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Johnson has spent his career bridging the gap between waterfowl research and management
After building a career connecting research and management, Fred Johnson was awarded the 2025 Caesar Kleberg Award for Excellence in Applied Wildlife Research.
“It feels really great to get recognition for the role I’ve played through more than 40 years—not strictly research, not strictly management, but something in between,” Johnson said.
The award recognizes those who have distinguished themselves in applied wildlife research and contributed to “on the ground” applications of management and conservation. Johnson worked for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for more than 40 years. Since retiring from USGS, Johnson, who is a Certified Wildlife Biologist®, has worked at Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Florida.
Johnson studied wildlife at the University of Texas, Austin at the Caesar Kleberg Institute for Wildlife Studies. He then landed his first job at the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. “I had a mentor there that really impressed upon me the importance of science-based decision-making,” he said.
When he graduated and started working, he found it difficult to parse the objective and subjective sides of decision-making. “When there was disagreement, it wasn’t clear whether the disagreements were about science or how outcomes of management are valued,” Johnson said. “I felt that there needed to be someone who could stand in the middle and bridge the gap between the scientists and the managers,” he said, a role that is rarely institutionalized in federal agencies.
After working as the Waterfowl Management Program Coordinator for the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, he moved to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where he specialized in migratory bird management. After nearly two decades, he transferred to the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, now called the Southeast Ecological Science Center. In his role as a principal investigator, Johnson applied ecological theory to real-world problems in natural resource management.
“He has devoted his exceptional career to research in applied wildlife ecology, and his extraordinary contributions have been used extensively for on-the-ground management,” wrote James Nichols, Byron Williams and Rollin Sparrowe in a nomination letter for Johnson. Each of the three men who nominated Johnson for this award brings a lifetime of achievement and expertise in wildlife management: Nichols is a senior scientist emeritus for the USGS, Williams served as the CEO of TWS and Chief of the USGS Cooperative Research Units, and Sparrowe is a retired deputy assistant director of the USFWS.
After “retiring,” Johnson has been employed as a senior research fellow at Aarhus University in Denmark, where he focuses mainly on waterfowl and seabirds through the United Nations Environment Programme. He also works as a natural resources consultant in Iceland and Canada.
For Johnson, this brand of retirement has meant an opportunity to apply his knowledge and skills of wildlife science to new ecological and political systems in Europe. He is also exploring new interests, like writing a book. His first work, Adaptive Management of Animal Populations: A Primer, will be published next year by the University of Florida Press. Johnson is driven by a deep love for wildlife and seeing the positive change that science can bring about in the world around him. “I’ll never stop working,” he said.
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