Mule Deer Foundation hires GIS Coordinator
Please welcome Ella Hartshorn to the MDF team. Ella is our newly created GIS Coordinator who will be responsible for bringing the power of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to MDF and BDF along with taking the lead on the management of data associated with conservation projects.
Ella Hartshorn (She/Her) is a spatial ecologist who explores how wildlife navigate ever-changing landscapes and increasing human pressures using remote sensing and geospatial analyses. Raised in rural western Colorado, she grew up immersed in the daily intersections of human and wildlife activity—from waking to deer in the backyard to helping trap prairie dogs in agricultural fields. These formative experiences sparked her dedication to understanding and improving how humans and wildlife share space and resources. Driven by a passion for conservation, Ella uses geospatial tools to inform strategies that foster coexistence between wildlife and the working landscapes of the American West.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College, Ella moved to Washington, DC where she worked as a remote government contractor through the pandemic. Her work began with the USDA’s Wildlife Services where she managed Mexican gray wolf depredation reports from the Southwest and mapped rabies incidence in roadkill around the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. She later joined the Library of Congress, where she analyzed the spatial and genetic dynamics of emerging COVID-19 variants during the 2021 vaccination rollout. Motivated to deepen her geospatial expertise and apply it to wildlife conservation, Ella pursued a master’s degree in Geospatial Data Science and Conservation Ecology at the University of Michigan. During graduate school, she partnered with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to design a workflow for managing and analyzing wildlife camera trap and track survey data. Her thesis explored comparative conservation outcomes between Indigenous Peoples’ lands and formally designated protected areas.
Most recently, Ella served as Lead GIS Analyst and Wetland Ecologist at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, where she led wetland mapping and delineation projects across the region. She is now excited to expand the GIS program at the Mule Deer Foundation and is thrilled to be back in the wildlife conservation field. Ella is based in Missoula, Montana, and outside of work, she can usually be found trail running, climbing, skiing, or fueling her unabashed enthusiasm for Formula 1 racing.
If you have any questions about GIS and mule deer, please reach out to Ella directly. Her email is [email protected].
Good Luck Ella!
Good luck this Spring and remember to send any success pictures or stories from the field to [email protected]. You could be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article or any of our articles have helped you become a better hunter or conservation steward, become a member of the Mule Deer Foundation or Blacktail Deer Foundation for only $35 dollars a year. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/
