last blog titled “What the heck is habitat”, this month I explore another critical question within the language of conservation. What’s a wetland?
Wild turkey. Ring-necked pheasant. Trumpeter swan. Turkey vulture. Northern bobwhite. These are the remarkable birds of Iowa’s rural landscapes. They’re large, conspicuous, and broadly recognized.
As I write this, in the waning days of February, many of the wildlife that grace Iowa’s cities and farms during the spring and summer, are far away.
I have seen a wide gamut of responses to the question posed in the title of this post. While preparing for my Ph.D. candidacy exams, I was asked a version of this question as it related to ducks and agonized over the response for months (you’ll see elements of my answer below).
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