Mike Thompson is the region two wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Mike has had a 40-year commitment to managing and conserving the wildlife resources of Montana. Mike’s incredible work ethic, communication skills and unfailing ability to guide discussions and decisions concerning controversial wildlife issues and land acquisitions, is a true gift. Mike continues to bridge the gap among the biological, social and political sciences to represent the agency in a way that earns public trust and support. Mike’s career with FWP began in 1980. His early work included fencing on the Mt. Haggin Wildlife Management Area and working the paddlefish run at Intake along the Yellowstone River. In 1981, Mike completed his Master’s Degree at Montana State University by studying mountain goats along the Rocky Mountain Front. FWP hired Mike as a field assistant on the Elkhorn Mountains Elk Ecology project, to help develop an elk management plan for the area. Mike became a full-time FWP wildlife biologist in 1987, working in the Blackfoot watershed. Mike has been a principal force behind the conservation of more than 220,000+ acres of wildlife habitat in Western Montana. Mike has an uncanny ability of representing biological data and information in a way that anyone can relate to and understand. He does this through casual conversation, presentations, interviews, and now social media. Mr. Thompson, alias Mike Twain, authored more than 662 “Game Range Ramblings,” a column published weekly in the Seeley-Swan Pathfinder newspaper. The column had a 15-year run, became a readers’ favorite, and built and maintained a constituency for FWP in the Blackfoot and Swan Valleys. Mike’s list of co-authored publications and research papers is as long as his daily trip from his office to the front office candy box Mike Thompson has provided Montana’s residents and its natural resources with highly creditable service.

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