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The Cooperative Units Program of the U.S. Geological Survey has been an integral part of the Department of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1972. With direction from the Coordinating Committee, the Units research has been conducted on a wide variety of wildlife topics in cooperation with federal agencies, the University, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and various private organizations. The Units research spans the range from problem-oriented projects designed to provide cooperators with useful information on resource issues to basic scientific discovery that moves the state of knowledge forward.
Work has been carried out in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Major areas of present research include the epidemiology and modeling of wildlife disease, the impacts of disease on wildlife populations, and investigations on transmission and dynamics of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, the effects of agriculture on wildlife populations, and the issue of scale in the investigation of environmental problems in marine systems. The Unit, along with cooperating scientists, has the expertise to investigate environmental problems from the cellular to the landscape level. Current Unit personnel have research interests that include population ecology, community ecology, and landscape ecology. Future project selection is primarily dependent on the needs of the cooperators and the availability of funds.