Dan Varland

Dan has B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology from Eastern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in animal ecology from Iowa State University. He taught the biological sciences at community colleges in Minnesota and Iowa for 11 years after obtaining his masters. For his doctoral research, he studied the post-fledging stage in the American Kestrel.

Dan worked from 1993 to 2009 in Western Washington as the wildlife biologist for Rayonier, a large private forest landowner. Dan’s raptor work at Rayonier focused on habitat management for the Northern Spotted Owl, Bald Eagle, and Marbled Murrelet. He also participated in research on Northern Goshawk nesting ecology in the managed forest. Since 1995, Dan has done raptor surveys and color marking on the beaches of coastal Washington. This effort has included the collection of tissue samples for contaminants research.

In 2009, Dan founded and became the executive director of Coastal Raptors, a non-profit organization focused on research, education, and conservation programs for raptors in coastal environments.