Dr. Aaron Facka serves as the Senior Wildlife Biologist for the western region conducting and coordinating research on species, core habitats and connections between. Aaron received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from New Mexico State University and his Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology from North Carolina State University. He has spent the last 20 years working on diverse vertebrate species and their habitats. Most of his work has involved partnerships and coordination within, and across state, federal, and private agencies and groups. He has worked for the United States Forest Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, New Mexico State, North Carolina State, Oregon State Universities. Most recently Aaron served as the furbearer biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission before the allure of returning ‘home’ brought him back to New Mexico.

Since 2009, he has worked primarily for carnivore conservation and management in forested ecosystems including leading the reintroduction of fishers (Pekania pennanti) into the northern Sierra Nevada of California. spent a lot of time working in grassland and desert ecosystems in the Southwestern United States where he studied prairie dogs, kangaroo rats, and even dabbled in trapping and tracking rattlesnakes. Aaron has worked on reintroduced populations of fishers, black-footed ferrets, and prairie dogs and that has become a central theme of his research.